The process has begun! Shortly after my conversation with T from CFS, we received a stack of paperwork in the mail. The first thing we had to send in was our permission for the release of our criminal records, including child and sexual abuse records. Along with that, we sent our marriage license, birth certificates, verification of income, payment agreement, autobiographies and directions to our home. Whew! That’s a lot of information, but that’s not even close to the end of it!
Currently we’re working on our financial statement (basically a copy of our budget), insurance information, medical reports on each of us, transracial/transcultural forms, adoptive parent profile, degree of openness, references, and our portfolio. We are also taking an online course on transracial adoption. I think now you can see why a home study takes two months or more to complete!
We are scheduled to have our first home visit from our social worker, H, on Tuesday. I am excited to meet her as we’ve had many pleasant conversations with her over the past couple of months. The home visit makes this all seem so much more real! Woo Hoo! It’s happening!
Boys, you can check out here. ☺ Girls, I have a question for all you scrapbookers out there. Our portfolio is basically a picture story of our lives. I am not into cutsie things like hearts. But, I do want to have some kind of consistency throughout the album to tie it together rather than having just a bunch of random pictures and stories. I know most of you don’t have experience with adoption portfolios, but I thought I’d put a call out for suggestions in case you have any. The agency workers will take a stack of portfolios of waiting families to the birthmother and she will look through them to decide who she wants to parent her child. So, ours needs to stand out in some way if possible.
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3 comments:
Michelle
Your portfolio must stand out and sell you as parents. What do you have to offer as parents? How do you express love? Why would i want you to parent my child? What do you have to offer that i don't? WHat does it mean to be parents for my child? Answer those questions and you have the answer of what to include in the portfolio. Who are the two of you? WHat are your dreams for this child? What do you have to offer this child - yourselves, your "community", your extended families, daily activies. vacation, your faith, etc. What are your dreams for the three of you as a family? This is a SELL job. Include pictures of the house, the bedroom that will be converted to the nursery, the big back yard, pictures of extended family, the grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, also include your nieces and nephews, maybe a picture of each of you doing things with them, your friends with their children, Pedro, your local school the child will attend, your favorite vaction spot, pictures of your church, and the nursery at the church. Show you have put alot of thought into parenthood and what it will mean to you. And then, put that into your portfolio. Good Luck, And Alot of prayers and love for you.
Hey!
If you are looking for a picture/symbol theme . . . you could use the Eternal symbol. I'm sure Byron could make you cut-outs or even stickers! That would definitely be different and you could tell what it means and why it is important to you! Best of luck. Let me know if I can help!
I can give you a bunch of "rachelstarlive.com" stickers and you can stick them all over it and give me free advertising-hahahahaha. :P
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