Photo Albums

I already mentioned how I have been doing a lot of reading to occupy some of the waiting time that comes along with the adoption process. Another thing I have been doing has become a new hobby. I have been making scrapbooks and photo albums.

We made a photo album that we gave to the DIF along with our dossier. The album will be a way for the DIF to introduce us to our future child or children. It wasn't a requirement for our dossier. It's something extra I wanted to add, because I am a very visual person. I made two albums with the exact same photos and layout, so I have an extra nearly identical album at home. Inside the album are a few photos of us, our house, some family members, our neighborhood, parks, school, grocery store, etc. The kids will be able get an idea of the things we will do with them and places we will go as a family regularly.

These albums are called Peek-a-Boo Albums because they have windows in some of the pages to see through to the next page and some of the pages are made out of clear acrylic to also allow views of the next pages. In hindsight, it wasn't the most practical album style to use for making my first album, since it is extra complicated. This particular album required a lot of advance planning, so that the layers of pages not only look well coordinated, but also make sense thematically. It would have been much simpler to make a more traditional album. But I enjoyed the challenge.

I have also tried to include a variety of textures for tactile appeal, using felt, ribbons, different textures of paper, 3D paints, etc.

These albums are small, perfect for little hands. They are 6.5 inches square.

I am not really sure how the kids will respond to the albums. I showed one to a 5 year old I was babysitting, and he spent a lot of time focused on why some pages had holes while others didn't! It was cute.

We do know that the DIF certainly appreciated receiving it. They said it really helped them to visualize the life that our kids would be living. I have really been enjoying putting these albums together. I already have more blank albums similar to these with papers and themes already picked out for future scrapbooks! I have been reading about Life Books and look forward to helping our kids make them too. I plan to share more about Life Books later.

We're on the Waiting List in Mexico!

We are approved to adopt in our chosen state in Mexico and are on the waiting list! We are very excited!

We are so pleasantly surprised at the fast timing of our approval process. But be aware that our timeframe would not necessarily be an accurate expectation for other international families. We did things differently than it is normally done, and there is no predicting how things will be done in the future. We didn't have to, but we delivered our dossier in person to the DIF. We had arranged with the DIF in advance of our trip that we would be submitting our paperwork to them in person, and that we would be available to meet with them at any time while we were there. We ended up meeting with them in person three separate times, and we answered many questions. So, I would like to stress that everything differs depending on which state you chose and your particular circumstances.

Also be aware that the process of submitting the dossier differs by state. Some states require that the dossier be submitted to Mexico City first to be registered there. Other states have a different process or different order to the process. So if the state you are adopting from requires that extra step at the beginning of the approval process, it could add quite a bit of time before your paperwork reaches your chosen state.

We are very happy and grateful we were able to meet with the DIF in person, and that we were able to get to know each other. We are extremely impressed with how they conduct adoptions and with the care the children are receiving. We so look forward to returning! We miss it already!

Submitted Dossier

UPDATE: Verify current requirements for submission of dossiers. The processes and rules change. We have been hearing that dossiers must be submitted first to the SRE in Mexico City (Secretary of Exterior Relations). The SRE then sends dossiers to the National DIF in Mexico City and then National DIF sends it to the state.

Our dossier is in México. We're very enthusiastic! We know it is there safe and sound, since we delivered it ourselves. After a year of paper chasing, we felt a very deep need to carry our dossier to its destination. We visited family too, so it was a trip well worth while. We feel such peace.

Our Dossier

We're still here! The adoption process is so unpredictable, and we are just going with the flow. Right now we happen to be overflowing with activity! I have been so busy I haven't remembered to post updates here.

Above is our road weary dossier which has traveled many miles in the last two months. In February I sent it off to my agency and never expected to have it in my home again. And yet here it is by my side, at my request, as I wanted to make a few changes to it. But it won't be here long. It is about to take yet another journey.

The reason we made changes to our dossier and added some new documents was to accommodate the different requirements of our chosen state. Each state has different procedures. I hesitate to mention which state we chose because so much of what drove our decision was purely gut instinct, and it was very subjective. We have no idea whether there will be a referral soon or if we will wait years. But the decision to choose this state was completely ours, and we are at peace that this is what we need to do right now.

We are very excited that we are so close to starting the approval process in Mexico!

Trying to Decide

I realize there has been quite a delay since the last posting. Everything is still going well!

Ever since we decided on pursuing adopting in Mexico, we had one particular state in mind where we were intending to submit our dossier. But since we have family in several states in Mexico, we decided to explore possibilities in each of those states before submitting our paperwork. Our agency supports us in this which is very nice.

We, our agency, and family members in Mexico have been establishing contacts and gathering information to help us decide which state. Each state has their own civil codes which determine adoption procedures. So we are finding out that depending on which state we chose, we might need some additional documents for our dossier, since every state has their own requirements. We are gathering those documents in the meantime. We have narrowed it down now and are very close to submitting our paperwork!

Translation Completed

Just a quick update to say that the translation is finished! Now we are working toward the next step, more on that later!

Translation?

Our dossier has been in Mexico for over four weeks. But it still hasn't been translated. We are crossing our fingers that the translation will done on week 5. The translator said she should have it done by Monday, so we shall see.

Now that our dossier is in Mexico, we have no way of getting a status on anything ourselves. But our agency has been keeping us updated. It took so much to get our dossier put together, approved by our agencies, then approved by the US Government. Most of those steps took significantly more time than we were expecting. So, I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it is not all that surprising that our dossier is taking at least five weeks to get translated. These are circumstances way beyond our control.


It's hard to know what to tell people when they ask. We have absolutely no way of knowing how things will progress now that our paperwork is in Mexico. All we can say is that we won't be able to be matched until we are approved in Mexico. And we won't be able to be approved until our dossier is translated.

Everything is still moving forward, we just have no timeline to go by. Part of having no timeline is very frustrating. But part of it is also exciting. We are going to be surprised. It will probably happen when we are not expecting it. So, we are OK with that. Everyone has told us that all the waiting is just a normal part of the process, and that in the end, it is well worth it. We believe it!