An "Accidental Adoption" - Author Unknown

Have you ever noticed that you hear all the time about “accidental” pregnancies, but never about couples who’ve experienced “accidental” adoptions?

Can you imagine:

Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.
What is it?
Well, I don’t know how to put this, so I’ll just come out with it. . .I went to the mailbox today and. . .well, we got an I-171H.
A what?!! An I-171H? As in. . .we’re going to have another child?!?
It appears that way.
But how? We’ve been so careful! I put away all the blank I600A Forms. Didn’t you hide our homestudy update?
Of course I did! But don’t forget. . .there was that one time…..
What time? . . . . oohhh, that time! But it was only once and we were just fooling around. I didn’t even print clearly. I didn’t even use ink! . . . .but it was kind of fun!
giggles. . . .it was, wasn’t it! I’ll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints!
So, now we’ve got our I-171H, huh? But that doesn’t mean we’ll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn’t you see the agency or something. . .make sure that everything is okay?!
I did already.
. . . .and?
We’re five documents along.
Five documents!!! And they’re all notarized, certified, authenticated and apostilled?
Yes. There was one small scare when the agency couldn’t see the notary’s middle initial, but it showed up fine under the magnifying glass.
Thank goodness. And you. . .are you feeling okay?
I’m feeling fine. As long as I know you are happy about this.
Happy? I’m thrilled! It’s always a shock when something like this happens, but of course I’m happy!
So . . . . the Landers Household is “seven documents along”!

The Lord led us to work towards this in 2007 and we began the process as follows:
Connected with Children’s Hope International (CHI) [one of the few primary international adoption agencies that consistently maintains international accreditation, and maintains consistency in integrity], and attended a meeting.
Began the paperwork; notarization; then took months off due to Cheryl’s Mom’s neck injury; back to paperwork; notarization; filing of forms; classes on DVD; on-line testing; picture taking [interior/exterior of home, specific rooms, individual and group]; authentication work; seek referral letters from family and friends; Social Worker interviews: Steve, Cheryl, Olivia, Steve & Cheryl; forms signed; notarization; submittal of forms; state background checks; update Steve’s passport, get one for Cheryl & Olivia; follow-up meetings with Social Worker; Homeland Security background checks; forms filed; paperwork; notarization; State Secretary’s office in Austin for documents to be apostilled; FedEx to St. Louis MO; new paperwork; additional forms; notarization; drive through The Woodlands while on vacation to pick up paperwork; notarization; State Secretary’s office in Austin for documents to be apostilled; FedEx to St. Louis MO.
USA CHI Russia team reviews all 21 packets of documents; USA CHI team signs off on entire registration packet and puts it in the mail to Moscow on Friday, September 05, 2008.
When it is received in Moscow, the registration packet will be translated and made ready for Russia to determine which of the regions (the USA’s version of states) it should be forwarded to best fit our and future referral matches.
Once a region is selected by Russia, they will notify the CHI St. Louis office.
Once that’s known, we return to the CHI website and link to that region and begin that regions set of documents that are required [as each region has their own additional requirements].