Papercuts

We have officially been thrown into the whirlwind of adoption paperwork! We had been warned this was coming but now we are living it. We know that in the end it will all be worth it, but it's definitely taking its toll for now! This not only includes actually filling out tedious papers, but also collecting many documents (doctor's notes, birth certificates and financial statements (just to name a small few). We are starting our homestudy which is responsible for much of this paperwork, and will also include several meetings with our social worker. Soon we will begin our dossier. This is just a large compilation of papers that clarifies our ability to adopt an international child. They want to thoroughly and completely make sure you are qualified to handle this big responsibility. While I completely understand all that is required in order to adopt, I can't help but wonder how I was able to have 3 children already without a single question being asked of me! :)

There are many people who have asked us about the time-line of our adoption process. While there's no way to know exactly how long it will be until we are able to travel to China and bring our daughter home, we do know that the process can take a while. Our totally random and un-official guess is somewhere between 2 and 3 years. We started this process when we did because we knew it would take AT LEAST this amount of time and we wanted Micah to be older and a little more independent by the time our little girl comes home. Micah is still very much a baby (and quite needy) and we are not ready for the responsibility of another child just yet. But, by starting this journey when we did, our hope is that it will still allow all our children to be fairly close in age as we would like all FOUR of them to grow up together and be great (if not BEST) friends!!