Check, check, check!

My life has started to revolve around a checklist. If you are unfamiliar with the adoption process, as I was until about a month ago, let me tell you a little about “THE CHECKLIST.”

The Checklist is the first piece of paper in a folder that sits on top of about three hundred other pieces of paper that hold the key to your adoptive future. It has, let me count…twenty-six items on it, all with little boxes next to them just begging for a checkmark, one of which is totally cheating because it has like seven boxes to check within it’s own box…what?!  Messed up. But anyways, these twenty-six items all need to be completed and checked off in order for the homestudy packet to be complete and ready to turn in to the adoption agency.

Let me clarify as well that these “boxes” that need to be completed aren’t just easy things that can be done quickly, some of them take weeks! Arg! But Josh and I have started plowing away at it and I am actually very proud of how many checks I have been able to make so far! Every check I do I feel like I am one step closer to my baby. That might sound really silly, but that’s how I feel.

Just to give you an idea of the kinds of things we’ve been doing, here is what we are working on or have completed so far…this is so boring but I would like this blog to be a bit educational as well as totally awesome and inspiring, so here goes. ;)

TJTA Temperment Analasys Tests (That took forever. So glad it’s done.)

More Papers to sign than when you buy a house (which is probably a good thing), including CPS and DPS Clearance Forms, Disclosures and Agreements, Financial Projection Sheets, Consents for Exchange and Information, yada yada yada

Family Budget Worksheet

Adoptive Couple Summary and Fact Sheet (I have never been asked to describe my personality so many times in my life)

Physician’s Report

Things to notarize (WHY don't I know a notary?!?)

Checks (the money kind, not the kind I’ve been whining about) made out to various entities

Family Assessment Guide (HOLY COW this is taking forever. It deserves one hundred checks, because that’s how many questions there are for both me and Josh to answer, and they are all in essay format. I actually finally finished mine today…now for Josh to finish his…see you next Christmas.)

Photocopies of marriage licenses and birth certificates

Descriptions of our home and neighborhood

Drawings from J* and E* of their family, including the new adopted baby (which by the way, is proving very difficult to get, being that my children are far too analytical and cannot believe they are being asked to draw a picture of a baby they have not met, has no specified gender or race, and quite possibly hasn’t even been conceived yet)

And this week, the goal is to get both of us fingerprinted so we can start waiting on our fingerprint clearance cards to come in the mail. I am also hoping that maybe, possibly, Josh will finish his portion of the Family Assessment Guide this week so I can start editing and maybe even printing it!

We're making progress. I wish I could wave a magic wand and have it all be done, but alas, my magic wand is out for a cleaning, and I am going to have to just suck it up and take it one thing at a time.

If you are praying for us, please pray that things will go smoothly as we continue chipping away at the paperwork. Please be in prayer for our birth family. Somewhere out there is a mommy who is going to be faced with an impossible decision very soon, and we are praying that God holds her close and gives her courage and strength beyond her imagination. Please be praying that God grants us patience and wisdom in making some big decisions, and pray for our financial situation concerning the adoption. 

Thank you guys so much for staying updated on the process!