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Profiles: Presenting... YOU!


Guest WAITINGFORABABY

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Well, we completed our profile and mailed it in this week.  I really wish I'd had the chance to see the examples they provide at orientation!  Fortunately, I received my scrapbooking magazine the day I was getting started and I was inspired by the colorful but clean-cut photo on the cover.  I decided to "scraplift" the color scheme and use their example as my template!  Believe it or not, the colors were orange and blue - bold, but fun! 

We used our "dear birthparent" letter (although, we entitled it "To someone special considering adoption" because that's really true!) as our first page, and then four additional pages with alliterative titles (I was an English major, go figure!) tongue.gif

Here are our four sections, with a quote on each section (the last section will have a poem I wrote):

FAMILY - "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

-Desmond Tutu

FUN - "Love puts the fun in together, the sad in apart, and the joy in a heart."

-Author Unknown

FUTURE - "I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future."

-Author Unknown

FEELINGS - "Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own."

-Salvatore Quasimodo

It was fun to be creative for a change - hopefully, it turned out okay!

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Stephanie,

Those quotes are really wonderful. I bet your profile looks amazing.

Isn't "scraplifting" the best?!?!? Was that the new Creating Keepsakes? biggrin.gif

Take care, Veronica

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Stephanie,

Those quotes are really wonderful.  I bet your profile looks amazing.

Isn't "scraplifting" the best?!?!? Was that the new Creating Keepsakes? biggrin.gif

Take care,  Veronica

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Veronica - Yes, it was the latest issue of CK! That's so funny. biggrin.gif By the way, I found a place online which has quotes for just about anything under the sun, and that's where I found those. It's a great place for scrapbookers to go to for quotable inspiration! I will post the link:

The Quote Garden

Thank you for your kind words!

Stephanie

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Thanks for the link. I'm sure it will be very useful. My scrapbooking buddies will be so excited to have another resource!!!! wink.gif

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  • 1 month later...

Just in case you're coming to one of Abrazo's upcoming orientation weekends and want to get a headstart on getting your profile together before attending our session on how to do them, here's some advice to get you started:

HELPFUL REMINDERS:

Profiles which include "identifying" information (ie., last names, city and state) are generally more user-friendly than those that don't.

Go for bright, bold color schemes, strong themes, and letters that read like they were written to a personal friend-- not a stranger.

Abrazo uses only 4-6 page profiles; lengthier profiles are subject to mandatory editing and omissions at Abrazo's discretion.

Photos should show the prospective birthparent(s) who you are as a couple and what your lives "look" like (avoid excessive photos of relatives and/or children.) Include an inviting photo of your home (front, exterior) and perhaps one of the nursery.

Do not submit spiral-bound or laminated profiles; we will duplicate these regularly (at your expense, after the first ten copies you provide us have been sent out) and need your originals to fit on a color copier.

Ask friends and strangers to critique your profile. You'd be amazed what errors or omissions they might catch.

Have FUN with these! If you don't enjoy creating it, why would someone else enjoy reading it? wink.gif

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Ask friends and strangers to critique your profile. You'd be amazed what errors or omissions they might catch.

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We did this with all our analytical friends and family. You would not believe the little things they said, especially about pictures.

Who would of thought a BP might not select you because you have a pool or like water blink.gifblink.gif We took their advise, especially when she said not everyone is willing to be in the middle of an ocean with no life jacket in a canoe or you are playing around in the pool with the dogs floating on a surf board. huh!

They all have great advise, plus you get to learn what they think about the adoption process and see what kind of support you will get through the entire process.

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Great advice! Keith and I are going to have to have a weekend of picture taking with just the two of us. I've been looking through our pictures and all I seem to find are pictures of Briton!! Even if Keith and I are in a picture together, Briton is part of the mix and upstaging us both! We have our homework cut out for us tongue.gif .

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just wondering-- has anyone done their profile solely using the computer, and not using all of the scrapbooking stuff? I'm REALLY awful at anything craft-y, but one of my best childhood friends is a graphic artist, and she offered to help us put our profile together using some super-duper computer program. I've already written some of the text for the pages and sent her some pictures (we have to take more, but my husband absolutely HATES taking pictures).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

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Guest BeachMama

We're doing ours digitally! I AM crafty, but wanted to do the profile in a way that was seamlessly copied, so I decided that digital was the way to go. I'm using a special digital scrapbook program, which lets me add all the doodads I want, and I'm sure your friend will be able to make you something amazing! I have seen MANY digital profiles that look just wonderful - its a great way to do it!!

Just wondering-- has anyone done their profile solely using the computer, and not using all of the scrapbooking stuff? I'm REALLY awful at anything craft-y, but one of my best childhood friends is a graphic artist, and she offered to help us put our profile together using some super-duper computer program. I've already written some of the text for the pages and sent her some pictures (we have to take more, but my husband absolutely HATES taking pictures).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

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Just wondering-- has anyone done their profile solely using the computer, and not using all of the scrapbooking stuff? I'm REALLY awful at anything craft-y, but one of my best childhood friends is a graphic artist, and she offered to help us put our profile together using some super-duper computer program. I've already written some of the text for the pages and sent her some pictures (we have to take more, but my husband absolutely HATES taking pictures).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Oh well, Lauren. Tell hubby that taking pictures is a prerequisite to being a daddy! Just wait til your little one is home and you take multiple pictures daily because he/she is just so darn cute!

