Guest Post on Adoption Paperwork--The Complete List!!!

From my wife Annalisa here's the entire catalogue of paperwork Haiti needs for adoption!!!

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This is the abbreviated list of items we need for our international adoption.  There are fourteen (count ‘em, 14) different categories of things on this list. After 2-and-a-half months of chasing these things down, we’re really, really close to being done with this list.

         1.  3 passport pictures of recent date of you and your spouse

         2.  request for adoption (you will need to write a letter explaining how you are your husband are willing and ready to adopt)  Include a picture of your family and home.

         3.  birth certificates- long form (of the parents; 2 originals of each)

         4.  marriage certificate (NEED 2 originals)

         5.  power of attorney

         6.  detailed medical exams for both parents and any children in the home

         7.  employment verification letters (stating when you started working and that you plan on working after finalization-on employment letterhead)

         8.  letter from your bank stating that you are a customer in good standing, amount of money deposited last year, how long you have been a customer

         9.  letter from your cpa stating that you are financially stable to adopt and possible reasons why. 

         10.  homestudy (NEED 2 original, notarized, copies)

         11.  psychological evaluation-  this is an evaluation done by a licensed psychologist or psychiarist

         12.  police records for the county you reside in

         13.  2 notarized reference letters

         14.  translation attestation (this is done by the person that translates your documents into french)

Are you tired just from reading these?  The two things we still need are item 10 (the homestudy), 11 (the psychological evaluation), and 14 (the translation attestation).

For 11 (the psych evaluation), I think all that’s left is to pay the bill and pick up the paperwork; the bill came out higher than we’d been told, so I’m trying to figure out how to negotiate that without jeopardizing the whole adoption. 

For 10 (the homestudy), our social worker is just waiting on a doctor’s note to say that Kiersten is free of communicable disease.  As you might imagine, the homestudy itself had a lot of paperwork that goes into it, but we think we’re just about done with our end. 

And the translation just needs documents to translate.  We roll forward slowly.