Adoption Profile Help | Birth Mother Letter Tips

Having adopted three children, I often get many questions from other families thinking about adoption. I have decided to start blogging about the questions I get on the subject of adoption. The topics will range from questions about the domestic adoption profile, to open adoption, trans racial adoption, bonding etc. I am not a professional in most of these areas, just a mommy living it every day. The posts will be be my opinions from my experience as a mommy and adoption profile designer. It is not my intent to offend anyone in the adoption triad, I know everyone has different views from their own experience, you can feel free to share them in the comments section. Please note if your post is disrespectful it may not be published.

The first topic I wanted to tackle is how to get started on your adoption profile letter. This is the text you will write to expectant parents and it is used to create your adoption profile. It is your chance to convey who you are and why you feel you will be a good mom and dad to the child she is carrying.

Many of the families I design adoption profiles for already have a fairly solid draft of their letter written before I contract to work with them. I thought it might be helpful to put a few tips out there for those of you trying to write one of the hardest letters you will ever write. Remember that it is not supposed to be easy, it will take a lot of thought and effort, but it will be so worth it in the end.

My first and most important tip: write from your heart! I always advise families to write as though they were writing a close friend or family member. While I realize you are sharing a lot of personal information with a stranger, which can feel invasive and uncomfortable. It is important to remember, that same “stranger” may trust you with his/her child.

I do not recommend beginning your letter with “dear birth mother”, if she has not given birth and placed her child for adoption, she is an expectant mother. I prefer to begin the letter with “Hello”. If you are married, your letter should be written from both you and your spouse. Avoid using the pronoun “I” and instead say “we” or use your first names.

It is also very important to be concise. I spend a ton of my editing time cutting down letters and cutting out less important information. Most expectant parents who will read your profile will also receive up to thirty or more adoption profiles at the same time. If you ramble and fill every page with text your profile may be passed over. I would avoid the following:

Avoid sharing a detailed history of your life. You can briefly mention you went to college, or how you met your spouse, but you do not need to share about childhood, high school, hometown etc. It is okay when talking about family to include brief statements about childhood i.e. “as a child my mom stayed at home, and we intend to do the same.”
An expectant parent needs to know you have family/friends in your life; however, they do not need to know everyone’s name and story. They want to know about you!
Don’t try to “sell yourself” you will risk come across shallow and insecure; be real! Your sincerity will come through.
When talking with our children’s birth families (we have three children, each of them have different birth families), they have all said that they were looking for information about how the child will live and be raised. It is very important to paint a picture of what you envision life to be like with your child. You should include things such as:

A few things you cannot wait to do with your child and see your spouse do with your child. (Read, bake, go to the park, snuggle etc)
How you view education, the opportunities for higher education, and how you will school your child when they are young (public, private, home school)
Share about your careers and how you will manage them with a child.
How you plan to care for your child during the day. (stay at home, child care, nanny, grandma etc.)
You can and should include your religion if it is really important to you.
Share how you will be there to support, love on, encourage your child.
If you plan to have an open or semi open adoption, share about it
When talking about your future with a child do not refer to the child as “our child”, as this can offend some expectant mothers. Instead, talk about having a child in general or address the child as her child.
Share briefly about your extended family; a short paragraph should be plenty. If your parents have had a long marriage, it is a positive thing to share. Also share if they will be involved with your child and what they look forward to doing with your child.

An ideal adoption profile letter should only be one to two pages in length. If it is any longer it will overwhelm your profile and the reader. You can always add lists later on, such as a “a few of our favorite things” or “ten things we promise you” this is a great way to sum up a lot of info in an easy to read manor. Your overall profile will be closer to 12-16 pages front and back, the letter is usually distributed throughout.

You should close the letter with a brief thank you for reading your letter, and wish them well as they make their decision. Once you have a good draft written, have a family member or friend read and edit it for you.

Finally, don’t stress about it! Have fun with it, let the fun part of your personality show and if you have a typo in the end… don’t worry, it is likely that no one else will even notice. An expectant mom is not looking for the best writer for their child, they are looking for loving and caring parents.

