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My understanding is having no chil at all. Are you planning to attend July orietation? We are, hope to see you there.

Michelle

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We were hoping to attend, but we have a 10 year old. I guess we will have to wait for the September one!

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Are you planning to attend July orietation? We are, hope to see you there.

Michelle

16305[/snapback]

Just wanted to touch base with you. Jason and I are planning on attending the July orientation. Look forward to meeting you there.

Have you started this whole profile process? I have tried to gather some pictures up but haven't gotten farther than that. I read about all those who have already gone to orientation and I begin to feel behind. I am creatively challenged so my Mom is going to help me. She is great at stuff like scrapbooking and it is a great project for us to work on together, but we need to be in the same country to work on this. Are we supose to come to orientation with the profile prepared to some degree?

We are in the process of a move from Germany to New Mexico so I am feeling stressed and unorganized anyway. I have this fear we will need something (paperwork) and it will be in our shipment somewhere over the ocean when we need it! I am trying to think of everything possible to bring with us. Did I mention I am stressed? blink.gifohmy.gifhuh.gif

Where are you guys from? cool.gif

Kristen tongue.gif

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[Have you started this whole profile process? I have tried to gather some pictures up but haven't gotten farther than that. I read about all those who have already gone to orientation and I begin to feel behind. I am creatively challenged so my Mom is going to help me. She is great at stuff like scrapbooking and it is a great project for us to work on together, but we need to be in the same country to work on this. Are we supose to come to orientation with the profile prepared to some degree?]

HI!

As one of the couples who just returned from the May orientation, known as the PeaBiscuits, this is what we did for the profile.

We took our letter & had selected pictures to take w/ us. We wanted some approval from the Abrazo chicks prior to actually doing our profile. Others arrived w/ a profile already put together. Don't let the process overwhelm you...find some style that is YOU! When the time comes for the profile talk Abrazo has lots of examples to look at & get a better ideas. We know have a better idea of how Abrazo likes their profiles put together & right after we do our after orientation paper work, the profiles will get done.

Hope that helps & July is right around the corner!

Safe travels to you.

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We were hoping to attend, but we have a 10 year old.  I guess we will have to wait for the September one!

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Go ahead and send in all your application paperwork anyway, and get started on scheduling your physical exams, contacting a social worker for the home study, etc. You will be that much farther along when you do attend orientation.

Good luck!

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I just wanted to echo Martha - go ahead and send things in....you never know. There's a possibility that if there's space available, they may accept an "againer" into the July Orientation.

It could never hurt.

We were childless when we attended Orientation but I didn't send my stuff in until July, thinking there was no way we'd be able to attend the one they were having in August (it was after all less than a month away, this was in '02) and I got a call giving us the go-ahead to attend the August one - I had thought we wouldn't be able to go until the one they were having in December. Well, we went and I got the call about our daughter during that December Orientation weekend because everyone at the Orientation got on Elizabeth's cell phone and shouted "Congratulations Lisa! You're a Mom!!!".

-Lisa smile.gif

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For us doing the profile was the most challenging because it was what the birthfamily looked at!! talk about pressure. I always referred to the profile as our "marketing brochure"!!! You really want to be very relaxed and in a good frame of mind when you work on the profile. We left the profile to do as our very last requirement so we could ponder and reflect and play with it a bit. We did not take a copy of a profile to either orientation so don't worry about having to have it done. Take some pictures with you and maybe some thoughts on paper. Don't stress about it. At orientation spend your time reviewing all the samples Abrazo provides and take some notes.

We did two completely different profiles and we are the proud parents of two beautiful children so we did something right. Our second birthmom said to us, after she reviewed our profile, "you sure look like you have a lot of fun". Make sure your profile represents you even if it is not the "ideal, perfect couple/family". Who cares about being perfect......just be yourselves and trust that there is a birthfamily looking out for someone just like you. biggrin.gif

pkk

Edited by mummyx2
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Kristen,

Hey there, we are from North Carolina. I have started on my profile but not sure if its "the one". I plan on taking what I have done and see what our ideas I can come up with after seeing the examples. I agree the profile are stressful and I am not to creative but I have had a little help. Actually someone I met on the forum sent me hers so I could get an idea on what they look like. Have you got your confirmation letter about July? I am excited yet so nervous about the process.

