Adoption Paperwork

Paperwork for an adoption can be an enormous and overwhelming task. If I had not had the experience over the past couple of years of gathering such paperwork and making sure that everything was just so I think I would be quite discouraged already. But to be honest, even with all the paperwork required to apply for missionary service and then to apply for visas, immigration, alien registration and so on, I still am overwhelmed by the requirements for our adoption.

The first major step in the adoption is the Home Study. This is the process where a licensed Social Worker for an approved non-profit organization gathers copies of all your paperwork, makes home visits, and interviews you and your family to make an assessment on the "fitness" or "readiness" for adoption. The required paperwork includes: birth certificates, marriage certificates, medical exams, letters of reference, employer letters, financial statements, bank statements, police reports, proof of health insurance and life insurance, tax returns, adoption agency agreements, and statements of home visits. (I am sure I forgot to list something).

Last week, we completed this task - at least what we could. We had to gather all of the above, scan them into the computer and then send them on to the Home Study agency. We also needed our accountant to send the tax statements, our attorney the police reports, and our organization the employer letters. It is a challenging task to be doing most of this by email. But thankfully that part is over - for now.

We will await the Home Study report and then start another round of paperwork - this time with the Department of Homeland Security with the US. We will have to file a form with the American Embassy here in Nairobi, get fingerprinted, submit most of the documents above and wait to get approval from the US government to bring in a foreign born child as our own child - an American citizen.

But, instead of getting down about the paperwork, I am excited. I just try to think of some little black haired, almond eyed, yellow skinned baby who is our daughter and needs for her parents to be efficient and organized about submitting this paperwork so that we can be united together as a family.

Comments

[Bob Travis]

Every day I admire Marti and your characters and dedication towards walking in our Lord's footsteps. Twice a week I plunk a dollar on the local powerball and tell Our Lord that if he sees fit that I win the "big one", I will buy enslaved families and children in Sudan and move them to a new mission somewhere safe. Young children are sold at 150 dollars each, so that's a lot of souls. Once relocated, I would see to their education to cope on earth, and teach them the words and goodness of our Lord and Saviour. I know it's a childlike dream, but dreams are the fuel in our gas tanks as we steer toward them. Last week I got the powerball number (no other numbers). This gave me 12 dollars, which I dropped in the collection basket. Maybe our Lord is turning the steering wheel. Keep it up Dr. Tim, and God bless you and yours,
Bob Travis

[Cindy]

Hey Tim and Marti,
I talked to a friend of mine who adopted a little girl from China, and she had these tidbits of information to pass on:
1)Although most Chinese adoptions are girls, there are rare occasions when boys are put up for adoption.
2)Couples who have children sometimes receive an older child (2-3 years) to adopt rather than a newborn.
3)Most Chinese adoptions are currently taking 6-9 months from the time China receives your paperwork.

I thought I would talk to her about it since she has been through the process, to give myself a better understanding of what it is that you guys are going through. Also, she works with Social Services and is aware of the current situation with Chinese adoptions. They were actually part of the last group of adoptions during the SARS outbreak.

My prayers are with you as you go through this process. That is going to be one priviledged child, to have you for parents.

[Bro. Jerry Smith]

Dr. Tim, I admire you and your wife for choosing to adopt. I know that it will be very rewarding, and with your love for God, this child will get some wonderful teachings from you and wife.

I have no experience from you side of adoption, but a bit from the other side. I want go into great detail, but at an early age I, my sister, and brother were in an orphan home.

I left the home to live with a man and a woman, he was a Baptist pastor, a few months later and my sister was adopted. Them bad things happened in the family I was in, and I ended up with the family that adopted my sister. I never was adopted, but have always gone by their name, had a legal name change prior to going in the Air Force.

So I grew up having a Christian mother and grandmother and they brought me and sister up in church, I might add years later my dad, that what I always called him, also become a Christian.

Many times I have thanked God for this family, it seems I got a very bad start in life, but thanks to God, I believe He is responsible for it, I become part of a very stable family.

I hope and pray that one day this child you will adopt will say the same about you and your wife, and that the 3 of you can create many precious memories, for after that day in August 1951 which nearly seem like the first day in my life, I think my mind blocked out much before that because of the hurt I received that day, I have many precious memories in my mind of the man I called dad, the woman I called mom, and the woman I called grandmother, and their precious because of all the love we shared for one another and the quantity time we spent together.
May God Bless,
Bro. Jerry