Your homestudy agency will give you a list of paperwork they need filled out and returned, including (but not limited to):
- a lengthy application
- financial records for two months
- verification of your assets
- paper from your doctor saying you're healthy
- an involved autobiography for each of you
- a layout of your home (with dimensions)
- pictures of the front of your home and your yard
- pictures of your family
- letters verifying your employment
- 4 letters of reference
- certificates of completion for adoption training
... and maybe other things I'm forgetting? Anyway, a ton of stuff. It's pretty easy to feel overwhelmed when looking at the paper with alllll of the things you have to obtain.
How you go about this step depends on whether you're in a rush to get that baby! or if you're not. We aren't, having a baby at present and being pretty tied up with ministry. We were also doing two fundraisers while we had our paperwork, so I think we spent maybe 6 weeks just compiling the documents and finishing the paperwork.
I chose to do things one at a time, since that helps me feel successful. Being able to cross a thing off a list feels a lot better than getting closer to being finished on several things. Stephen worked on his autobiography during many small sittings; I did it in two chunks. I also started with easier-to-do things, like going to our filing cabinet and pulling out the records we needed to copy.
A suggestion I have for this phase of the adoption is to get your dossier doctor note (the one that has to be notarized) at the same visit wheres/he fills out the homestudy agency's paper. Also getting your employer to notarize their verification of employment also helps for your dossier. But my guess is most people probably already know that who are at this point in their adoption "journey."
Next up, the home visit!
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