Catching up and Congrats! Adoption Profile Design

We have had a very busy summer! Aside from completing quite a few profiles, we have moved back to Bend, OR, finalized our daughters adoption, gone on two vacations and spent time with family and friends. It has been a wonderful whirlwind adjusting to life with three kids! We are hoping to have some new family photos taken soon and I am excited to update my website with more info about our family of five!

I have been working on a blog series I would like to post about some of my experience with adoption profile design, letter writing tips and adoption topics in general from an adoptive momma of three :) Stayed tuned the first post should come this evening.

Finally, I want to send a shout of congratulations to 5 new families and welcome all their precious babies!

Congrats to Loran and  new big brother Jack, enjoy every moment with baby Luke!

Congrats also to:

John+ Lisa & new baby girl Eliza.

Josh + Laura & new baby boy Jonah

Mike + Anika  & new baby girl Lucy

Mark + Susan + big sister Mia... Amelie is just beautiful!

And a huge congrats to Stefanie, whom after a failed placement and rough time with adoption,  just gave birth to a precious baby boy!

Congrats to all the new families, we are so happy to be a part of your story!

Rejoice with us! We have a new Addition... | Adoption Profile Designer

Our family has grown; We have recently adopted a baby girl! Ava Brooklyn was born in Oct 11th  placed in our arms FOREVER on May 9th. We are overjoyed and beyond blessed by our little surprise... our boys are in love and the entire family is smitten by our new addition. ♥

lots of congratulations!

I have been booked solid with adoption profile designs so far this year so my blog has been woefully neglected... I am finally taking a break for a quick CONGRATS to the the 7 families that were placed with babies since January. 4 handsome boys and 3 precious baby girls! So happy for you all, hope to hear good news from more families soon!

I am so excited to be working with TWO families next month on profile updates, I worked with both families in the past two years on their adoption profile for their first adoptions, they were both placed very quickly and are ready to add a new brother or sister.  So excited to see what this year holds for all my clients!

Finally, a HUGE welcome to my precious niece Eva, born to my beautiful baby sister and her husband. Congratulations Laura and Ryan, she is perfect!

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Welcome baby Zoey!

Congratulations Kevin and Adrienne, Zoey is absolutely beautiful! Enjoy every sweet moment with her!

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Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all of you a merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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New Christmas Cards in our shoppe

We finally have some new Christmas Cards in our Shoppe! They are a bit late this year, as I have been super busy working on adoption profiles for some wonderful families. I plan to add a few more cards in the coming weeks so please check back...

The cards this year come in Deluxe Shapes... you can chose from an Ornate Shape, 5x5 Square, or a Circle Ornament card which is about 5x5 and comes with a hole on top for ribbon.  I am taking custom design orders... contact me for more details.

Here are a few of the new designs...

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Adoption Profile Examples

One of the best parts of my job is meeting really neat families, getting to know them quite well as I work with them on designing their adoption profile and of course hearing when they are matched. I recently completed an adoption profile design for this wonderful couple and look forward to hearing the great news when they have their baby in their arms.

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Congratulations! | Two New Families Through Adoption

I received emails from two more families since yesterday. I worked with one of the families in the spring and the other this summer. Here is what they had to say:

“I just wanted to share the NEWS with you.... we brought home our daughter from the hospital a week ago yesterday!!! Never in our wildest dreams did we think we'd be chosen 2 weeks after submitting our profile to our agency! We know this was God's plan for us and for our beautiful little girl and we thank you so much for being a part of it! You were so wonderful to work with on our profile and the finished product was incredible -- as evidenced from our speedy match! Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!” ~J & E

“Sharon-Just wanted to send a note to thank you for such a wonderful job on our profile! Our son was born in June. We were selected within a month of using this profile!!” ~A & A

I am so happy for both families! Hearing good news about placememts from the families I work with brings a smile to may face and a joy to my heart. The best part is seeing the photos of the precious babies. Thanks to both of these families for allowing me to post these emails.

new blog design

We have had a really busy summer; we have had 13 adoption profile design clients since June, and I am happy to announce that we have heard from 10 of those families that have already been chosen by a birth mom or placed with a child. We are so happy for all of you! Three of the families were chosen within the first few weeks after there profile was complete.

