I must admit that I was disillusioned with all the additional paperwork that must be completed once you've returned home with your child. We both thought that it was mostly over and that it would only require a few small steps to tie up loose ends. That was not the case, here is what we learned...

Several things must happen when you return home with your child from Ethiopia.  Here is what we learned and the order we did (and still are doing) them in:

1)  START IMMEDIAETLY... we waited about a month before focusing on this, mostly because we thought it would all be simple to complete.  That's not the case, so don't waste time.

2)  Readoption in your State - You must readopt your child in the state that you are located because you were not present at the court in Ethiopia when the adoption was finalized.  For us in Indiana this involved finding an adoption lawyer and working with them to file the needed paperwork.  Out of this we got an official record in Indiana that we adopted Noah (just like we had actually adopted him here locally) and will eventually have an Indiana birth certificate sent to us (we haven't received this yet.)

3) Proof of Citizenship - you can either get this through a passport or Certificate of Citizenship.  Getting a passport is the quickest as the Certificate could take over a year to receive.  By now you probably have received your child's green card, which you will need, along with the readoption paperwork and the paperwork from Ethiopia (all ORIGINALS).  We went to the US Post Office to get Noah's passport photos taken and file the paperwork.  We received the passport in about 6 weeks.

4) Social Security Card - this is what we will do next and will be done at the Social Security Administration office.  We will need an official SSN for tax purposes.  The other reason we found we need one is to open a 529 college savings account in his name. 

5) Certificate of Citizenship - we will then apply for this.  It's not really that important near term as his passport serves as official proof of him being a citizen.

6) Post Placement Reports - these will depend on your agency but with America World we had to do a self assessment at 1 month, an an assessment with our homestudy agency at 3 months (which we did last month), 6 months and 12 months.  After that we will do self assessments each year until Noah turns 18 years old.