Building an adoption profile is a beautiful chance to share your story in order to connect with a waiting child. It provides the opportunity to develop an honest and natural portrayal of you and your family. This may sound a little daunting, but this will be a journey unlike any other and the love you are willing to give will change lives.
When creating an adoption profile, it is important to understand its purpose and do your best to make it authentic. The following tips will help you build an adoption profile that speaks to the love your family has to offer.
At Taryn Kimberly Photography, I have a deep respect and understanding for adoption, as I am an adoptee myself. I am honored to help families throughout Colorado Springs navigate the process of sharing their family identity through adoption profile photography.
What Is An Adoption Profile?
An adoption profile is a short autobiography designed to feature you, your family, and the reasons your home is a good fit for a waiting child. It is the precious opportunity to share your lifestyle and build an emotional connection with prospective birth parents. An intentional combination of text and photographs that properly depict the identity and lifestyle that your family will bring to a waiting child is the ultimate way to create an adoption profile.
What To Include In An Adoption Profile
Determining what you want to include in your adoption profile can add even more anxiety to an already arduous yet delicate adoption process. While mapping out the best ways to truly show the safe, warm lifestyle that you will bring to a waiting child, it can easily become overwhelming to determine if the content that will translate in an authentic manner without overwhelming the recipient. The first step to structuring your adoption profile lies within the outline process, which is vital to ensure your message is portrayed in a genuine manner.
When making a family book for adoption, prospective parents typically include a meaningful letter to the birth parent and a physical adoption profile book.
“Dear Birth Parent” Letter
This letter is meant to address the birth parent as you describe your interest in adopting a child, as well as your background and how you will provide a promising future for the waiting child. Generally, prospective adoptive parents include the following:
- Introduction: Compose a sentence or two describing your desire to adopt.
- About Us: Discuss who you are as a couple, how and when you met, and what your relationship is like now.
- About Each Other: This is your chance to write about your partner and all their great qualities and parent potential.
- Family Dynamic: Write about your family and the ways you support one another through the adoption process and life in general.
- Lifestyle: Describe what everyday life looks like including work and life balance, hobbies, interests, and future goals.
- Conclusion: In a few sentences, describe your perspectives and overall goals in regard to parenting and how you tend on raising the waiting child.
Adoption Profile Book
The physical adoption profile book is an incredible way to bind the story of your family together in a tangible manner. When making an adoption profile book, you are able to curate the perfect combination of photographs that represent how your family earned the identity it will bring to a waiting child. This will allow expectant parent to truly connect with you and your family while assuring that you will provide a sense of belonging for their child.
Ways To Supplement Your Adoption Profile Book
In addition to your adoption profile book that is a tangible way to portray the intangible, beautiful love that you will provide to a waiting child, there are ways to supplement the physical adoption profile book.
- Online Profile: Many prospective adoption parents find an online profile to be beneficial as a way to streamline the process. Certain adoption organizations provide a platform for online adoption profiles as well.
- Adoption Blog: If you are looking for a more permanent space to share your profile, you can create an adoption blog using free website design tools like WordPress.com or Wix.com.
- Profile Video: This option allows you to create an incredibly engaging profile that can best capture your personality and connect with expectant parents in addition to your adoption profile book.
Adoption Profile Tips
Tip 1: Showcase Your Everyday Life
While sprinkling photographs that showcase major events like weddings, births of potential siblings, or vacations, it is integral to keep the majority of the focus on everyday life. Expectant parents want a glimpse into your world to ensure that the child would be placed into a promising home, lifestyle, and future.
Tip 2: Provide A Variety Of Quality Photos
When choosing what photos to include in your profile, be sure to pick ones that are high quality, since images with poor quality may distract from the overall presentation. When curating your images, be sure to include a mixture of images, most of which should be recent. This makes it easier for birth parents to see who you truly are and what interests you most.
Tip 3: Be Sensitive To Cultural Differences
It is vital to be cognizant of cultural differences no matter who you are looking to add to your family. The respect provided through an adoptive parent profile will translate differently to each person who reads it, so it is important that words are chosen carefully in order to avoid being misconstrued.
Tip 4: Focus On Sentiment Over Possessions
Although birth parents want their child’s family to be secure financially, focusing on possessions in your profile is can be construed as disingenuous. The sentiment behind the selfless desire to adopt and the promise of the lifelong love and support you will give the waiting child is significantly more important than the items you own.
Tip 5: Be Clear About How The Child Will Fit Into Your Family
When determining how to write an adoption profile, it can be easy to fall into the trap of only sharing how things are in the present, rather than how the lifestyle will accommodate a future with a waiting child. Expectant parents want to ensure their child will be just as much a part of the family as everyone else, so it is integral to showcase the irrevocable bond established by your family already and how you will intentionally provide the child with the same connection.
Tip 6: Look Into The Future
When discussing your family, be sure to share your hopes and dreams. Although it’s nice to know about your background, the child will only have the future with you, so it’s essential that you share what you want that to look like. Ideally, you will be able to provide a brief structure of how your family intends on accomplishing specific goals that will ultimately enhance the child’s future and overall well-being.
Tip 7: Balance Your Profile
It is important to be cognizant of the length of the profile when making a family book for adoption. While you want to avoid overwhelming the birth parent, it is still important to provide ample detail and focus on meaningful photos alongside intentional text. With this, take a deep breath and know that creating your adoption profile book will take time, so it is essential that you give yourself time to get objective feedback in order to adapt the adoptive parent profile.
Tip 8: Be Authentic
This final tip is arguably the most important tip when determining how to write an adoption profile. Adoption is a scary, yet incredibly rewarding process that should be approached with only genuine intentions. Being authentic ensures you find a waiting child that is a great fit for you and your family.
Authentic Adoption Profiles | Taryn Kimberly Photography
At Taryn Kimberly Photography, I value understanding each client’s specific needs and preserving authentic moments. As an adoptee, I am well-versed in the adoption process and the emotions that inevitably come rushing through it. Through this, my passion is to preserve you and your family in a light that will ensure your adoption experience is everything you have envisioned. Through adoption photography, I will document the lifestyle and true sense of family and security that your family will bring to a waiting child. As a full service family photographer in Colorado Springs, I will be your partner through every step of the process; from session planning to adoption profile book creation. Connect with me so I may be your ally in the adoption process.
