Beginnings of Our Adoption Journey

Ben and I have now embarked on our adoption journey! We are so excited for what lies ahead - even the bumps - because it only means we are closer to growing our family. The process to get approved for the "waiting list" took us a little by surprise! We found pockets of time in our busy schedules and completed everything and got approved within 2 months of meeting with our case worker at LDS Family Services.

Here's what some of the "paperwork" and required documents entailed:

• Certified original copies of birth certificates
• Certified original copies of marriage license
• Copy of temple sealing certificate
• Employment verification (completed by our employers)
• Doctor visits for Medical Reports
• Home visit and interviews by our case worker
• CPR certification
• Background checks
• FBI fingerprints
• Blueprints of our home
• Copies of up-to-date pet vaccinations 
• 2 hour training with our case worker
• 8 more hours of online adoption training
• 13 pages of typing all about us, our community, families/backgrounds, and parenting philosophies for our home study
• Online profile
• Letter to birth mother
• Photos
• Hobbies/interests
• Information about each member of our immediate families (like physical description, hobbies, occupation, address)
• Child preferences and birth conditions
• Financial profile and latest tax return
• Employment information
• Insurance information and coverage
• 5 reference letters (including one from our bishop)

Phew! I think that's mostly it from what I can recall. Pretty crazy huh? It was actually fun to complete each item because it was just another step closer to getting approved. As of December 2nd, we were officially approved and our profile became live on the site. Yay!

The link to our online profile is at the top of this page on the 2nd tab. You can also access it by clicking here!