adoption details

Okay, now that Jared and I each have our 30-page personal history documents done I can finally fill you in on some of our adoption details.

Adoption has been something we have always talked about together, we knew that we wanted to adopt someday. Last fall we started talking about when that someday would be and after a few weeks of discussing we decided what better time then now.

We started the paperwork back in October, applying with the Saskatchewan government and a Canadian adoption agency. After a couple of months of paperwork with this agency we found out that due to circumstances beyond their control they would not be able to continue on with couples who had just started the adoption process. So in January we felt like we were back at square one. We knew that we wanted to adopt a child from Africa and like I mentioned before, Saskatchewan doesn’t have any adoption agencies so we needed to find one in a different province or country that would: a) work with us and b) that had a program with an African country. We ended up finding an agency out of the US.

Right now we are getting all the paperwork needed for our dossier. A dossier is a collection of papers with very detailed information about us and a collection of documents (criminal record checks, child abuse checks, medical checks, a copy of our home study report, immigration pre-approval, Interpol checks, reference letters etc). All of these papers need to be notarized and then sent by our Independent Practitioner (the one doing our home study) to our worker at the Ministry of Social Services who will then send it to our agency in Georgia who will then send it to the DRC. Once in the DRC all the documents will need to be translated into French (because that is their official language). After all that we will wait for a referral (they will send us a photo and information on a child that fits the criteria we gave and we will have the chance to accept or refuse the referral). After we accept a referral there is a lot more paperwork and legal stuff that needs to take place. I am sure I will go into more detail about it when we get to that point.

As of right now we still have a month or two worth of appointments and paperwork to gather together before our dossier is complete, and then it will take a few weeks as it bounces along the way before it actually gets into the DRC. Once the DRC has the dossier our agency has an average wait time of 0-12 months before a referral is given . . . hopefully by this time next year we will have a photo of the face(s) of our little one(s).

I really have a heart for adoption so if you have any questions about the process or if you are intersted in adopting but don’t know where to start feel free to send me a message and I will help you to the best of my ability.

with love,
Chantel