[familyforever]

Has anyone done this? It seems to be the push right now. However, I feel uncomfortable going up to someone and handing them my profile. Also, if I were a birth mom I wouldn't want everyone telling me who would be the best to parent my child even if I had decided on adoption. What do you all think of this? Has anyone had a successful designated adoption?

[aspenhall]

Designated adoption can happen a number of ways. It can be someone who knows you are waiting, hearing of a pbmom who wants to place and putting the 2 of you in contact with each other. It can be that your profile is found online and then you both approach the CW. It simply means that the CW didn't present you to the bmom, you found each other another way. We put the sig line in all our emails that we were hoping to adopt with a link to our LDSFS online profile. Eventually the bmom was simply told of the website and she browsed on her own......she wasn't even LDS and she found us. THEN the CW got involved. Because of the age of the child, it ended up being a private placement thru an attorney. No one wants to "sell themselves" ME least of all. But I found there WERE ways to go about it that weren't so invasive as seeing a pg girl and asking if she was considering adoption. You can take your profile to the local maternity wards in hospitals and speak to the nurses there, you can take your profile to a pregnancy crisis center and leave it there as well. Mostly just tell everyone you know that you are hoping to adopt so that when they hear of a situation, they know to reccomend you. Some people wear a heart pin with the words ADOPTION on it and random stangers will ask them what it means and then they tell them they are waiting to adopt and some stranger may know of a situation. There are printable business-type cards to hand out to people as well. they have the weblink to your profile right on there. I gave everyone I know a small stack to keep in their just in case they came across anyone either. Someone I know was working and a pg girl came in frequently and eventually stated that she would be placing but didn't want to have to find aparents....my friend stated that they were considering adopting (didn't even have a homestudy yet) and the girl ended up placing with them. It can happen a million different ways if you make people aware of your situation.

It's more about getting exposure, than it is about closing the deal so to speak. if 100 people know you are waiting odds are better for you than if only 10 know.

[L Mac]

We were placed with our beautiful son last year and it was through a miracle of many people involved. My aunt happened to be talking to her friend from church and mentioned we were waiting to adopt. She told my aunt she knew a couple ladies that were debating if they would keep the baby. This lady put together a meeting and we met with our bmom. We met numerous times along with ldsfs counsler and it was an amazing experience.
We have friends waiting to adopt and we tell them to tell EVERYBODY!! I agree that the more people you tell the better chances you have. If we were quiet about our wanting to adopt my aunt wouldnt have known and we wouldnt have our son. Their are many couples waiting and it is our responsibilty to get the word out. You never know where your sweet little blessing will come from
Good Luck and much love!!

[Momof2princesses]

I am a BIG believer in "spreading the word". Both of our adoptions came about because someone told someone else about us. We are putting an even bigger effort in "marketing" ourselves for this third adoption. We have found that most people want to help they just need to know how. And speaking up helps educate others about adoption. It is so amazing the myths that are out there. It is good to see people gain a greater understanding of what adoption really is about.

Smiles,
Brenda