What's in a Profile?

Let's talk about...talking about ourselves. If you're anything like me, you're already paralyzed and don't know where to begin. Welcome to writing your adoption profile.

Our agency supplied us with thorough instructions on the types of pictures to collect, prompts to write about, and do's and don'ts for an appropriate letter to an expectant mother. But when the rubber meets the road, there's not a lot that feels natural about curating this content about our lives.

There are three aspects of the profile that we must put together: 1) Photographs, 2) Answers to Questions about Us, and 3) Letter to an Expectant Mom

Photos were easy to collect. The agency wants photos of us together as a couple and as individuals that illustrate our interests and personalities, photos with family members that show our dynamic or traditions, photos with friends, photos of our home, Shuffles interacting with children, and etc. Since I've always been super extra when it comes to pictures, this wasn't hard to collect.

Jonathan and I have been working on assigned questions by writing mini-essays for weeks. It seems that I am never any closer to finishing writing about myself. How do you encompass your upbringing, your personality, your beliefs and values, your whole identity, into a Word document you can turn in like a term paper? The agency gave us a series of questions to answer at length. They also highly encourage us to share stories and antidotes that help paint a picture of who we are. We describe ourselves, our spouse, and our families (upbringing and current). And we describe our neighborhood, our social circles, our faith community, and articulate our desire to adopt.

Last is the letter to an expectant mom. This is a brief letter--not more than a page long at max--to any expectant mother viewing our profile. It is the opening piece of our profile and the hardest to put together. Women viewing this profile haven't necessarily chosen adoption and certainly haven't yet chosen us. What do you say to a woman you've never met in a situation you've never experienced?

The most helpful piece of information was our agency was the reminder that the letter we write isn't for EVERY expectant mother who will read it. We can't possibly write something that would appeal to everyone while also giving any useful feel for who we are. The letter we write is designed for the woman who will respond positively to us, who is looking for a family like ours to raise her child. This somehow releases the pressure for us to be all things to all people when we write--we're just waiting for the right person to find us.

Kait, Avery, and Joe feeling much more knowledgeable about infant and adult CPR!

Our home study class is next week! That means all of our paperwork and this profile material will be done and turned in for review. Shout out to my people for coming with me to get the very last thing crossed off the list. We're now ALL CPR certified.

*Jonathan was CPR certified at work and therefore missed ALL of the fun.