Paper Milestones
Okay, so we hit a milestone this week.
Yesterday, I sent the bulk of our paper work to our attorney. She will put everything together and file a petition with the court, so that we can be certified as an adoptive home.
Let me tell you, that was not easy task! Here’s a list of what they need:
- a copy of our marriage certificate
- child abuse clearance request form
- medical statements
- plus a special letter from Nadia’s doctor stating that she has been completely cured from cancer and that her diabetes is completely under control
- adoption client information and net worth statements(zero+zero=zero)
- photo copy of photo ID
- most recent tax returns
- three original letters of reference
Whew!
Once that petition is filed, our attorney will send a letter to our social worker and she will submit the homestudy. Then, we will be asked to make an appointment with the NY State Court so that we can be fingerprinted on the spot with their new machines.
In the old days, we would have to be fingerprinted at a precinct and then submit the fingerprint cards to the court. In those days, it took six weeks for the fingerprints to be approved, the new system gives immediate results, which is great.
Anyhoo, we are well on our way and we hope to be approved by the end of this month, if not before. There are many people who would say, we are almost ‘paper pregnant’ but I’m not going there, not yet anyway.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1Congrats! Sounds daunting but glad you got it all done. Hopefully it won’t be much longer now before your home is filled with baby things.
2I think getting all that in is an enormous milestone indeed! I hope you and Nadia celebrate each one with gifts, or dinner out, or a drink or whatever. As a woman who has a pile of uncompleted paperwork, I know how hard this task was. GReat work— and fast too.
By the way your networth statement made me laugh. IT is so true for all of us trying to create a family. In fact, my networth might actually be in the red at this present moment– gotta get the last cycle paid off to even hit zero.
3Oh, the paperwork. Indeed, you deserve several drinks.
We are applying to a co-op board. Since we “own” property (i.e. the bank owns most of it), calculating our net worth resulted in negative numbers. Fun stuff.
4The paperwork is amazing…isn’t it? What a wonderful feeling to have things being processed!!! Good for you! I am so happy for you!
5holy heck that is a lot of paperwork!!
6but wooo hooooo on getting it done. fist pump!!
I understand why there’s a need for so much paperwork (all done through our adoption agency) but the homestudy was the most trying for us. We had 6 visits with a social worker and at times, it was quite intense. It also stirred up a lot of infertility issues as well.
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