Oh my, all of this adoption paperwork is so diverting and interesting! ....said no one ever. Still, it is something real and concrete that we are doing to work towards our baby. And that *is* interesting.
We have to have 4 references! And only one is allowed to be related to us! I don't know that many non-relatives whom I trust in that way. Well, okay, I do, but only just barely. Do they have to write a letter? Do an interview? I have no idea. Hopefully my pastor doesn't say anything stupid. He's a good man, but excels at opening his mouth and inserting his foot.
We actually knocked out a good 70-75% of the paperwork in one evening over the holiday weekend. We still need to have our family doctor sign off on a medical form and then there's the 19 question long autobiographical info sheet from the agency. With very simple questions like "Tell us about your childhood and adolescence" - Ok, where shall I start and how many extra sheets am I allowed to attach? *Really*?!?!? Oy, how to condense 15 years of military moves, diagnosing my brother's disability, and being so very poor? And that's just 1 out of 19 questions! Just wait for "How did you and your spouse meet? Describe your courtship" - Sure! You're going to get the cleaned up, PG version, since I doubt anyone wants to know the "we thought it was just about the sex until we realized we were crazy about each other" story. And we are both filling out the questionnaire separately, which means I might get M's back from him sometime in the next 4 years, if I badger him enough.
To keep my busy brain occupied while we do less than exciting paper-pushing, I have been thinking about how to announce our adoption process to friends and family. I don't want to wait the 2 or so years until we have a baby placed with us before we state publicly that we are adopting, but how to announce the *process* (the long, loooong *process*) when a baby is still so far off? I've been trying to think of something cute to say on Face.book, either with or without a picture. So far, the best I've come up with is "We're expecting!....Lots and lots of paperwork. We're adopting!"
Cheesy? Lame?
See, I'm never gonna get to do some cutsie pregnancy announcement, so this is the closest thing for me. We've got *way* better ideas for when we can announce a placement. We are big time geeks/nerds so I was trying to think of how to incorporate a video game or sci-fi show reference to the adoption process announcement. So far, my brain is failing me.
So, yeah, paperwork! Now to go try to answer a few more questions on the auto-bio form....