When are you guys moving back to the states? Is your hubbie military? My husband is in the army and actually deployed till around June 25th. I can't wait till he returns.

One tip someone told me about the profiles was that action pictures are good. Hope that helps.

Michelle smile.gif

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I did a prelim profile and took it with us to the ORientation - I found that to be very, very helpful. I got great and useful feedback from the Abrazo chicks and pretty much completely re-did it (the wording was pretty much the same (although I worked on making it briefer (is that a word?) and I made the pages much simpler (I was using this busy paper and they suggested I use a solid color cardstock and use various decorations or stickers (I'm sooo not crafty so I'm sure I'm not using the right words if there are any scrapbookers on here) on it.

Anyway, just remember that probably one of the biggest reliefs you'll have is when you get that final profile done and mailed in with the copies to Abrazo (along with that stack of paperwork they give you to do after the Orientation) and from there, the ball really gets rolling!!!!!

-Lisa

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Michelle,

I am so excited to meet up with you on the forum. The Abrazo Chicks mentioned there was another military family coming to the July orientation, I am so glad we got in touch. I was going to wait a while longer and then post a message asking if the other military couple was out there so we could chat about military stuff.

We do not have our confirmation letter for the July orientation. Actually I still have our formal inquiry but plan to mail it tomorrow. It is ready but I am such a worrier, I keep reading over it and making sure the answers reflect what we are feeling and trying to convey, I feel like it is a thesis or something. I am letting go of it today, putting it in the envelope and sealing it shut!!!! So we aren't offical.

Jason is Air Force and he is currently home, and hopefully will be until we PSC in July. You are in my prayers, deployments are so difficult. I hope you have a good support group there to help you through it. June is just around the corner! Do you have a big reunion planned?

Again, I am so glad to have met up with you. The military seems to have some unique aspects in terms of adoption so I am thrilled to have someone to share with.

Kristen smile.gif

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Kristen,

I glad to meet you too. I was hoping to find another military couple to chat with. I mailed our formal app off about 3 weeks ago but still don't have the confirmation letter. I am anxiously awaiting. It took me about 2 weeks to get the formal filled out because like you I want to make sure it reflected our feelings. It is really hard to go that on paper.

If you want I can email you a couple of my profile pages you you can see them. S&L who are also military and have adopted twice with Abrazo is who helped me out. She has been a wonderful help.

That is a huge move, Germany to NM. How long have yaou guys been in Germany? I know we will never make it overseas with what Mike does. We did recently find out that they might move us to Florida and I am super happy about that. We have been here for almost 4 years. I got to talk to Mike last night. I think him calling as much as he does is what got me thru this. THis is the longest we have been away from each other, he left Nov 19th.

Email me anytime, I can give you my personal email if you would like. Take care.

Michelle

Edited by michelle&mike
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I have not even started on the profile! I am trying to get all of our forms filled out....there seems to be so much of it! I would lilke to be done with that before heading on to something else.

I am guessing that we wont be able to attend the July orientation since we already have one child ( she is 10 and we have been unable to have anymore since). I guess we will look towards the September one! Anyone out there heading to that one?

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MLW,

You should really go ahead and send your stuff in you never know they may allow you to go ahead and attend July. Call and ask, they are really helpful.

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Michelle,

I am sorry I have not responded sooner. Traveling, Moving and a problem with my user name and password are my excuses, "the dog ate my homework"!

I appreciate your offer to share profile info and I want to see them but I am up to my ears in moving and PSC paperwork as well as our house being a disaster in preparation of the big move! Forum readers are likely to hear much whining coming from Germany as I hate moving! Odd I am a military spouse huh? I am excited to see your profile at orientation. Did you do several pages? I read one time and a person said they did one page of them together and then a page on each individually.

