More paperwork!

Remember how in the last blog post I said I would write about the weekend course we had back in October? Well here I am, and now it is December. Oops.
The two day course in October was a mandatory session held by our adoption agency. Although it was a crazy weekend of driving to Newmarket and back twice (we came back to attend a beautiful wedding on the Saturday night), we found the session to be very informative. Most of the information provided to us was specifically related to international adoption which meant that everyone in the room was also adopting internationally. The part of the session that I enjoyed most was how to prepare for your trip. The two people running the session have each adopted two girls from China so the information they provided was very helpful for us. I know that I am providing a very broad overview of the session but I feel like the next part of my post is much more interesting...I hope.

Last week I went to the post office to send a very large package to our adoption agency which included all of our documents needed for our application to China (this is separate from the package we sent to the Ontario Government). When I was preparing the package and asking to purchase the waterproof envelope (because I am crazy like that) I started to get emotional. I felt like I was sending our lives away in this package. This is another huge item to check off of our to do list and it felt amazing to have it done, but also scary to think that the Chinese government would be basing their decision on the stack of papers and photos in the water poof envelope. Just to clarify, I didn't send the package to China, first it goes to our adoption agency where they get notarized copies of everything (but not before they receive a large sum of money, which also made me cry, but for different reasons). Our agency is hoping that they will get back our approval from the Ontario Government before everyone goes on Christmas holidays. So we were in a bit of a rush to get the documents to Children's Bridge in order for them to send it to a lawyer for notarized copies (which apparently can take 3 weeks). Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we receive our approval within the next week or so.

Here is a list of the items that were in the China application package:
Letter of application to adopt
Home Study - the same one that went to the Ontario Government
Guardianship statement - included in our homestudy
Letters of employment
Financial statement
Physical examinations - these were different physical exams than the ones required by the Ontario Government, we were required to get blood tests, they also look at our body mass index
RCMP Interpol Clearances
Local Police Clearances
Marriage Certificates - notarized copies
Birth Certificates - notarized copies
Photocopies of our Passports
4 additional passport photos
Application form of Notarization/Legalization
5 more adoptive applicant reference form letters - thank you to all of those who filled out a second reference form for us
Photos - we had to create a photo collage I guess you could call it but it had very specific requirements. It had to include a photo of the exterior of our home, lifestyle photos, and a 4x8 family photo. We weren't supposed to submit photos with sunglasses or hats on and no photos that included alcohol (duh). The photos had to fit on 8.5 by 11 paper and we could not submit more than 5 sheets of photos.

Yesterday we sent two forms of payment to Children's Bridge. One was a Cheque payable to The Children's Bridge in Trust and the other was a US bank draft payable to the Children's Bridge in Trust. The cheque paid for our balance of agency fees and notarization, visas, authentication and disbursements, coordinators disbursements (which basically means adoption facilitation). The Us bank draft was our fees for the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA). As far as I know we will not have to pay any more money until we travel to China (which gives us a little breathing room). Right now it seems like an impossible amount of money to pay back (I will not hide the fact that we had to get a loan from our bank). But I know in the end it wouldn't matter how much money it was, it will all be worth it in the end. We are one step closer to adopting our little boy. Just typing that makes me start to cry.

And so with that I am going to sign off and wish everyone a Merry Christmas from the Palmer family. You probably will not see any posts on here until the new year unless something really exciting happens. Have a safe and happy holiday everyone.