6 months

Well, he hit the 6 month mark being contracted out. It's been an interesting six months so far...

Our second round of profiles are done

Well, we finished the second round of profiles. So, they will be shipped to the facilitator tomorrow, to get there sometime in the new year. We really do like them, and sure hope they grab attention and make us get noticed.

We used bright colors, and set it up like a scrapbook. It's easy to read, and we tossed in some great pictures.

In honor

A year ago, we lost a very special person. Grandmommy passed away Dec 26, 2005. We miss her a lot. We are very sad that she never got to meet our children, she loved the little ones. She always wanted her great grand kids to have wooden high chairs, and that was what she always bought them. So, when we contracted out with our facilitator, we went and bought a wooden high chair in her honor. It wouldn't have been right as a gift from anyone else. We've been thinking a lot about her today, and how much we miss her, but know that she is with grandaddy now, and is smiling down on us.

Merry Christmas

Mike and I would like to take this time to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who are following along our journey.

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

catching up

Well, we've been MIA because we've been sick this week. Our little niece celebrated her first birthday by giving us a stomach virus ;) Both of us were still a little weak from being sick earlier this month, so it hit us bad. We are finally starting to feel better :)

We also finished our profile. We went to proof it today, and it should be ready for us on Tuesday. It looks good, and we are going to look for some ribbon for it tomorrow. We'll pick it up on Tuesday, assemble it, and hopefully get it mailed out.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption's Home for the Holidays show was on tonight. It was very good, and very inspiring.

Holidays

Well, we fully plan to be home for the holidays, but we are prepared to go if we need to. We typically spend Christmas Eve with Mike's family, then go home and spend the night at our house. Christmas morning is our time, a tradition we hope to continue where Santa gets to come to our house on Christmas morning. It's our family time. Then, Christmas Day we will spend with Elizabeth's family. We are looking forward to it.

Of course, everything could change, and we could be spending Christmas at a hotel room who knows where :)

You never know :)

Positive Adoption Language

This is taken from our Lifetime family notebook:

The way we talk- and the words we choose - say a lot about what we think and value. When we use positive adoption language, we say that adoption is a way to build a family just as birth is. Both are important, but one is not more important than the other. Choose the following postive language instead of negative language that perpetuates the myth that adoption is second best. By using positive adoption language, you'll reflect the true nature of adoption, free of innuendo.

Positive Language - Negative Language
Birthparent - Real Parent, Natural Parent
Biological parent - Natural Parent
Biological father - Begetter
Parent - Adoptive parent
Birthchild - Own child
My child -My adopted child, my own child
Child with special needs - Hard to place child, handicapped
Child from abroad - Foreign child
Was adopted - Is adopted
Make an adoption plan, choose adoption - Give up, give away, surrender, relinquish, place the child
Child entrusted to adoptive parents - Child placed for adoption, unwanted child
To parent - To keep
Born to unmarried parents - Illegitimate
Waiting child - Adoptable child, free child, available child
International adoption - Foreign adoption
Adoption triad - Adoption triangle
Permission to sign a release - Disclosure
Search,locate - Track down parents
Making contact with - Reunion
Terminate parental rights - Give up

profile revisions so far

Well, we sent in our profile revisions, and already got back a response. We'll have more of a response later, but it's a start.


Hi Elizabeth,

Thank you for submitting your profile changes. Please allow me a chance to compare them to your current version. I also wonder if you are interested in considering a new cover photo. Some families find that it can be helpful to try a new look when they haven’t seen the response they were hoping for on their first profile look. It’s a fine line because making revisions to your profile doesn’t mean that your first version was wrong, bad, or not working. In fact I’ve worked with several families who had good profiles and just wanted to try something new and to keep their profile updated. Many families feel that making updates and changes to their profile can help them feel proactive in their adoption plan.

I know you understand what an important tool your profile is; your profile is also one of the few things you can actually control with your adoption. When I look through our file with your original cover photos I notice a lot of similar photos and poses. It might be a great opportunity to take some new professional outdoor photos for your revision. I understand this time of year can be hectic but it is well worth the time to try something new.

One thing I recommend for your professional photo is wearing some color; the colors worn in your current cover photo are very similar to your skin tones and I want your faces come across as bright and warm as they really are in your photo. Also I recommend wearing fabrics that have a little more structure to them, such as a button up collared shirt for Mike and a blouse or shirt and jacket for you. You don’t have to look formal, just a little different than your everyday wear. Seeing the eyes of the adoptive couples is very important to birth mothers; wearing colors that show off your sparkling eyes can help. Consider darker colors in reds, blues, deep burgundy, or warm chocolate colors.

I look forward to working with you on any revisions to your profile. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

So, it sounds like we need to do some more cover photos.... and we look forward to seeing what other suggestions are given to us.

new profile

We worked really hard, delayed some other stuff, but finished the profile revisions today. They got sent in to the new profile coordinator, and hopefully she will be able to check them out and give us some feedback. If they work out well, we will hopefully be able to print them and have them sent in soon. We'd like to have them in by Christmas (if not earlier) if possible....

starting late for Christmas

We've both been sick with colds. First Mike had it, then Elizabeth. So much fun. So we are a bit delayed in getting our act together for Christmas. Good thing we have the extra week!

When Mike was sick, I put the lights outside. We are not hanging any from the house this year, but we did hang some from the two trees in our front yard. We also put up cute ones that stay on the ground- they are around our flower bed. I hung snowflake lights in the office window- they blink :)

Today, Mike put up the Christmas tree. I was test driving cookies for our cookie party this weekend. It's going to be a lot of fun, but I have a TON of cookies to bake. It's a lot of fun to have everyone come and decorate, and a lot of fun to see all the kids!

I need to get cracking on our Christmas cards too. And I plan on decorating the tree as I am making the cookies for the cookie party later this week. Lots going on! I love this time of year!

a holiday blurb

On the last conference call we were asked to write a little blurb about the holidays as well as another about just general family life.

This is what we sent in, a blurb from Mike about the holiday season:

One thing I love about Christmas season is our cookie decorating party. Elizabeth makes hundreds of sugar cookies, and we invite the neighbors, all our friends, and all the kids to come to our house and decorate them. It's lots of fun to visit with everyone, and we all look forward to it every year. We can't wait to have our children participate too.