I have to run to a meeting. I will write more later and again thank you so much for offering to share information, any other time I would certainly take you up on it. I just don't see any way I will get to work on it before orientation. Thinking now even if I did I have no idea how I would carry it without messing it up.

Have you heard from your hubby? How are you doing? Getting excited!!!!

Love, Kristen

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Kristen,

Excited is an understatement, 26 days left but whose counting!!! I understand the moving, luckily we have only relocated 1 time since we have been married. Thank God cause like you it makes me crazy.

I did 5 pages for the profile but I am not sure how many thet like. I am actually going to send it to them to get there feed back so I can change what needs to done now.

When will you be back in the states? We did find out that between 2008-2009 they move our entire group to Florida but I definitley won't complain about that. I am ready for a change of scenerie, we have been here 4 years in Sept. Anyway take care and good luck with the move.

Michelle

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  • 2 months later...

Hey Celeste,

It's looks like you are posting and not just lurking out there. I enjoyed speaking with you a couple of weeks ago. Good luck on starting your journey!

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Here's a question for the been-there, done-that crowd.

As you know, parents-to-be who attend Abrazo's orientation weekends have ten (10) days afterwards to decide whether the agency is right for them and whether they're ready to begin the process of adopting, officially.

What, if anything, do you wish you had done or explored or researched or learned or finished before coming to orientation, to better prepare you for the decision to be made or the process to be undertaken just ten days afterwards?

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We hadn't spent much time really nailing down how to finance the adoption so I wished we had spent more time thinking about that before orientation.

I also think having some example profiles before orientation so that we would have known more about what to expect in regards to starting to prepare our own. Getting started on the profile before orientation would have cut down on our stress level the week after.

Laurie

Summer Strollers

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We had already decided about the multiple ways we were planning to use for financing our adoption, but that would definitely be a big one for those who haven't! blink.gif We would have loved to have had our homestudy and physicals completed ahead of time...it would've dropped our stress levels in the month that followed; however, we knew our birthmom was due within the month so our biggest fear was that our daughter would arrive and we wouldn't be "officially" prepared for her on paper. As luck would have it, we ended up having plenty of time to spare though. We had received a handful of sample profiles prior to orientation I believe, so I hadn't even started ours but I wasn't stressed by the thought and for me it was a fun and creative outlet that first week home. Let's see, I can't think of anything else big...we had already started our nursery...I think we had the crib, carseat, and stroller along with a couple outfits already bought but upon return we had fun doing lots of mini shopping trips. SO, my biggest advice would be to get those finances in line and get going on your homestudies (make sure you have Abrazo's info in regards to Texas state law if you live out of state though smile.gif )

Good luck to everyone on their journeys...it's gonna be amazing for each of you!

Cath

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We had already thought about the financing, so we had that as much under control (ha!) as you can when you really have no idea how much it's going to cost in the end. At least we had a plan, though!! We had the benefit of knowing several couples who had been through this process, so we had started our home study and were almost finished when we went through orientation. We did not have a clue about our profile, however. We took photos and ideas with us, but in the end, we completely changed everything we thought we would do!

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  • 1 month later...

I am new to Abrazo and have recently sent in my pre-app. In fact we sent it on Tuesday. OK so what types of info do I need in my profile? We've already begun thinking about financing, but we have not started a formal home study process yet. How much about financing do I have to think about? I mean, do I need to have monies secured before attending? Maybe I'm not looking in the right places on the web site or do I need to make contact with Abrazo by phone or wait on the pre-app to go through?

OK-- so maybe I just need to calm down and not worry so much!!

Thanks for helping out a hopeful mom.

Suzy

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Suzy,

Welcome aboard! There are a couple of forum topics that might be helpful to you under "newbie central":

Financing an Adoption

Resumes & Profiles

You might want to check those out and see if they give you any good input.

Also, worry is allowed....some. But we try to turn it into excitment rather than worry.

Have a good day. smile.gif

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