What does the adoption process look like?

It looks like a ton of paperwork to start! I thought I'd post on what we are currently doing to move along in our adoption...we submitted our official application to our agency on Friday, December 7th. Just with the application alone you have to submit a picture of your family and one of your home, your last 3 years of tax returns, the medical checklist (what medical conditions you are willing to accept and how severe), lots of other personal information, and a 12 paged initialed, signed, and notarized adoption agreement.

On a side note...we have lots of little testimonies along the way and I want to share them as they come! This may seem like a small one but we have someone at our work, who we didn't even know before but someone told us her name, who has volunteered to notarize all of our documents through the adoption process for FREE! Seeing that we've already had to have 3 things notarized in the first two weeks, we are feeling truly blessed! It is saving us money and time because she is in the same office building as Jonathan.

So our agency has a local office here in Omaha that will handle our home study and the Philippines program office is in Eugene, Oregon. We have already received lot of paperwork from both offices! Before our home visits can begin we have a lot of things to complete! Here are just a few to give you an idea:

• Background checks from every state and country we've lived in since we were 18 (that's 6 for us if you haven't been keeping track of all of our moves!)
• We have to get fingerprinted and have them run through the FBI database
• Lots of agreements and financial statements (how much it will cost for us to adopt...how does $25,000 sound?)
• Financial worksheets (showing how much we make and how much we spend monthly)
• Physicals by our doctor including HIV and TB test results
• References from 4 people not related to us
• Adoption classes (We will be taking these Jan 4 & 5)
• Copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc., etc., etc.

Needless to say it's a lot. Some of those things above will also be used in our Dossier that goes to the Philippines and basically presents our case for us. The dossier includes a lot more...like a Mental Evaluation from a psychologist (we already know that we're mental...I guess we just have to prove it!) As we get closer to our home visits I'll provide more updates on what is next! Thanks for your prayers and support!