I don't see why a totally electronic profile would be a problem so long as it can be printed out and then copied so that the ladies can send them to prospective birthparents for browsing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's 4 - 6 pages, double-sided, total - so, if you want to have 4 pages of stuff in your profile, that means you'll have 2 pieces of paper with something on the front and back of each page or if you want 6 pages of stuff in your profile, you'll have 3 pages front and back (so, the most pieces of paper you will have is 3 pieces).

Hope that answers your question. If you would like to see an example, I have mine in PDF format (I think) and would be happy to email it to you - we did a 6 page profile. Just message me your email address and I'll send it to you.

Lisa

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Um, ours were single sided pages. But a total of 6 pages. I don't know what the ruling from on high is on this, but all the samples they ever gave us were six pages they had stapled together. Full-color fronts and completely blank backs.

Remember, the original will stay with Abrazo, so if you really want to keep it, make two. And then you'll provide Abrazo with 10 full-color, card-stock copies and they'll use your copies/mail/fax fee to make more (from the original) if necessary.

Perhaps a friendly staff member will give final word on the layout so you don't have to make any overseas calls to find out the little stuff. Save those for birthparent calls!!!

Good luck,

Christina

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I'm pretty sure Abrazo asks that they be double-sided now...at least that's what the paperwork says that I have, although - I think when I did our profile when we were adopting Kayleigh, it was single-sided so maybe that's a recent thing...

Lisa :)

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We did ours double sided also. The paper work said you can do that to save money on copies! I like the look of the doubled sided as well because then you can have a "full spread" between two pages if you need to, like a booklet! Have fun!!!!!!!

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Have fun working on those profiles; they are something to treasure later. it is weird how you work so hard on it and get it all perfect hoping to catch someones eye. Then after you match and bring baby home; it isn't complete because your new family member is not in there. When I see ours I am like WOW this was us before Cason. What was life like then????

:)

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Our profile pages are the first pages in Bailey's scrapbook. I mounted the 8 1/2 x 11 pages on 12 x 12 card stock and did some extra journaling on the margin. It turned out really nice and hope that it will be something special for Bailey in the future.

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I did that too. We also had our pictures from the weekend, and all the baby announcements on the forum from the people in our group. I have all the announcements around the group picture with the names of all the abrazo babies.

It was so exciting when I put that last post out there.

I hope Tyler will want to see it someday. You never know with boys, if he doesn't his wife will. :lol::lol: Look, I am marring him off already.

Edited by TeddyRae
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My profile is the first part of Nathan's life book. (I wanted him to know how much I longed for him.) It's followed by a page describing the call from Kelly about him. (He was a Blessing on the Ground) and then loads of pictures of entrustment. It's all part of his story-our story--our family history!

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What great ideas girls! I can't wait for me to actually TRY and do them! I have them all at least in one spot. That is good, right???

Teddyrae, I LOVE that pic of Tyler in your avatar!! What a handsome boy!! I thought you aleaady had him married off to Miss Luther??!!

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  • 5 months later...

Ok so, we got an email asking us to send our profile in ASAP. I was sorta looking forward to orientation to brainstorm on that one. I have found a little bit of info on the forum, but none that really put me at ease...any suggestions? Rich and I are going to work on it this weekend. Thanks :)

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Ok so, we got an email asking us to send our profile in ASAP. I was sorta looking forward to orientation to brainstorm on that one. I have found a little bit of info on the forum, but none that really put me at ease...any suggestions? Rich and I are going to work on it this weekend. Thanks :)

Have a theme through out your profile is one suggestion that I remembered from orientation. I will try to think of the others.

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Ok so, we got an email asking us to send our profile in ASAP. I was sorta looking forward to orientation to brainstorm on that one. I have found a little bit of info on the forum, but none that really put me at ease...any suggestions? Rich and I are going to work on it this weekend. Thanks :)

I used a 3 color theme: blue (Tim likes blue), bronze (looked good w/ the blue & pink), & pink (Shayla is such a girlie girl that it just fit her).

Stick w/ clear pictures especially one of the 2 of you on the front. I used a 5 x 7 there.

Next 3 pages where about Tim, myself & Shayla.

Then I talked about our families, house, religion.

Closed w/ a couple of pictures of Tim & I & our closing paragraph.

The very last picture was one of us 4 or so years ago (we look about the same) when we were at a New Year's Eve Party w/ streamers & a top hat on...we were laughing.

Took the profile to a copy place near us, no chain places in our neck of the woods :(, but they did the job well. Copies made were front & back.

We signed each of our 10 profiles that were sent in.

Hope that helps & how exciting!!!

Best advice just be yourselves...stick to colors that are you, don't sticker sneeze (that is cover your profile w/ a ton of stickers :lol:) & if you have questions about the content of your letter call/fax Abrazo for advice before you print. :D

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