Adoption is, in some ways, much like online dating. Waiting families create a profile, send it to an agency, and wait to find the perfect match. Birth moms show up to an agency, explain their situation, and search for the perfect match.
Creating the profile book was one of the hardest parts of the entire adoption process. The profile book explains your morals, values, dreams, goals, and plans for your family. You introduce family members, show your home, explain family traditions, and describe your neighborhood. You talk about your marriage and what your day to day life looks like. The purpose of the profile book is to give the birth mother a very good look at who you are as a couple, what is important to you, and to get a feel for your personality. She sees this book before she ever meets you. It's your "resume" or "first impression" if you will. No pressure...right?
While it was fun to go through 7 years worth of pictures and pick our favorite memories from our relationship there was this added pressure. Will the birth mom think these favorite memories are even remotely cool? And that's when God showed up. He reminded us SO many times that this is OUR book. It's who WE are. Drew and Becky. And someone out there is going to love OUR book. No matter what pictures, traditions, vacations and memories are in there. They know what they want for their child, so just be US!
As much as it is all about displaying us, there are parts of the profile book that are specifically for the birth mother. She is trusting us to raise her daughter. She needs to know exactly what we promise to do throughout the child's life, how thankful we are for her, and most importantly how greatly we will love her child.
So here it is...bits and pieces of our profile. This profile is what Jaylen's birth mother saw on February 20th. This profile is how Drew and I were originally matched. Jaylen's birth mother could see our support system, feel the love in our family, and saw our personalities in the pictures and words. She saw our likes and our dislikes and she related to them. She saw the importance of the Lord in our lives and she wanted that for Jaylen.
If you are going through the adoption process and would like some tips and tricks please feel free to reach out! There is NO reason to dredge through the adoption process alone. It's hard. Use your connections!