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The Family Profile
Your Letter and Photo Collage By Jessica Williams
Your close family and friends know a lot about you. They've heard your dreams and plans; they've seen you struggle to get to where you are now. In all the late-night conversations you've shared together through the years, they can picture you raising a child.
Imagine having to assure a complete stranger that you are the right person to raise their child. In an open adoption placement, this is exactly what you are trying to do. In most adoption agencies, you will be asked to write a birth parent letter and create a family profile so that birth parents can understand more about your life through pictures and words.
The family profile may be the most challenging thing you'll ever create. It encompasses everything from your philosophy on life to your hopes and dreams for the child you are hoping to adopt. In short, it's a very personal and intimate autobiography.
How does one begin compiling such a document? The task may seem daunting, but this simple guide can help keep you on track.
Birth parents are looking for "honesty and a real feel for who [the adoptive parents] are, not false images," says Mardie Caldwell COAP, of Grass Valley, Calif., director of Lifetime Adoption and author of the e-book AdoptingOnLine.com.
As much as you hate to think about it, you've got competition. Other parents are out there looking for their perfect match.
Becky Hernon, birth mother to a 5-year-old girl from Woods Cross, Utah, chose her daughter's adoptive parents by sifting through many profiles. "There were at least 10 couples in the book," she says. "I just sat and looked through them until I saw one that 'called' to me."
