It took several more weeks than we wanted, but my wife and I have completed our newly revised adoption profile and video. After reviewing what we created a year ago, we knew that we wanted to make some changes.
We have completely re-written our ‘Dear Birthmother’ letter, we’ve changed almost every picture and the layout design of the physical profile.
The back page is no longer blank but now includes a professional picture of us with the words “Made especially for you by Tim & Tisha. We’d love to talk to you soon!” and then it includes our contact information. This was appealing to us because a potential birthmother can pick it up and see a picture of us on the front or the back.
You never know when your picture will capture the attention of a birthmother – it happened that way on our first adoption!
The biggest revision we made was to our video. We love how it turned out! We spent several hours with our awesome videographer – Jason Nabb of Purelight Productions.
Our video begins with us talking directly into the camera, then quickly moves through pictures and video footage as we continue to talk about what our lives are like. It was important to show the special things about our family – to tell the story about our lives, and do it in just over three minutes.
Click here to go to Lifetime Adopion Center’s website and check out our online profile.
Check out my earlier posts about adoption profiles:
3 Ways to improve your domestic adoption profile
Both of these articles give points on what to include in your profile. I want to add 2 more things you should know about creating and revising your profile:
1. It is important to show what is unique and special about you.
It may be tempting to put together a profile based on what you think a birthmother wants to see and read – this is a big mistake. You really don’t know what a birthmother will love about you – so it makes sense to show who you really are.
Think about what makes you special – and it doesn’t have to be that you travel the world on vacation every year (unless that is really what you do). These “special” things about your life may be that you simply like to read, or that you love pets, or that you have some special holiday tradition.
Make sure you are telling potential birthmothers what is unique about you in your letter, in your pictures, and in your video. Which brings me to point #2…
2. Make a great adoption profile video.
This is something I think a lot of adoptive couples miss – and it is great way to reach out to prospective birthmoms.
First, there are a lot of people who don’t even make a profile video. This is a missed opportunity to connect with a expectant mother – to allow her to see you and learn about you before she gets your profile.
Second, I’ve seen a lot of domestic adoption videos that are really a photo slideshow put to music with some text sprinkled in over the photos. These are OK, but you can do better. You want to connect with a potential birthmother in the best possible way, right?
To do this you should put together a short video (anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes) that includes actual footage of something that you describe in your ‘dear birthmother’ letter. For example, if you talk about making Christmas cookies – take some video of that.
Rather than include text on the photos, you should write out what you want to say and record your voice to play during the video.
Even better, you can shoot some footage of you talking into the camera – which is like speaking directly to a potential birthmother.
I’ll give you my own example. CLICK HERE to check out the profile video my wife and I made.
I hope that you can see our sincerity and desire to adopt. I’ve shared this to inspire you to create your own video with your unique style.
There are not a lot of sites that help you put together an adoption video – so I decided to make one: www.AdoptionProfileVideo.com.
Tell your story
Every one of us has a story to tell.
Your profile is your chance to let God use your story to find the expectant mother that He has chosen for you. Go make the best profile (and video) you can – or if you haven’t revised your profile in several months, consider making some changes so you can tell your story even better.
What do you think?
What adoption profile tips do you have?
What do you need to revise in your profile?
Do you think adoption profile videos can grab the attention of potential birthmothers?
Click here to enter your comment below – or email me. I’d love to hear from you!
