New Profile Book!!!

I've learned a few things since creating our first adoption profile book last October (2013). Before I made our first book, I had looked at a lot of other people's books and had some great ideas.  I spent hours and hours on the first book, redoing pages, changing pictures and rewriting pretty much everything.  I actually really like to final product!

However, since I made the book, a year has now gone by.  I have been inspired by many other profile books, and have read more about what should be included.  Our family has changed a lot in that time as well.  Our Logan is no longer a baby or even a toddler, so pictures of him in those much earlier stages are a little confusing.

After viewing a profile book at the spring training seminar and noticing that they had included the baby's nursery, I wanted badly to work on our nursery and include it in our next book.  I thought that for birth families it would be neat to be able to picture the room that their child would sleep in and play in.

I think this book is more modern than the first one, and has many more current pictures. I focused on replacing the pictures that were dark or a little grainy, and made sure that the book represents our family as it is now.  It is important that when you meet a birth parent, you look pretty much how you do in your album.  I also rewrote most of the written aspects of the book.  Since spending the last year reading about adoption and receiving some training, our views on adoption have evolved and I wanted our profile to accurately express how we see open adoption.  

So, here is the updated album (about 2/3 of it anyways)! 

Spring Training Seminar

Back in April we were able to take part in session one of two required adoption training seminars led by CAS.  I had no idea just how valuable this training would be and we are glad that CAS offers this kind of training prior to making a placement.  While we have been reading up on adoption and what to expect, the more we get into the process, the more we realize we don't know!  

Both the spring and fall training seminars must be completed before our profile book will be shown to expectant mothers. 

The full day spring session covered topics like living with infertility, and open adoption relationships.This seminar was also a fantastic opportunity for us to meet 11 other couples that are currently waiting to adopt in Alberta (though a few were just in the checking-it-out stage) through CAS.  We sat at tables with other couples and shared our stories and hopes!  Being in a room with so many other infertile couples, all of whom have felt the pain of that loss, was really encouraging for us.  We were able to discuss how it is to live with so many fertile couples around us who either have children or are expecting.  The pain in the room was palpable.  Some couples had suffered miscarriages, others IVF failures, and others had been waiting many years and not been chosen.  Others had gone through failed adoption through foster care situations or had babies revoked before the adoption completion date. Ben and I couldn't help but feel a little extra thankful for our son.

We were able to look through some of the older profile books that families had with the agency.  This gave me a lot of ideas on how I can update our book latter this fall.  There was also a table of adoption related books and other resources that we could look through.

Later in the seminar we got to meet with an adoptive mom, dad, and their three year old son.  The little boy's birth dad and birth grandparents also came.  They shared a little bit of their story, and then let us ask them any questions we wanted to ask!   This was an awesome opportunity to see first hand how an open adoption relationship could potentially function.  I kept looking to see how the little boy interacted with his dad and with his birth dad.  I would say that his interactions with his birth dad were about equivalent to how you might expect an uncle and nephew to interact.  He was bringing his birth dad carrots from the food table, and talking with him a little bit.  With his dad, however, he was very close.  He was sitting on the floor near his feet and playing with toys, coming up onto his lap and cuddling, then going down to play again.  The physical and emotion bond appeared very strong!  

We concluded the afternoon by listening to and interviewing a birth mother who had placed her daughter roughly a year before.  That was a very eye opening experience!  There was not a dry eye in the room as she described what she all went through and how she made her decision to place.  She shared a lot about the ups and downs of her open relationship with the adoptive family.  Overall, I think we learned most about the things that we can do to make this better for the birth mom. Through communication and consistency, whether it be in regards to visitation or sending photos, we will need to be very clear about what her expectations are, and what our expectations are.  She really needed to feel like the lines of communication were open and dependable in order to feel at all comfortable as the months went on after the placement.  She had both Ben and I, and many others, in tears several times as she spoke about her emotional roller coaster after the placement.  Though I thought I had empathy for birth mothers before, I now have seen firsthand just how painful this process is for them and I know that I will have a lot of love and understanding for our birth mother.  Honestly, the thought of the sadness for her overwhelms me even as I write this.  

