Adoption Timeline

Here is timeline of my adoption over last year...

Jan- Feb 07: Research adoption and pick home study agency & international adoption agency

Feb 26, 2007 : First fingerprints of me & my husband for homestudy

March 3-4,2007: International Adoption Class- 2 full days for adoptive parents to attend- required for our homestudy

Feb- May 2007: Homestudy paperwork/ requirements (all done by me-not hubby- he just signs on the dotted line or I tell him what is needed to be done). The homestudy requirements are extensive and include:

• Homestudy application
• State fingerprint clearance
• Adoption class completed
• Home study contract
• Autobiography - this is huge and is 10 type written pages with specific Q & A's that needed to be addressed
• Family photo
• Financial statements
• Medical reports- both adoptive parents need to get physical exams by our doctor and then have them fill out paperwork to say we are healthy, etc... to adopt
• Child Protective Services clearance letter
• Application for Certification to Adopt- sent to Clerk of the Court
• Five reference letters (with specific topics needing to be covered in letter) from two relatives and 3 friends sent to homestudy agency
• Photocopies of marriage license, W-2 forms, birth certificates, investments
• Letter from our pediatrician saying our daughter is current on exam & vaccines (Do you know how hard it is to get a letter from a doctor's office?! It took me 2 months of harrassing the staff to get a letter that was 2 sentences long!)
• 2 seperate home visit/inspections with interviews by a case-worker

May 12 & 13, 2007 : Homestudy interviews/ home inspection - after all the paperwork & requirements fulfilled and interviews/ inspection done- then homestudy is sent into state for state approval to adopt

June 6, 2007 : State approved to adopt- start on dossier documents for international adoption

June 2007- Sent in documents for I-600A (Pre-application to adopt a child from a forein country)- these documents include, once receive these documents- you will be notified of appt with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) for another fingerprint appt by USCIS-

• copy of birth certificates of adoptive parents (by the way- we had to send off for more copies of Jack's)
• copy of marriage certificate (had to get more from Hawaii)
• original copy of Homestudy
• MONEY
• I-600A application

July 7, 2007 : USCIS fingerprint appt

July 15, 2007: I-171H approval (Approved by USCIS to adopt an orphan internationally)

Vietnam Dossier- this is a foreign dossier- a collection of documents that need to be sent to your international adoption agency & Vietnam to be approved to adopt from their country.They include:

• Application to adopt from Vietnam
• Committment of Periodical Form (committment to adopt)
• Copy of all Passports- We had all our passports done in April 2007 (entire family went to get done on a Sat morning- took 1/2 day - if you have a minor both parents have to go with child to get done)
• Original Copies of Marriage license (had to request in spring from Hawaii for more copies)- all had to be authenticated & notarized by state of Hawaii)
• Original copies of Homestuday- notarized
• I-171H approval
• Medical statements from Physician for both adoptive parents
• Local Police clearance- separate letters from local police for both parents- had to each go separately down to police station to get these letters)
• Employment letters- both parents need letter from employers
• Power of Attorney

After all the dossier documents are compiled, we had to get all documents notarized (my bank notary loved me- we had to have him do about 20 documents!!!). Then, I had to take them all down to the Secretary of State downtown to get authenticated.. basically they say they notarize that your notary is approved to authenticate your signature (to prevent forgery). Then, I got everything together & Fed-Exed to our agency to send to Vietnam.

Aug 2007: DTV (Dossier to Vietnam)- we are now officially on waiting list & wait for a referral...

Jan 2008: Matched with a 3 month old boy from Vietnam! :)

Feb 22, 2008: Official referral for a little boy from Vietnam- he is everything we hoped he would be! He is perfect and we can't wait to meet him. I found out at work and cried and called my husband and Eric & Krista. I told all my co-workers and we were all so happy. We got pictures, medical report and birth certificate. We accepted his referral over the weekend.

Feb 25, 2008: Fed-Exed paperwork to accept referral

Feb 28 & March 31, 2008: Final payments due for adoption

March 31, 2008: send in I-600 application (petition to apopt an orphan from a foreign country)

April 2008- waiting for I-600 application to be filed....

We are now waiting for our I-600 application to be filed, once its filed, we have to wait to be approved by Vietnam. Once we are officially approved, we will be able to travel to pick up our son!