Paperwork Continues

Hello everyone and thanks for checking back with us to see how it is going. We are very thankful for the support that we have been receiving.

As you know we have been working on our Dossier. This is the information that will be sent to Colombia for us to be matched with our children. There are 23 documents and items that need to be collected.

Some of the documents also have to be notarized and sent to the state to be certified. I had to send 2 of Scott’s documents that came from New York to be certified in Albany. Everything else will be sent to Harrisburg once I have them all collected.

You will also be happy to know that the FBI has cleared us to have children. The clearances have now been sent to the Secretary of State to be certified!

So it seems that everything is running smoothly………well almost! One of the documents required is a psychological evaluation from a licensed psychologist. This person must write a report up to 4 pages to include an evaluation of our emotional state in regards to marriage, family, work and community. This person must also discuss our history of loss and grief. The last thing that has to be included is the results of a personality test.

So I thought I would just open the phone book and pick a psychologist and make an appointment. But that didn’t happen. I made 20 calls before finding 2 that felt qualified to write such a report and gave personality tests. We chose a psychologist in Oakland since he was close to Scott at work.

Scott and I had plans to meet outside the office at 12:30 pm. I got there first and as Scott was walking towards me, I felt something biting me on my thigh. It got so bad I ran into the building into the bathroom kicked off my shoes and scrubs (I wear scrubs to work) and out flies a BEE! He stung me 3 times! I had never been stung before and I couldn’t believe how much it hurt. Anyway, after I got the stings taken care of we went in for our appointment and were greeted by the psychologist whom I’m told does custody hearings in court. He first had us do our personality test. This test consisted of 570 questions that would measure 12 areas of our personality. We had to answer true or false to questions like: “I read mechanical magazines”, “I have a good appetite”, “If I were an artist I would like to draw pictures of a flower”, to “I am not afraid of spiders”. I must admit I had to answer false to that last one.

A little over an hour later we then sat down with the psychologist to discuss the issues he had to write about. Let’s just say that if I was meeting him for any other reason, we would of walked out after the first 5 minutes. Although we felt he was a very intelligent person, and was capable to do the report, he was not a very professional therapist. I heard more curse words than I have heard in the last 10 years in 5 minutes! When he walked out of the room, Scott just looked at me and said, “lets just get through this next few minutes. It took us a long time to find someone and a time when we could all meet.” When we were finished I explained that after the report is written, I will need it notarized. He did offered to do this for us and have the report by next week. I am still waiting on the report. Can’t wait to read it!

I must say that he wasn’t what I expected.

As I continue on this paperwork journey of the adoption, I want to share a quote from E. Stanley Jones.
Faith is not a belief that everything will turn out to please us; rather it is the confidence that no matter how things turn out, God will somehow use the events in our days for His glory and our good.

I do believe and trust that God is guiding me through this paperwork. It is going very smoothly and in record time according to my agency. Check back soon and I will let you know when I am done with the paperwork.

Donna