Terms and like such as...

For our friends and family who are unfamiliar with international adoption here is a small list of some phrases that will pop-up in the coming weeks and months.


Paper Chase (a.k.a. the paper pregnancy)- This refers to the beginning process of adoption. Once a family has been accepted into a country program the paper chase begins. This time period normally lasts between 3-6 months as the adoptive parents assemble all the needed paperwork for their dossier. Some of the paperwork included in this process is background checks, fingerprints, home study completion, health screenings, financial statements etc. Aside from travel fees this is one of the most expensive times in the adoption process.

Dossier- This just refers to the collection of all the paperwork completed during the paper chase. Once finalized this packet will be sent to our agency, checked for accuracy and then mailed to India where it will processed.

Home Study- This takes place in the initial stages of the paper chase. Once an adoptive family is accepted into a certain program than the family arranges the start of the Home Study process. Our organization (AWAA) is approved to provide home studies in our state so we will work with them. The home study process involves more paperwork as well as a social worker coming to our house and asking lots of questions to assess our ability to "provide a loving home, our motivation for adopting internationally, and our expectations of our adoptive child." (AWAA, Home Study Information). Honestly this process seems the most daunting to me but from everyone I have talked with I hear that the social workers are very much on the side of the adoptive family and are their biggest advocate. The social worker's desire is to help these families prepare for their new addition in the best way possible.

Waiting Period- Once your dossier is submitted to the country from which you are adopting most of the work on your end is done (accept raising support) and now comes the waiting period. This is the period between the completion of the dossier and the referral. There is no telling how long we will end up waiting.

Referral- Wooooohooo....this makes me excited! This is when you receive the information of a particular child that your family has been matched with. There are two ways that our family can be matched with a child. When our dossier is submitted to India we will be assigned to a particular orphanage. If there is a child there who meets our criteria we could get matched through that route. Our family coordinator also has access to the India waiting children's database. She could locate a child through the database and match us that way. A referral will contain the profile of your child, medical history and...a picture! Once we receive a referral we will then contact a doctor who specializes in assessing international adoptions who will then review the child's information. After reviewing the information the doctor will explain what exact needs this child has, any areas of concern to consider and what care for the child would look like. Once our family sees all that information and we decide to accept the referral we will complete acceptance paperwork which will then be returned to AWAA. After the referral is accepted more paperwork needs to be done on the India side of things. Once all the t's have been crossed and all the i's dotted we will finally get word to travel.

So there are some common terms used in the adoption process. For those family members reading this, are there any other things you may have questions about? Currently we are just now beginning the paper chase so as this process continues I'm sure we will be able to explain in more detail what exactly this process looks like.