Dear Mardie,
I have been working on our adoption profiles and I’m happy to say they are done! Yay! But now, I’m not sure what to do with them. Help!
Making adoption profiles can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the adoption process. It gives you the opportunity to take pictures, choose colors, play with fonts, and let your artistic side show. But, you’re not the first to ask ‘now what?’
Let’s begin by remembering the purpose of a profile. It’s meant to show a birth mother who you are and what her child’s life would be like in your family. It is an introduction, a way of learning more about you, shared in hopes that a phone call or email or even a personal meeting will be the next step. It’s always important to have your phone number listed as well as your email address or any other form of communication you want to share.
Remember to refer back to the networking and advertising section of this website. It has lots of ideas for how to go about meeting a birth mother who’s right for you.
So let’s get down to business. What do you do with those profiles now that they’re done?
When creating your profile, it is great to remember that those same theories and concepts, like the letter, the photos, and the captions should all be able to translate to a website or a Facebook page. These online opportunities are less expensive and easier to advertise than a profile. They can be more challenging to create and maybe not as much fun, but they are a great way to incorporate all avenues of networking.
Depending on how much your profiles cost, you may want to do a mailing or consider handing them out. This is a great use for one page profiles since multi-page profiles often cost more. I know when I was adopting, I would decide to who and where I was going to distribute them and then decide what it was I was going to distribute, always keeping cost in mind.
I would keep my more expensive, multi-page profiles for giving to an actual lead that I came in contact with or that a friend mentioned to me. For instance, once my hairdresser mentioned that a friend of a friend had a daughter who was pregnant and considering adoption. I made sure to give her one of my longer version profiles that were quite lovely, to give to the young woman. This was a lead that might actually see the profile. I also created shorter one-page versions that had a color photo on them that I could distribute more widely, say to doctor’s offices or others who came in touch with pregnant women.
You can also scan the pages of your profile and use those on your Facebook page or your website. It’s great to be able to have your printed profile done so that you are ready to give someone more information about you and a direct way to contact you. If a woman contacts you via your Facebook page and would like to learn more about you, you can offer to mail her a copy of your profile.
Always keep a copy of your profile in an envelope in your car. You never want to be out and about somewhere and wish you had a copy but you don’t.
Check out the networking lesson and get back to me on other questions about using your profiles and reaching birth mothers. Remember, there is a baby for you!
