Our Adoption Process

We started this journey in April of 2007-can't believe it's been that long!

The Agency
We selected an agency to work with - The Galdney Center for Adoption and they have been great! They are based in Fort Worth, Texas and have an excellent staff. We've joined the Dallas Gladney Family Association so that we can meet other families in our area that share our love for adoption.

Applying For Adoption
The start of the paperwork phase...let's just say that we signed a lot papers and made many trips to the doctor, notary and FedEx office!

The Home Study
This took lots of preparation! We cleaned the house (it was ready for a white-glove inspection), baby-proofed everything and quizzed each other to no end on parenting basics. The morning of the home study we were nervous wrecks! In the end, however, everything went smoothly and we passed with flying colors! The social-worker even liked the dogs!!

Parenting Classes
We've been to several and are still attending. We are required to have at least 10 hours of Hague approved training prior to traveling to Kazakhstan. We've attended Positive Parenting, Baby CPR, Parenting Basics and Child Development in addition to the requirement above.

The Dossier
What is a Dossier? It's simply a detailed collection of documents about a specific subject. In this case, our Dossier was about us--and it was very large! In addition to the many, many documents obtained from our workplaces, the doctor, banks, FBI, Immigration etc., most pieces required to not only be notarized but apostilled as well!! This is the process of certifying a notarized document and is required for the international adoption process by the Hague convention.

Waiting For The Call
This is where we wait! At this point, our documentation has been completed and submitted to Kazakhstan. There is nothing at this point we can do to move the process along; simply just wait to receive the call to fly over find our little girl. This period can range anywhere from 1 to 6 months on average!! During this time, we are getting the room ready, stocking up on supplies and just waiting as patiently as one can. We're preparing for late summer, hoping for early summer and expecting somewhere in between!