We are very excited to be attending the fall training seminar this October!  Here is the flyer:

CHRISTIAN  ADOPTION  SERVICES

AUTUMN ADOPTION WORKSHOP

Surviving the Real World of Open Adoption

 The “Nuts and Bolts” Session

You have been matched with a birthmother and have made it through that nerve-wracking first meeting. You receive the call that your birthmother has gone into labour.  What now? At this session we will walk you through the hospital process and the 10 days after the Consent is signed.  We will run through possible open adoption scenarios and we will discuss topics such as: “Will I feel like the child’s mother when the birth mother is visiting?”, “Am I the “real” mother/father?”, and “How legal is an open adoption?”  

Hear from a birthmother and from a family who have adopted through us.

Bring your own questions.

This is one part of a two-part required course for all of our domestic couples. 

If you’ve been waiting on the list a while, feel free to come again; this would be a great refresher!!

Call to register; there is no charge to couples already in our parent bank.  The cost is $250 if you are not yet on the waiting list and will be applied to your fees should you proceed to the parent bank. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. 

Phone Sandy at 403 256-3224 or toll free at 1 877 256-3224.

Sounds like it is going to be a great seminar!  Updates to follow :)

                                                                                  

Our 'Dear Expectant Parent' letter

One of the things that needed to be written is our 'dear expectant parent' letter.  This is a letter that gets included with our profile book, and is read by birthmothers when they are trying to chose a family.  Some of these things are written in our profile book as well.  

This was a tough letter to write, knowing that it may only get read if someone has already connected with our pictures, or that it might get scanned over quickly along with several other letters.  I wanted it to be clear and easy to read... a quick snapshot of us and how we view adoption. 

I may revise it as time goes on and as I think more and more about what I would want to say to a birth mother and what I would want her (and her partner/family) to know about us.  We are also attending an adoption training seminar in October, and I bet I will revise it tonnes after that too!  It is a bit of a work in progress.

I included our letter here:

"Welcome!

We are Ben and Ali, and we thank you so much for taking the time to look at our profile to learn more about us.  We are grateful that you have chosen to consider adoption and commend you for your courage and strength to choose life for your child.  We share in your desire to make the best decision for you and for your child.  We pray that God will give you the strength and peace you need on the road ahead of you.                

                                             

Please me us introduce ourselves.  Ben and I grew up in northern BC.  We met in 1999 and married in 2003.  While we dated, I completed my elementary teaching degree and Ben completed his power engineering.  We knew from the start that I was medically unable to carry a baby and that we would need to be patient and trust God's plan for our family to unfold.  It has been quite a journey through infertility and longing to have a family, but the Lord has been faithful and we are so blessed.  He gave us many years together as a couple to build our marriage and help us grow into the people we are now.

  

  We have one son named Logan, born in 2010, who was carried for us by a friend as a surrogate mother. This was such an incredible gift to us!  We are not pursuing having any other children this way and are excited to expand our family through adoption!  We are a happy and loving family with strong family values and a foundation in God's word.  We can offer your child all the love and nurturing of a dedicated and established family.  We have completed our home study and are approved to adopt in Alberta.

As a family we love to bike ride, camp, go to parks, eat ice cream, go boating, go fishing, attend Bible study, go to Church on Sundays, go skating, play ice hockey, go swimming, read books, play lego, have BBQs, and travel!  We have brought Logan to swimming lessons, gymnastics for toddlers, library programs, preschool, and skating lessons.  While we do keep busy, I am a stay at home mom, so we have lots of down time together at home as well.  

We feel so blessed to be able to pursue adoption as a means of creating our family.  We know that this is a call from God and we are willing and ready and very excited to bring another child into our family.  If we have the honour of parenting your child we promise to provide a loving and secure home where God is the centre of all we do.

We have every intention of keeping in contact with our adopted child's birth family if they choose, and if it is a safe situation for everyone involved.  We would like our adopted child to know who his/her birth relatives are and that they have so many people who love them and care about them.  We want them to know their story...of how they were loved very much before they came to live with us and the hard decisions that were made by their birth parents in order for them to become part of our family.  We would like to make a workable plan with our child's birth family for things such as photos, emails, phone calls, and visits (depending on circumstances).  We believe open adoption is a healthy option for both baby and birth parents, to help in the healing process.

Humbled by the weight of your decision, we hope that we can help you fulfil your desire to find a loving family for your child.  If you feel our family is the right one for your child, we would be honoured to welcome your child into our home.  We are excited and ready to begin this journey with you.  May you find strength and peace through this time in your life, and may God bless you for the amazing courage you have!  

-Ben and Ali "