Friday, May 24, 2013

Organizing...the slew of adoption paperwork

This week we had another meeting towards our adoption finalization (Post Placement). After all the months and months of the initial home-study (filing, petitioning, physicals/medical, finger printing, social workers...) you find yourself knee deep in parenthood (for the 3rd time for us) as you hold your baby and you soon forget that there is still much more to be done. Today I quoted one of our adoption mentors - "these are our labor pains". Yes, even though we do not carry a child in our womb, we go through our own form of labor pains. Come to think of it, it's a little more than 9/10 months (in the state of California because we seem to process adoptions slowly).

Today was a hard day, even my poor son who had stomach issues today said he had a tough day today. It's been a rough few weeks of post adoption come to think of it. But today I realized that I had not filed ALL of my paperwork at home and I had a lot of papers jammed into one small folder. BIG PROBLEM. One whole packet went missing. No bueno. I have two perfect accordion folder chalk full of paperwork, fully organized, and right now I'm kicking myself that I hadn't done the same thing this time around, BEFORE I lost a packet of copies I need ASAP. 

You will soon gather a slew of paperwork. A LOT and at every part of this journey until that final court date - the applications, matching, placement, health and genetic history, social workers and homestudy, post adoption reports, finalizing and getting all the documents properly filed. Don't forget the communication with the birth family. In this digital age things have become easier, less personal, easier nonetheless. I will write more on communication at the end of this post. 

If you are just starting out in your adoption journey, you will soon find out that adoption takes a lot of laboring (pun intended). Every adoption is different. You will meet the same people, roughly, and you will end up in the same court, but every birth-bio family is different and that makes it a different journey every time. Laws change and that also makes paperwork a guessing game. Although the same paperwork is needed, in a sense, you still need to adjust year to year. Not to mention if you adopt out of state. The word ICPC still gives me a headache to this very day {The Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC) is an agreement among states to coordinate the transfer and placement of children across state lines}. Even the definition is stressful :\ 

My goal is to write a couple of "what to expect" blogs for adoption. I'm sure it's out there on other blogs, but I hope this helps as well. 


Filing, organization and paperwork to-do's 

1. Make copies of EVERYTHING! 
(Emails, agency paperwork and questionnaires, profile picture pages, social worker/ social service provider paperwork, attorney paperwork, birth-parent information, post placement information, court documents, personal documentation, physicals/health, hospital paperwork and all homestudy documents...)

* you will need a scanner or if you have an iPhone, there is an app called Genius Scan that I use. Genius App here . Also to keep records of all the people you come in contact you can use SamCard app that allows you to scan and save straight from their business card.

2. Make sure you file everything immediately. Buy an accordion file of sorts. (Paperwork listed above)
I use this Expanding pocket file

3. Have a hard copy of everyone's contact on file. You break phones, lose contacts...anything can happen.

4. Trace all your email and file them in folders in your email system. Then print out a hard copy for your filing system.

5. When meeting people (i.e Hospitals, social workers, attorneys, home study facilitators, agency...) ask them for a copy of any paperwork BEFORE you finalize. They may not have the authority to release anything to you afterwards. If they can not use their copier, ask if you can take a picture of the document. Aside from paperwork being lost, having to fill out the same form over and over again for different people (social workers), you may also adopt again and you will have to fill out the same information. Trust me, it makes it easier not to start from scratch. 

6. Put all your file folders (and baby books) in a fire proof safe. There may never be a way to retrieve these documents again. 

7. Have a file folder just for pending forms/information needed. With the slew of paperwork you'll be drowning in, you will need to keep all your checklists handy from social workers and attorneys of what is needed next. 

- File every adoption profile



- File your paperwork

my labels: Attorneys, Social Workers (Pre and Post), Homestudy, Agency, Birth records (including health records), Financial, Travel (if needed), Birthmom communication, Scrapbook items (this is for when I pick up something I know I'll put in a scrapbook in the future).


- File folder for pending information 

You will be given checklists from Social Workers / Homestudy worker / Post Placement Social Worker and you will need to keep them all at your finger tip. 




8. Communication with the Birth family is important. Our link to the birth family is also our child's link to his or her journey. I believe that adoption is a calling from God and the child's journey is a divine appointment. It is up to you how much communication you have. Our attorney has a "roadmap to adoption" which is a setting up of sorts on how we will communicate and how much. Details included. Before the digital age, I used to mail letters and send printed copies of pictures. Old school right? Lol. Now, emailing and texting seems quicker and easier. I also have a shutterfly shared site where I only give access to the birthmoms. Completely restricted which makes it nice. If you have an iPhone you can upload right and purchase from your phone with this shutterfly app and view and organize it as well with this app shutterfly share site app. I think they also have an android version. Staying organized after you finalize is also important. It is daunting (especially when you have multiple children) and keeping up with pictures gets harder to accomplish. This shutterfly account is not only for pictures. It allows you to make comments, news and milestones, add videos and so much more.

I hope to post again regarding paperwork, the names and numbers identifying the forms your come across and what to expect. What comes first and what you should never let slip through the cracks. I thank God that by now I have an awesome attorney that knows us, a wonderful social service provider that is SUPER thorough, an "agency" that is mostly a ministry that encourages birthmothers and a post placement social worker that is amazing to work with. Today was our social worker's first time seeing a "3rd child placement" family. We have been with her every time. I feel special!! 

I'm not sure who's being encouraged by my words after going through this 3 times, but if you are being encouraged or if you have any questions, leave me a message and I will try to respond as best as I can.

I wanted to add a link to something I came across on Facebook. Hope this encourages those that have been through adoption!! dear moms of adopted children

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