Adoption Column 2

Copyright, Stephens Media

Editor’s note: Mark Buffalo is the sports editor for the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat, which are members of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers. He and his wife, Linda, who is a teacher at Lonoke Middle School, will be adopting a 2-year-old girl from China, who will be named Mary Elisabeth. They are scheduled to travel in the middle of September. This is the second of several columns about this family’s adoption experiences and the process. His e-mail address is mbuffalo@cabotstarherald.com

 By Mark Buffalo

 In early 2007, I got a call from America World Adoption, telling us that China’s new adoption regulations were going into effect in May of that year and that we would be affected if we didn’t get our paperwork completed by the middle of April.

Basically, we had to complete the “paper pregnancy” in about 3 months. Normally, it took families from five to seven months to complete.

So, the first thing Linda and I did was to look at our information we received from America World at the seminar in Arkadelphia and the information we received after our initial registration with the company.

The biggest thing we had to do was to get our home study completed in a short amount of time. We contacted Ed Appler, a social worker in Conway who we met in Arkadelphia. We called him and he set up our home studies, which consisted of one in-home visit and three visits in his office in Conway.

He and his wife, Sharon, were great to work with and put us at ease about the visit. Linda and I were worried, mainly because we didn’t know what to expect. We cleaned, and cleaned some more. And we were ready for that day in late January.

While we did our home study, we had to obtain a number of other documents, including original copies of our birth certificates, medical examinations, financial statements, employment verification, criminal background checks with the Arkansas State Police, a copy of our marriage license and personal reference letters, all of which had to be notarized by a notary public and certified by the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office. Luckily, I work with a wonderful lady who is also a notary public. Jamie Mahoney was lifesaver for so much of our paperwork. She drove from Cabot to Lonoke to notarize quite a few things for us. We can never repay her for that kindness.

Linda and I also had to get valid passports and had to pay to expedite them from the federal government. We did that and had them in plenty of time.

Also, we had to be fingerprinted by appointment at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in Fort Smith. Since we live with Linda’s mother, Leara Deanne Lilly, she had to go with us as we applied for our I-171h document, which would grant us permission to adopt. All three of us were fingerprinted after we made the three-hour trip to Fort Smith.

We were feeling pretty good about all we had done, but as April approached, we still didn’t have our I-171h form, which we needed to get our documents certified by the Chinese Consulate.

Linda and I decided to drive to Houston, Texas, to get our documents authenticated at the Chinese Consulate. I made hotel reservations in Houston and we were heading there as soon as we got our I-171h. But we kept waiting and waiting.

We finally received the document we needed and after having the documents certified by the Secretary of State’s Office, I shipped everything, along with some payments, overnight to America World, hoping to make our April 18 deadline.

When we received confirmation that America World had received our documents and would be able to get them authenticated and that they would be on the way to China via personal courier from America World, Linda and I were relieved. Then the waiting — and the uncertainty associated with it — began.