Click on the following to read their previous posts:
Eric and Heather’s Adoption Journey- Part One
Eric and Heather's Adoption Journey- Part Two
The Paperwork
Eric and I had heard that paperwork portion of the adoption process was pretty intense. We went into it expecting to spend many, many hours completing all the required documentation and answering all the questions but we ended up being pleasantly surprised.
Our birth certificates and marriage certificates were easy to order online, though it cost us close to one hundred dollars to order (but we ordered three copies of each for the future). The required medical forms were fairly simple and we were able to schedule physicals fairly quickly so that those forms could be completed. Luckily, our infertility clinic was willing to let us fax the paperwork to their office to save us a trip. The other documentation consisted of compiling financial documents, Bishop recommendations, and employment verification.
The online paperwork has to be completed online in a program called Blue Step. It’s split up into four phases. Each phase asks a serious of open ended questions ranging from how we grew up and how we plan to raise our child to what we enjoy doing in our spare time. There is a part in the online paperwork that has to be done separately from your spouse that takes a bit more time and dedication to complete but it gave us the opportunity to really reflect on our own upbringing and our individual thoughts about adoption. I was a little surprised at how badly I wanted to see how Eric had answered. For me, it was kind of similar to someone saying, “don’t think about it,” and then that’s all I could think about but we promised that we would complete each questionnaire separately so we did. That didn’t stop me from being really curious (and I’ll admit, a little nervous) about what he would write compared to what I wrote but we were able to talk about our answers after the individual interviews with our case worker and it was really kind of a neat experience to go over the questions with each other and talk about things we maybe hadn’t thought about or discussed previously.
Along with answering questions about yourself, your spouse, and your extended family members, the program also asks you to provide financial information, a description of your home and neighborhood and your preferences when it comes to being placed with a child. Eric and I kind of went out of order and completed a phase before we were technically supposed to so we still have some revising to do in the final phase of the process. Phase four asks you to write a letter to the birth parent, share pictures, and answer questions regarding preferences when it comes to children. There were definitely some tough questions that luckily, we have prayerfully considered along the way but we know that we will learn more by attending the upcoming education classes that will help us to be able to complete the final phase.
Overall, the paperwork part of the adoption was much easier than we had originally anticipated and we even enjoyed parts of it!
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