Hi again Jenn~
We considered international vs. domestic adoption for a couple of years, talking about the options and educating ourselves. Then almost 2 years ago, we decided for sure exactly what we wanted to do. We decided that we wanted to experience parenting a newborn at least once, so we picked domestic adoption. Next we realized we needed to come up with a clearer financial plan so we began working on that. Next, we started planning for our new home to be built on a lot that we owned. We knew that would take a great deal of time and energy so we tried not to 'put the cart before the horse'. Once we broke ground in early spring, we began our home study. We completed that in June and for the first three weeks or so in July, we worked on our scrapbook. I am a teacher and in the summer I work part time, so it gave me something fun to do in the afternoons, besides helping with the house. Because we knew we would need several copies of our booklet, I went digital. I learned how to use a cool program by Broaderbund called Creative Memories Scapbooker (or something similar). It was slow going at first, but it was a real labor of love! Have fun with yours, but walk away from it from time to time. I found that some pages came easier than others. It was helpful to have my DH do a bunch of the writing (he likes to write). Be sure to have several people look over it when ou are done. We missed a couple of errors that others picked up.
We just completed our own website, and it just went live Friday afternoon. I tried to make it look like my booklet. There are more pages in my booklet, but if you check out our website (love-to-adopt.com) you will get a feel for what ours is like. While I like the website, there is nothing to compare to holding the booklet. I'm glad I took all the time that I did to make it extra special. I didn't want it to be 'just good enough'. I wanted it to reflect our lives and our excitement to become parents. I'm sure yours will be beautiful! It will touch the heart of your possible bithmother and help you build a connection. Be sure to make a high quality color copy for you and your child down the road. It will be a keepsake to teasure.
Good luck and don't burn your dinner!
Nina
