Creating your Adoption Profile is one of the most important parts of your adoption journey, if not the most important part. Birth parents are given a stack of profiles to review when making their selection so it is important that your profile be authentically you, as you never know what will stand out to them.
Here are some tips to bare in mind when creating your profile:
- Accurately represent yourselves. Include as much information, without being too long winded about who you are as individuals and as a couple. While one birth mother may be drawn to one particular aspect about you, another may be put off by the same aspect. For example, whether this will be your first child or your second child. Whether or not you have pets etc. One birth mom may be drawn to the fact you have pets while another may be put off by it. One birth mom may want her unborn child to go to a childless couple, while another would prefer that her unborn child go to a couple where the child will have a sibling. Avoid trying to play to your audience.
- Show your interests and hobbies. One of the birth parents may have, or have had the same hobby and like that the child will be brought up in a home where that will be prevalent ie: soccer, horse riding, mortorsport, drama, music etc.
- Present as much detail as possible without creating a profile that is filled with pages and pages and pages of writing. You need to represent yourselves as accurately as possible, in as short a space as possible. A picture is really worth a thousand words in this case.
- The way your profile is represented should be representative of who you are. We went with a scrapbook option, others go for photobooks. We liked the idea of a scrapbook, as we feel it is a bit more personal and working on it was cathartic and we have continued it by adding pages of our son and he loves looking through it. However and especially if time is of the essence, a photobook is just as lovely.
- Once your profile is submitted, ask your Social Worker for feedback on your profile. Sometimes a little tweaking is all that is necessary.
- Make your profile as personal as possible. Include lots of photo’s so that the birth mother gets a good idea of who you are and what you’re about, not just form what you have told her but from what she can also see.
- Be proud of the profile you have created, don’t second guess yourself, when you are happy with it then it is perfect!
– Content from Trinity Heart and Saskia Williams
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