Beginning the Dossier

I met with our social worker last week to go over all the pieces for the dossier.

Dossier = the fancy word for the big pile of papers that have to be notarized, certified and authenticated by our county, state, country, and then the China Consulate. This is BEFORE it even is sent to China!

It isn’t as daunting as I thought it might be. She had a list of each thing that we need to do or collect. And we were able to check off about 4 things from the list that day. I had our certificates (birth & marriage) with me. Always travel prepared!

We have a few things that we have to type out and prepare, which we have already started on! And we have another trip to the police station for yet another background check. And we have to wait – a very popular word in the process - for our home study to be approved. The CIS will send us a form that has to be included in the dossier.

The only thing that I find a little challenging in preparing the dossier is the picture portion. We have to get 8 – 10 pictures of us, our family and friends and us doing things that we enjoy. How to choose? What to choose? Then these pictures have to be mounted and labeled – now that’s right up my alley. So if any of you see me with a camera in the next few weeks – SMILE!