Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Paperwork and writing papers

Everyone told me how much paperwork was involved with adoption, but quite honestly, I don't know if I really believed them. Domestic adoption requires a lot, but international adoption requires even more with all the paperwork going to the Embassy in the country you are adopting from.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed yesterday, when I got an email from a woman in the area. I had written on our "information card" at one of the churches we visited that I was interested in adoption/infertility support, and he gave this lady my email! She has a daughter from China, her husband is in the Air Force, and they are looking to use America World for their next adoption from Ethiopia!!! Wow! So much in common. She said there is a support group for parents who have adopted from China in Northern Florida. She said there is a couple in Crestview (30 minutes from here) waiting for their referral for their daughter. She also said she would love to have us over for dinner and love to help us with our paperwork questions. What a blessing! Her name is Jen, and I am so thankful for her email! I already feel less alone here.

Last night over dinner, JB and I both filled out our "book list". We have to read two assigned books together and then three books separately of our own choosing. John picked one about "raising daughters" which was weird to write the title of! (Oh and speaking of dinner, JB made INDIAN! We found some Naan in the grocery store which is unusual and usually not good. Oh my this was HEAVEN! I haven't had Indian since before we left Minnesota.)

Next issue? The police clearance letter. I need to get a letter from a Florida police department saying we have no criminal history. It has to be notarized on police letterhead. The only problem? Every county around here I call tells me they will only give me a "Certificate" from the "Circuit court". No letter. No notary. I'm trying to figure out what to do about this and whether this will suffice. Jen said she had some advice on this. She thinks the clearance letter will suffice. I've emailed my family coordinator to find out.

Some steps are easy. I have this handy dandy little "copier/fax machine/printer" that I bought for work. Copy of passport. Got it. Copy of birth certificate? Yep. Marriage license. Got it.

Then there are the physicals. The next appointment we could get was the 20th! Since we can't start the home study until all this "stuff" is compiled, I wasn't psyched about this date. However, JB is going to call the resident doing our physicals and see if we can get some of the blood work and labs done ahead of time so once we get to the appointment, it is smooth sailing.

We have to find our income tax statement somewhere.

I'm waiting to get employment letters back from Mayo and RLSF. JB already has his. For some reason, they made him get one for our application itself but not me so we already had this. My bosses have to sign and notarize these forms and then mail them to me.

I've been working on my 2-4 page autobiography. JB hasn't had time to start his. We are talking about maybe having him dictate it to me over the phone on his way home from work tonight.

There's a lot more, but I'm getting tired just from writing this. I'll stop there.

Speaking of writing, I was contacted by The Wedding Magazine in Rochester, Minnesota about writing for the upcoming issue. Since most local magazines only hire local writers, I didn't think they would have me write again. She did want to me write again and asked me to do two stories. When she told me the deadline (August 24th) I told her that I didn't think I could get two stories done in that time frame with how busy I am. I added, "If I had ten more days, I think I could do it ..." She negotiated back and offered me five extra days (the 29th) to take both stories. I accepted. So aside from my two jobs, I have two pieces to write for this magazine. I truly love writing the pieces; it's pinning down people to interview that can cause a little more difficulty. But the pay is good and keeping my name "in the loop" is also good.

Speaking of writing, I'm off to work ... which really means just logging on to my remote servers. How easy of a commute is that?!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since you know who I am, CCC Laura says:

Having filled out paperwork for both international and domestic adoptions (we'd originally planned to adopt from China until SARS forced its closure), I can't say that one set of paperwork is more involved than another. In fairness to all adoptive parents out there, let's just say that it's a LOT of paperwork either way. It's true that international adoption requires much additional paperwork as required by the foreign embassies. But domestic adoptions have a unique set of paperwork too. Our Christian domestic adoption agency also required the following: a 10-15 page autobiography of each parent, interwoven with the steps of our spiritual conversions; our individual proclamations of faith; our collective statements on education, learning, and discipline; full documentation of both genealogies; our view of race relations (our domestically adopted daughter is bi-racial); a detailed description of our marriage and our individual roles in it; and more. We also had to create a "marketing" portfolio upon which the prospective birthmother would ultimately choose the adoptive parents of her baby. This info included a letter to the birthmother, a brief summary of our views and beliefs, and a picture page that illustrated the type of people we were. The portfolio wasn't just a selection tool--it also helped to ensure that the birthmother felt free to select any adoptive parents she wanted, and wasn't coerced to choose a couple she didn't. Since coercion is the only legal leg a birthparent has to reclaim a child later, it's crucial that these steps are taken. But admittedly, it's all pretty overwhelming at the time! :^)

BTW, if it's not in your required reading list, I recommend a book by Holly Van Gulden called "Real Parents, Real Children." The author is an adoption counselor from MN, who I've had the opportunity to meet several times.

Anonymous said...

What do your articles for the magazine have to be about? Man, everybody wants a piece of your talents, huh? =)

Wendi Kitsteiner said...

Laura ...

Oh my!!!! I had no idea that the domestic was that involved. Thank you for educating me ... That was very interesting and I think other peopl ewill find it interesting too.

By the way, I think your daughter is just BEAUTIFUL!!

If you have updated pics I'd love to see them sometime: wkitsteiner@hotmail.com

Wendi Kitsteiner said...

The articles are about: "tailored catering" and "outdoor weddings" ... lol ... I'm far from a professional ... they just give me the contacts and I interview and write.