The adoptive parent profile is the first step to finding a match with a birth family. This is an opportunity for you, the prospective adoptive parent, to be as honest as possible about how life has led you to adoption. Below are five ways to make your profile sincere, interesting, and appealing to birth parents who are considering placing their child.

How to Create a Fantastic Adoption Profile

1. Put Yourself in the Birth Parents’ Shoes

If you were looking for a family for your child, what qualities would you want to be displayed? Is religion a top priority for you? What about community? If you are a person who likes music, art, sports, or travel, you’ll likely prefer to give your child a family that shares those interests.

As a prospective adoptive parent, make a list of the most important aspects in your life and pick five of them that matter the most. Those five items become the sections of your profile. They will also allow you to connect more deeply with the birth parents when you meet them for the first time. 

2. Break Up the Profile Into Sections

Pages filled with floods of text can overwhelm any reader. Break up your profile into sections, such as “Family time,” “Travel,” “Hobbies,” “How We Met,” “Our Home,” “About Us,” etc. Limit the text in each section to a paragraph or two; this is not the time to offer every detail of your life story, but more of an opportunity to show birthparents the “why” behind your adoption plan and the highlights along the way.

3. Tell an Honest Story

Most people do not simply wake up one day and decide to adopt – there is a journey there. Break out your very best creative writing skills and tell an honest story about why you decided to adopt, how you plan to raise a child, and where you hope life will take you. Try not to write it as a journal entry or a persuasive essay. It should read as a series of entertaining anecdotes that together form a cohesive narrative. 

4. Make It Easy to Visualize

The best profiles keep text to a minimum and focus on the visuals. Most birth parents want to visualize their child’s future life. They want to picture their baby with their aunts, uncles, grandparents, and siblings.

They want to see images of the house where their child will grow up, the swing set they’ll play on, and even the hallways of the school they might attend. Take the time to find high-resolution, personal photos that attract attention and supplement the story you are trying to tell. Don’t forget to include captions!

5. Include a Page Directed to the Birth Parents Themselves

Remember that birth parents viewing your profile are at the very beginning of their own process. It will help them to know how you envision your relationship, not just with the child, but with them as well. The birth mother wants to know whether she can expect to receive photos throughout the child’s life or if you plan on allowing visits.

If you are comfortable doing so, and can stand by your word, offering these kinds of “pledges” before the match has occurred can be incredibly comforting to the birth parents and their families. If you do not wish to make promises just yet, use this page to voice your respect, admiration, and compassion for what they are going through. 

Adoption is a life-changing and rewarding experience, and Private Adoption Services in Hamilton County wants to help guide you through the entire process. Serving families across the country since 1997, this private adoption agency helps expectant mothers find the ideal couples for their child. For more information, or to get started on the adoption process, give Private Adoption Services a call at (513) 871-5777 or visit their website.