For international adoptions, you need to compile an extensive portfolio of your life documents. They include new certified birth certificates, new marriage certificates, passports, financial statements, employment verifications, physical exams, multiple applications for adoption, fingerprinting, FBI background checks, police records and more.
We first applied for adoption to GWCA in March 2005. We were accepted and then began the tedious and usually frustrating task of obtaining these documents. It took close to 3 months to obtain some of these documents and have them notarized. Each one has it's own set of rules and regulations that must be followed precisely. Different documents require different things depending on where you were born, married or living. They try not to scare you but you do need to heed the advice of GWCA so that your dossier will not be delayed once sent to China for review.
By June 2005, we were about to begin our home study in Minnesota. Then we learned Al's transfer to Charlotte had been awarded. This means we finally get to move to HH - now!! While this is a dream come true of mine, it did mean we had to stall the adoption process. In the long run, I am happy we will just have to bring Little China home to one new home. But, in my heart, I was devastated to have to hold back on getting her even one day!!!!!!!
More when we are settled in South Carolina...
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