[PHaley]

Hello everyone, I have been on adoptionforums.com for some months now and this is the first time for me to find this site. It is quite exciting seeing as I am a young single baptist woman looking to adopt.

Could we please do a roll call or something?

How have we each been touched by adoption? What stage of the journey are you at? And why only to threads? I'm sure we have questions, stories and supportive replies. Lets try to make the best of this and really get this site going like some of the others

My major question right now is how to make DBML unique and what are the rules of thumb for length and pictures? I would love for everyone to respond.

Hope to hear from you all soon

Good luck in your adoption journeys.

[SMUpony]

I think this is new. At least it is new to me. I am an adoptee searching for my birthfamily (in Texas). I had wonderful adoptive parents and am mainly searching for medical reasons (my son was born with a rare disorder).

[PHaley]

Well I'm glad to see a response thank you.

I will be praying for you, your son and family. Can only family help or is there another route for treatment?

Good luck in your search. And if you dont mind me asking, What made your afam so special? How did they support your feelings as an adoptee?

Does your screen name relate to Southern? I was born in TX but now I'm in VA. I've had some cousins and friends to attend Southern though (I'm a Hamptonian!

I hope to hear more...

[SMUpony]

Thank you and God bless you. Jonathan (my son) is no longer in need of prayer, as Jesus has taken him home to Heaven. My concern now is my daughter who is afraid to get married and have children (in case they might inherit Osteogenesis Imperfecta). If I can find my birthparents maybe I can find out if this runs in the family.

My aparents told me I was adopted even before I could understand. They explained that I was the most wanted child on the planet. (They used to say, “We chose you; bparents are “stuck” with what they get” LOL) They adored my kids, too. I don’t have room here to elaborate. If you want to email me, I’m at smu53@hotmail.com

I am from Texas and I attended Southern Methodist University (SMU). We were the Mustangs aka Ponies.

[Carolina Mommy]

to PHaey

Hi,

I'm pretty new to this forum, but am learning alot and and am enjoying the chatter.

In response to your questions about the DBML and to the portfolio I would give this advice:

Do write a letter that gives birthmom credit for an awesome decision to give her child life. Also, give some insight as to how open you are to contact. Just to open and honest to why you are adopting as a single person and to your reasons for adoptin in general. Tell of your relationship with your family, friends, church, etc. Give her mental pictures of how loved this child would be in your care and your families union. Tell her about tour interests and what you would be able to expose the child to; ex: museums, parks, zoo's, schools.

Your portfolio will be the hardest most fun thing you'll ever do. Be creative in presentation. We were told in a seminar to not leave anyone out of your portfolio, to include pictures of all family memebers, yourself on vacations, with your pets, other children(nieces/nephews), holidays, special times. Use as many captions as you can so she knows who she is looking at. Here's the tricky part. Keep it between 12-15 pages. We went a little overboard and ours was 37 pages long. This I can only imagine would get boring and maybe even turn a birthmom off. We are in the process of refining our portfolio. It also gets pretty expensive to print and package the portfolio after a while.

We are waiting for our second adoption. We adopted a beautiful little baby boy in April of 1999. He will be four in April and really wants to be a Big Brother and we are anxious to love and nuture another child too.

Goo Luck to you on your special journey!

Kim


And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

[PHaley]

I've just finished my DBML the letter part. With the way I want to present it the written w/o pictures is already 14!!! I am trying to put as much information as possible but now as I prepare to add photos I am looking at 28 to 30 pages (for every written page a page of pictures)!!! Is this too much?

As I stated before I am a single woman and therefore it would be all about me. I read once somewhere that for the birthmom that chooses you to raise her child that this may be the only link she has to the life her child will lead and even though I hope for the sake of the child, to have an open adoption...understandably this could be all the birthmom gets or wants. Plus even if we have an open adoption, this would still I would thing be a major important piece for her to keep.

I dont know this is still all a little overwelming. My other question today is: I'm looking at agencies...I'm in VA and though there are alot of agencies here...I'm also single and 19 and many of them will not work with me. Does anyone know of a good lawyer? social worker? in the hampton roads tidewater area? I am thinking about working with adoptlink (www.adoptlink.com) has anyone heard of them with regards to reputation?

I know i seem to go missing and come back and just ramble on and on, SORRY. If you can help please do.

I hope everyone is having good luck in their journeys.
and a productive lent.

*CarolinaMommy--thanks for the insight it helped as i went to choose and organize my letter. You are in my prayers.
*SMUpony--your family and situation are in my prayers. may your daughter remain firm in her faith and know that he is a wonderful GOD.

Everybody have a smiley day!

[Carolina Mommy]

Hi again,

I do have some information for you regarding Adoptlink if you would like to email me personally.

By the way, we just finished updating and downsizing our portfolio and it ended up being 19 pages including the birthmom letter. Our birthmom letter is 3 1/2 pages with about 5 pictures inluded and the rest are full pages with heading and pictures. I had bought some new software called Scrapbook Delux thinking that it would be just the thing to use if we were to be contacted by anyone needing an on the spot page or two. Well, that very thing happened and the facilitaor couldn't even open the email. Seems that this software company insists that both parties own the package in order for email to work. So, I'm not sure if the birthmother will appreciate what we ending up sending on short notice, but it did put a fire under me to go ahead and finish in hard copy.

Email me if you want info for adoptlink.

Kim

[CCRAIN]

My husband and I are active Baptist church members. We are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Taiwan. I would love to be a part of your conversations and learning experience.
CAROL