Personally the summer also included a move for our family as well as a wonderful family vacation to Disneyland! We decided to kick off the fall with a new blog design. Speaking of fall, its almost time to start thinking about Christmas and Holiday cards (even Costco has already begun to decorate) ☺ We will be posting a coupon in the near future for Christmas cards, stay tuned…

coupon code

for the whole month of MAY

we have a coupon

offering $10 off your complete order

when you order birth announcements AND matching thank you cards.

You can view and purchase them in our Shoppe .

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announce your new addition in COLOR!

We have many new baby announcements in our Shoppe!

A sprinkling of color variations depending on your style and flair!

Come in and look around...

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Congratulations Laura... Welcome Hailey!

While I am designing an adoption profile, I get to spend many hours getting to know the families I am working with, their stories and most of all their hopes and dreams of building their families through adoption. It is a huge honor and blessing when the families email or give me a call to let me know their long awaited little one has arrived.

Laura was no exception to this! I was happy to work with her last fall to design an adoption profile that reflected who she is, and the life she would provide a child to the expectant parents considering an adoption plan for their child.

I was able to rejoice with Laura just four short months when she emailed me to let me know she had her beautiful daughter in her arms. I was honored when she asked me to design an adoption announcement to welcome precious Hailey. Congratulations Laura... enjoy every moment of being a mommy!
Adoption Announcement Front

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Adoption Announcement Back

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A page from Laura's Adoption Profile

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*The beautiful photographs in the adoption announcement were taken by Krysia Photography

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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Check out our new look!

We have launched a new design of our website, you can check it out at http://www.foreverfamilydesigns.com.

The new website features:

*easier navigation menu

*a new FAQ page

*larger galleries for viewing example profiles and proofing your adoption profile during the design process

*a link to our new Shoppe, where you may view and purchase all of our baby announcements, holiday cards, and custom birth mother gifts.

Thank you to BigFolio for the great site layout and all the awesome customer service during the design and launch process! You guys rock!

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custom birth mother gifts

Just in time for the Holidays, we are now proud to offer Custom Birth Mother gifts and Birth Family Gifts. These can be ordered with a photo of your child and custom text, or using the text we have provided. Each design is meaningful, unique and can be customized for your child's Birth Family.  These are perfect for Christmas, birthday's and visits with your Child's Birth Family.

Birth Family Gifts can be ordered as a "design only" (you receive a file to print yourself), or as a photo print (we offer 5x7 or 8x10), or as a standout board (8x12). A standout board is a photograph of the design mounted on a 1.5 inch thick, lightweight Gatorfoam edged with black trim. These make a beautiful gift and come ready to hang.

We are offering 10% off of all orders for the month of November. The Special discount code is holiday09. You can view all the designs in The Shoppe by clicking here.

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Happy Hanukkah!

In response to many requests for Hanukkah cards we are excited to announce our newest line of cards. ... Hanukkah Cards!

To celebrate the opening of The Shoppe, we will be offering 20% off of of our Christmas Cards, Hanukkah Cards, Baby Announcements, and Custom Birth Mother gifts until the end of October. The coupon code for the savings is octsave09, hurry and place your holiday order early and take advantage of the savings! If you are having family photos taken after the coupon expires, dont worry...You can always place you order now and send photos later and you still get the 20% off! Make sure you look at our 5 different Hanukkah designs by clicking the 'next' button under the bottom left corner of the card...

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and the winner is... Joani!

Congratulations to Joani who won our 50 custom card give-away today!

Joani chose our 'Joy to the World' card

Hanukkah meets The Shoppe

We are happy to introduce another selection to our holiday cards