Dossier

Well, before I began this adoption process I have NO idea what the word "dossier" was.  I remember my 4-year old nephew asking after hearing the word so often, "What's a dossier?!?!"  A dossier, pronounced "Dah-see-ay" is: A collection of papers giving detailed information about a particular person or subject.  To all who have adopted, it is a HUGE accomplishment to finish!  For those who have not been through creating/compiling a dossier, here are the specifics!

Before I list these things, the first 6 items needs to be notarized, state authenticated, translated and legalized.  Notarized means I take each item to the bank and a notary notarizes them.  State Authenticated mean that I take all notarized documents to the Secretary of State at the State Capital and he/she authenticates that the notaries are legal!  Translation, once I had all items complete, I sent them off to a wonderful woman in Colorado who translated the entire thing into French for me. Finally, once translated, I sent everything off to the Haitian Consulate in Chicago and there they legalize it so it ready to send to Haiti.  Amazingly, of all the steps so far, this one took the least amount of time!  I sent my dossier out on a Monday in November and it was on my door step just 6 days later, on Saturday!  Once I received that I made 5 copies of the entire collection of documents, wrote a big check and mailed a box to the amazing woman at God's Children Adoption Agency.  She checks over everything, prays, and send the box on it's way to Haiti.

So here is what is needed in a dossier....again, the first 6 items need all of the above done, the next four items need to be translated only, and the final items need to be included but nothing more done to them.

• Letter to the Director of the IBESR requesting approval for the adoption of a child
• Approved Home Study
• Psychological Evaluation
• Power of Attorney
• Two letters of reference
• Letter of good health from medical physician
• Bank letter
• Employer letter
• Police Clearance
• Certified Birth Certificate
• Notice of favorable determination from USCIS
• Progress report agreement
• Lab tests showing results for HIV, VDRL/RPR, CPC
• Eight passport pictures
• Copy of most recent Federal Tax return
• Copy of most recent bank statement
• Photocopies of 2 forms of I.D.
• Three photos of house and yard and three photos of family
• Copy of Home Study Agency's License

So there you have it!  Lots of paper work.  Lots of steps.  Lots of $$$!   Lots of time.....and now it's sitting somewhere in Haiti and I wait for my child to be referred to me before all of those documents begin to make their way through a long dance in Haiti.  For those who ask me, how long til your child comes home?  I will post the steps of the dance which I hear takes up to 2 years.  In the beginning I figured the 2 years started when I started, back in August 2011!  But no, the timeframe begins once I accept referral of a child and the orphanage send my dossier and the child's dossier off on their dance.