Welcome to Audrey Adopts

“You’re paper pregnant!” My friend told me over lunch one day. This friend and her husband had attempted adoption before and she could relate to the relentless paperwork involved in the early stages of adoption.

Paper pregnant is the perfect term for the beginning stage of adoption.

You have this deep calling, a few months of research and praying and wondering and you finally make the big step to call the adoption agency only to find that the first step to adopt is to fill out a bunch of paperwork.

Tax documents, bank accounts, references, criminal records, figure prints, immigration paperwork, family history, work history, marriage history, birth history, and the list goes on. After you have all the paperwork ready you then send it off to the state the document originated in and you need to get it apostiled in that state.

Along with all the paper you also have amore paper through the homestudy process.

I was blessed to be connected to a woman who has been to South Africa before and has some relatives who are from South Africa. My social worker has worked in the area of adoption for most of her life and is a well known teacher and counselor in this area. Over the past year she has been a great conversation partner and helped me understand my capacity and cherish the incredible resources that I bring to adoption through the faith community that has loved me and I have loved for so many years.

After many months of paperwork, three homestudy visits, an immigration interview, a printed photobook of my life and loads of google folders filled, I officially turned in my dossier to South Africa September 2023.

Since then I have been waiting….

Its interesting the things you will do while you wait…