Organizing

One of the things that my husband, Joe, was happy about, was that I am extremely anal and organized. his pet name for me "Rainman" (what a comedian). My paperwork is in order, ask me for a document and my mental filing will have it located and copied in several minutes. This type of skill will come in very handy in adoption.
I read a lot of posts and experiences on the Internet, learned of other people's experiences and built from there.

RULE ONE !! I learned one of the most valuable lessons very early on.....EVERYTHING must be notarized...hmmm, well pick a very responsible neighbor, friend, co worker, or relative (not the same last name) to become a notary in your state. This will not only save you hundreds of $$, but a lot of aggravation in getting documents notarized. Do you really want to take a stranger to the doctor with you to notarize their signature?? I know we are in NJ and the cost was minimal. Do a search on your state website on becoming a notary. You don't need classes, you just fill out the application and send it in with a check. (this is NJ anyway) then the other documents will follow.

SECONDLY
Talk to your doctor before making the appointments, and advise them that you WILL need a copy of their license and some docs filled out. We had to change 3 doctors because of ignorant presumptions of nefarious activity on Russia and these doctors thought their licenses would be duplicated!
Let's keep in mind that a doctor's license is public information and their license # and information can be located on the Internet in about 30 seconds.

You can chalk this up to ignorance, and there are many people like this in the world...even doctors.

THIRD
Get your financials in order. If you don't have life insurance, apply now. Get your home docs accumulated, deeds, mortgages, etc. As you copy all of these documents, make sure you are keeping a clean copy for yourself as well.
As I prepared my dossier docs, I was making a second one for me. You will need to bring this with you, so why try to panic later and get it all together again.

I also purchased clear sheet protectors and every notarized document went into a sheet protector and then into a binder. Makes it easy to search and flip through without sullying the documents as well.