Swimming in an Ocean of Paperwork & almost Drowning

For those of you who are thinking about international adoption and have read/heard about the ocean of paperwork to be completed I have three words for you:  It's all true!!  (or three and a half -'s - if that can be counted as a word)...

So in a case like ours,  you start by filling in the requirements of Alberta Children Services.  That means complete income info, medical info, police clearance etc, etc, etc.  That really doesn't take more than a couple of weeks (assuming you are very disciplined).  Then you put the docs in folder... which is the start of your dossier.  Our little one had a folder from the very beginning.  He/She is very organized. 
And yes... in case you haven't noticed I am a type A personality. 

But the foremost important piece of document you require at the first stage is the Home Study. The Home Study takes normally from 4 - 6 weeks to complete and it is basically an - all about you and your family document - written, signed and stamped by your social worker.  At the end of the interview process she/he makes a recommendation for you to be approved to adopt a baby, or not. 

By the way, I have to add that our social worker totally rocks!! Her name is Liz.  (I won't disclose more info 'cause she doesn't know I'm writing about her... I could get in trouble people!).  At the beginning of the process, Tavo mentioned it was kinda of weird having someone you hardly know sitting in your living room asking questions about you and your family.  I, on the other hand, was okay with full disclosure... nooo problem!! That's me... therefore I am also the one writing the blog.  But anyway... going back to Liz... she was very nice,  she took the weirdness out of the interviews, was very helpful and really speed up the process. 

And let me tell you something else... having a nice social worker is really important! I've heard about awful experiences which made me be thankful for our good luck! Liz is getting not only a Christmas Card but also chocolates from us this year.  Other social workers... are only getting nasty nicknames... or so I hear. 

So after the home study and first stages of paperwork are done,  the package is send to Alberta Children Services.  They take from 6-8 weeks to get back to you with a final decision.  You are either approved or not.  That time did seem like an eternity for us... 8 weeks!!! 2 full months!!  Let me tell you what the 8 week lead time means.  It means you have to go back to the doctor and get police and interpol clearances again because they expire after 6 months.  You know... anything can happen in 6 months... you can become a federal criminal during that time, and the entire CSI team, (yes, the New York, Vegas, LA and all of their friends) might be looking for you... so,  yes... we had to go back to the doctor and renew our police clearances again.   

Then the Colombian requirements have to be completed.  And that is of course my friends... more paperwork! Psychological examination (in case we are nut jobs and our social worker after 4 months of interviews hasn't really noticed) and a bunch of other fun stuff.  Although I have to say... our psychologist will also be getting chocolates this Christmas.

Oh and of course!! The translations!!! There you go... Ocean of paperwork multiplied by two. 

So when it's all done you have to get your docs notarized by an approved notary in the province, then legalized by Alberta Justice (basically AB Justice states that the notary is actually a true one), and then legalized again by the Colombian embassy (which basically states that the legalizing in Alberta is true).  That notarization and legalization times two takes about 4 more weeks.

And this is what you get: 

And this is only one copy.  - In our case, we require 3 of the same (so paperwork times 3).
I could tell you many stories about this pile of documents... funny ones and not so funny ones.  Like the time when the admin person at Alberta Children Services was supposed to send the full dossier back to Calgary and mistakenly send it to Bogota... oh yes... yes... it is true.  When I tracked the document I realized is in freak'n Miami!! But let's not go there...

This blog isn't intended to make you sleep so I'll keep it short.  No stories about the docs.  What I can tell you is that when you are done there is only one thing.... HAPPINESS!!  The sky seems more blue and the sun shines... and the birds sing while the flowers look pretty... even if is 11:30 pm and you are so tired of looking at documents that your eyes hurts and even the dog is bored.  

Pure BLISS,  even if your husband is ready to kill you because you made him go through the list for a third time (in case something is missing) and on top of all you still have the energy to want to take a picture of his happy moment.

But of course... that didn't happen to me.
(Yes... he's a saint. He even smiled and everything,  just don't tell him I said that. )

So if you haven't been following:
(((Alberta Paperwork x 3) + (Colombian Paperwork x 3 ) + translations) x 3 copies =   An UPS envelope.

And that my friends is the engineer in me.  : )
And you engineers... stop going back to see if the equation is right!!! ha!! You are soooo caught!! ha ha ha...
Besides, it's 11:00 pm!! :)

The good news is the envelope left and the good guys at the ICBF Colombia reviewed it really fast.  The not so good news is that they requested a couple changes to our approval letters.  We just received the letters again last Friday and are now going through the notarization times 3 process + translation again, before we can send them back to Bogota. 

I'll keep you all posted!

Until the next post, 

LuzM.