Holy paperwork Batman!!

I mentioned briefly in a previous post that there is a lot of work involved in adoption. That's an understatement. Anyone who has gotten very far in the adoption process will tell you it can be a little overwhelming. We started this process over a year ago, which means we have to redo our home study now because they expire after a year (in CA anyway, not sure if that's the case everywhere). At the beginning of this process we had to make our adoption profile (20 copies to be handed out to potential birth moms), write our autobiographies (this is not an exaggeration), get fingerprinted, have health physicals done, submit our bank records and employment verification, go through an FBI background check, be interviewed by a caseworker, and our home had to be baby-proofed and inspected. We attended an adoption orientation, took CPR and first aid classes, prepared an emergency kit and "escape" plan, drew up a layout of our house with utility shut offs, fire extinguisher, and smoke alarm locations labeled. Our case worker interviewed us about our marriage, asked about family member's backgrounds, our disciplinary style, our struggles with fertility, and tons of other questions. Don't even get me started on the cost. Now that it's been a year we need to redo the majority of these things. Not sure why we need to get finger prints done again since those obviously can't change and why we need to reconfirm things like where we went to high school and college. We're doing it though. The way I feel about the "business" of adoption is similar to the way I feel about the fact that restaurants have to label coffee cups with "caution hot" stickers, baby formula instruction contain the words "add water", and that blow dryers have little tags with pictures warning of electrocution if you try to blow dry your hair while still in the shower. There is someone out there in the world who warranted these warnings, and someone out there who made all of these precautions the government takes with adoption necessary. Thanks for that whoever you are. We are not those people, but again, we're doing it. There isn't a doubt in our minds that it will all be completely, entirely, overwhelmingly worth it. There isn't a government form or fee that's going to keep us from having a family! 
We are parents!!! Hear us roar!!!!