[pndm96]

Has anyone created a birtmother letter in scrapbook form? I was thinking about doing that instead of the simple letter along with pictures. Is it best to create it in a way that describes the adoptive parents and not in a "baby" format? Also if you have any feedback from birthmothers that would be great.


Thanks

[ddhuab]

I think the birthmother letter is a separate thing from a scrapbook. Most of the agencies I have been checking out seem to require both. I think birthmom's read a letter, which usually includes a "resume" and pictures but is short. Then I think the pbirthmoms request "profiles" which seem to be scrapbook-type things. We are still in the "inquiry" process (and saving up money process), but I have gone ahead and purchased some scrapbook materials and I am planning on looking through photos and making new ones in the next two or three months, then putting a real "scrapbook" together in hardcopy as well as one online for a personal web-page.

I don't think it will be a waste of time, since it will probably help us out a lot to get the info in the format the agency/agencies need, and it will also be available for our website. I plan on doing some networking-type stuff in addition to signing with a very small (local) agency and (possibly) with a larger agency.

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of pictures of us, despite being together 11+ years ... we just never got a good camera and figured we would get one when I got pregnant - which never happened! Now I have a digital camera and a tripod and I am going to have our friends clicking away at us all the time!

Good luck with your scrapbook!

Later,
D.

[pndm96]

Let me re-phrase my 1st post just inacse it came across differently. I plan on creating the birthmother letter and pictures, but I was thinking about putting them into a simple scrapbook for birthmother to look at vs. the simple folder.

[Scarlet]

Our Agency does it both ways. They have you create a single page letter with a few pictures, which they give to each birth mother that meets your expectations. Then they also have us create Scrapbook type profile that they give to birth mothers that are looking for more details on you. lol It actually is seeming a little undaunting for me. First of all I am not really into the scrapbooking thing. Second how do I cut things down. lol I guess I will just pray to the Holy Spirit for inspiration.

[ddhuab]

LOL, Scarlett - I agree with the happy anxiety (I guess that is the right term?) about creating a scrapbook. I have some other big projects going on right now - (finishing up my MA thesis), so now we have put off calling the agency and starting the homestudy so I will have TIME to get this stuff together! I think there are free scrapbooking classes we can go to at crafts stores, but I think in the end we won't really be doing that craft kind of thing.

I think the bmoms will want lots of words from you and photos so that she feels she can know as much about the "real you" as possible. Of course, I am not a pbirthmom, so I am not sure what one would want, exactly, but I am planning on including pics of the house, the dog, us with our our friends and extended family, us doing the things we do for fun (mostly oudoor stuff or playing board games or cooking or just goofing around singing and dancing around the house, but who would really want pics of that?), pics of our church, and I am going to include a picture of the baby's future room, although I don't know if I will completely fix it up before a match - that might be too depressing in the Waiting time.

I also plan on discussing our ideas of open adoption and how we want to include her in the baby's life with picture, letters, and occasional visits if she is (hopefully) open to that kind of relationship. (I probably wouldn't include this in detail in the scrapbook, but I am planning on writing it down for myself and my husband so that we can really think this stuff through so we can talk about it if/when a pbmother actually wants to meet us).

I just want to give her an idea of what kind of life her birth-baby would have with us and the types of places he or she would be growing up in.

Good luck with your scrapbooking!

D.

[Hopefull]

I am just finishing up with my birthmother letter too. It is hard to try to convey to the bitrthmother who you are and what you are about on a flat piece of paper. Good Luck to you and wish me luck.