As part of the emotional journey of adoption, I decided on Saturday that this was too much work and I didn't want a child anymore.

Honest to God, this paperwork never ever ever ends. It's ridiculous! We have to spend an ungodly amount of money, chase down a few people to get asinine documents (2 copies of each, please!), have every SINGLE piece of paper notarized, then once we have it, truck it up to Lansing to have it apostilled... no doubt we've filled something out wrong, so we'll have to redo it. Then, of course, a couple of the documents are only good for 3 or 6 months, so we have to keep redoing them. It's enough for me to SCREAM!

Luckily, I have a husband who is a little more patient. After letting me sob my stress out, he reminded me that we chose this route. We want it in the long run. And then I remembered that there is a little baby alive in an orphanage right now in Russia, waiting for us to hurry up with our paperwork and bring him here to join our family.

So here's what we have left to do - an exact copy of the checklist on our fridge:

SOCIAL WORKER
Conclusion and Recommendation Letter (2 copies)
Does she need a sample? Or does she know how to format it?
Verification of Residence on Agency Letterhead

ACCOUNTANT CPA
What do we need to bring?
Certificate of Assets – sheet to sign
2 copies of his license

MEDICAL
Our physicians:
2 health certs for Doug, 2 for Amy
2 copies of license (each physician)
2 letters from each physician (please follow sample)

DEED TO HOUSE w/address (2 copies)

EMPLOYER REFERENCE LETTER
2 Doug
2 Amy

PASSPORT PAGE COPIES
(ask FAC re: Amy’s name change)

POLICE CLEARANCE

PHOTOS

I am dropping off the paperwork request to our physicians Monday after work. Will contact my employer regarding reference letter. I am in charge of calling our social worker for that paperwork. Need to start gathering pictures: they want to see the house, pets, immediate family, extended families, room the child will sleep in, neighborhood, etc. Doug is in charge of arranging the CPA, appt. for police clearance, and getting official copies of deed to house and our passports. So we're in the home stretch... as long as I don't give up.

There is a baby right now in Russia, waiting for us to hurry up....