If you are working with an adoption agency you will most likely put together a profile for Birthparents to view who are considering adoption.  You might want to even consider putting together a profile if you are planning on doing an independent adoption so that if you are connected with a Birthparent, you can share the profile with them before you meet.  A profile is a way for you to let the Birthparents learn about you.  They typically include non-identifying information such as first names, occupations, religion, hobbies, etc.  It allows Birthparents to learn about different families as they are making an adoption plan for their child.

Because the profile is the first glimpse that a Birthparent has into your life, personality, family, etc., a profile can be one of the most essential parts of the adoption process.  It is what draws a Birthparent to you.  We have often heard that first impressions are lasting impressions.  Well, a profile is your first impression.

Different agencies typically have their own guidelines of what you should or should not include in a profile.  Most likely you can expect to include a picture resume or what I call an autobiography of pictures and a Dear Birthparent letter.  In this article I am going to concentrate more on the picture part of the profile.  The a future article I will focus more on what to include in a Dear Birthparent letter.

A picture is worth a thousand words, which is something you need to keep in mind when choosing pictures for your profile.  It is important that you use active pictures that illustrate your interests, hobbies, lifestyle, etc.  Posed pictures are fine, but they don’t really say anything about you.  Active pictures show you on vacation, in the ocean, at the racetrack, at the football game, grilling out with family and relaxing reading a book.  With active pictures, a Birthparent can begin to get to know you and what their child’s life will be like if they chose you.

Use a variety of pictures.  Include pictures of you individually as well as as a couple.  Pictures of pets, extended family and other children or nieces and nephews lets Birthparents know about who else will be a part of their child’s life.  Identify who is in each picture and use a caption to let them know what you are doing.  Don’t just say “at the beach”.  Say something like “Here we are at the ocean in Florida in May 2005.  We went to the beach with friends.  Mary is having a great time jumping in the waves”.  If you are baking in the kitchen say “Grammy came over with my niece and we baked cookies all afternoon” instead of “baking cookies”.

It is best to have a majority of the pictures you use be recent pictures.  However, you can use old pictures to tell the story of your life together.  A picture of you dating, getting married or even pictures of you as children can be good to add.  Just don’t use too many old pictures.

Make your resume unique.  Visit a local craft store or scrapbook store and load up on colored paper, printed paper, stickers and embellishments.  Cut your pictures in interesting shapes.  Without cluttering the page, use as much space as possible for pictures and descriptions.  If all you do is plop 2 3 x 5 pictures down on a white sheet of paper, it doesn’t say much about you.  You want your picture profile to stand out and really let a Birthparent know about you.

In addition to these suggestions, your agency might have its own suggestions and guidelines for your picture profiles/picture resumes.  Some agencies limit the amount of pages to include in the picture part of your profile others will let you include as many pictures as you want.  I find that 8-10 pages is a good amount.  It is not too little and not too much. I would not do more than 15 pages of pictures as it can become overwhelming to have so many pictures to view.

Whether you are doing an agency or independent adoption, as you begin to put together your picture profile remember to make it unique.  Make it say who you are.  At a glance, they should be able to skim through the pictures and be able to describe who you are, what you like to do and your relationships with family and friends.  The picture part of the profile is often what draws a Birthmother’s attention and will encourage her to read your letters and find out more about you.   It is often what holds a Birthparent’s interest and it gives them an idea of what their child’s life will be like with you.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 10th, 2006 at 4:12 am and is filed under Adoption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.