Adoption Update

Paul and I have been working hard on getting our paperwork together for our next adoption adventure. When we originally planned out the timing for getting started again, it seemed like it was far away. Now that we are in the thick of it, I cannot believe that it is already here! We are very excited about the prospect of having another little monkey in our family!

Paul and I have kidded with one another that we equate the pain of the paperwork that inherently comes with the adoption process, to the pain of labour -- something you magically forget once your little one is placed in your arms (or so I have been told!). Well -- we are now vividly remembering that pain. I had forgotten about the unbelievable amount of paperwork, checks, meetings and divulging of personal information that goes along with the beginning stages of the adoption process. I think that the pain of the paperwork in compounded by the fact that we are still completing post placement reports and citizenship paperwork for Maelyn -- we are a little paperwork inundated. My return to work right around the time we started tackling this again also made it feel a little overwhelming. Well worth it, though! :)

We are just about done the Canadian portion of our paperwork. We have met three times with our social worker to update our homestudy and along with many discussions about topics such as our marriage and parenting, we have completed the following documents and checks:

• police checks
• fingerprint checks
• medicals
• financial statements
• reference checks
• guardianship statement
• home safety check
• fire safety plan
• child welfare checks
• etc.

Our social worker is now writing our homestudy reapplication. The draft will be sent to us shortly for revision and then the completed document will be sent to the Ontario Ministry for approval. This should take about two months (fingers crossed).

While our homestudy is at the Ministry, Paul and I will get together our paperwork for China. Then, our entire dossier should be sent to China by September (again, fingers crossed). We hope to have a referral by December or January. Then, the fun begins!