The prospective adoptive family

The prospective adoptive family

One aspect of the arduous "paper chase" associated with adopting a child from China is preparing a dossier for adoption authorities that documents the adoptive family's ability to provide for the child and general physical and mental well being. That dossier must include a variety of photos that, of course, portray the family in the best possible light. We didn't use this photo from our most recent holiday greeting, but we did strike a bunch of similar poses. Turning yourself into a sort of infomercial for the ideal family can be a bit dehumanizing. At times, we were tempted to just insert a photo depicting our true selves--and the hairstyles we wish were still in fashion--like the one below.