Well, I guess we all know how that turned out, right? I have more paper on my desk at work than ever before - and we are very much a computer-based office!
I am one of those "old-fashioned" folks that still likes to keep a paper copy of documents - just in case. I still get a paper electric bill, paper phone bill, etc. I guess I've just had too many bad experiences with computers crashing and losing documents to be very trusting of keeping things only in electronic format.
And our adoption has been no different. We already have a binder that's nearly full of forms that we filled out or received two years ago when we first began - inspections, financial statements, employment letters, medical statements, home study, fingerprints... You name it, it's probably in there!
And now we are accumulating even more! There were twelve different documents that we had to gather for our China dossier - several of them more than one page - and we had to have two originals of every document. Some are new documents that we didn't have to have last time or, at the least, newly formatted documents. Some of the documents are the same, but with current dates. And I will keep copies of them all, just in case.
But it's more than that paranoia of losing computer files. It's also a really good reminder for Brian and me, to go back through that binder once in a while. To remember the excitement of first beginning the process. To remember all the nights of filling out papers and scheduling appointments. To realize how far we've come, since that first informational meeting at the adoption agency. To hold onto for a keepsake to show our little boy, when he's old enough to understand.
And so I faithfully make copies or print out each and every step of our adoption journey. Are we environmentally conscious - sure. Are we saving trees? Not yet! :-)