The Process

Last January (2012), as we neared our third wedding anniversary, Marc and I decided to start looking more seriously into adopting. (You have to be married at least three years to adopt from Thailand.)  We always thought we would have biological kids first, mostly because I was already in my 30’s, but since that didn’t seem to be happening and we had been through all kinds of testing that left us with no real answers, we decided, that since we knew we wanted to adopt, why not go ahead and pursue it.  If only it were that easy! 

We found out that the Thailand program at the agency we wanted to use was currently closed.  It might reopen in March they said.  March came and went as did the next six months.  Then, finally in September it opened!!  We sent our application in the day after we found out the program was open.  We were confident that this was the direction God wanted us to pursue to grow our family.  We heard a great sermon by Chuck Swindoll, called Short Cutting the Will of God, that was huge in helping us decide that adoption was indeed what we should pursue at this time.


September to December was a flurry of paperwork and meetings with a social worker to get an approved home study. Everyone who adopts has to have a home study.  A home study is a process that involves a ton of paperwork, everything from FBI fingerprints, to reference letters, to medical reports, to writing long autobiographies.  The result is a 12-15 page report, called a home study, on just about every area of your lives.  

There is a LOT of paperwork in adoption!  



Our completed dossier x3!

Throughout the home study we were also gathering documents for our dossier, which is a collection of documents that the country of Thailand requires for adoptive parents.  All of these documents had to be authenticated at an office in Richmond and then apostilled by the State Department in Washington D.C.  Next we took the dossier to the Thai Embassy in D.C. and then, sent them off to Eugene, Oregon where our adoption agency, Holt International, is located. 

Holt then sent the dossier off to Thailand and we were officially #16 on the waiting list to adopt from Thailand. 

In March we heard we were #10 on the wait list and told we could expect to receive a referral for a child in September or December.

On Thursday, July 25th we got a phone call, one that will forever change our lives.  I can’t wait to tell you about it in my next post!