How to Create an Amazing Adoption Profile Book

1. Letter to Expectant Mom/Parents

Include a short letter at the beginning of your book to introduce yourselves. 

I suggest you begin with a simple “Hello,” because sometimes the expectant mom and dad will be  at the book.

In this section, we briefly described ourselves and our reason for choosing adoption. 

I did not want this to be long, because we planned to write specific individual letters to expectant parents when possible.

2. Bullet Lists

Include a short list about anything you like to do. You could center this in a page and include pictures of you in action around the list.

We made this section more about our hobbies and what we do for fun, and talked about our jobs on another page.

Remember, many expectant moms have multiple books to look through, so stay away from long paragraphs when possible.

3. Favorite Things

Add a list of your favorite things. My husband and I both chose random topics and included our favorites for each category.

We included this on our About Me page, along with a short paragraph about where we are from, our jobs, and family.

You can include fun and random facts here to show off who you are as an individual. These little touches will help you connect to the right expectant parents.

4. Family Traditions

We included two pages about different traditions we have in our family. For each one, we had a few pictures and a couple sentences explaining what we do.

Our family values tradition, so we wanted to include examples of special things we do. Sharing traditions can also help you connect with someone viewing your book.

Be descriptive, but keep it concise. Use at least 16 or 18 point font to so the text is easy to read.

5. Posed and Candid Pictures

As I started to work on our book, I collected a ton of pictures. I asked my mom, sister, and everyone I could think of to send me pictures of our family.

I tried as many ‘natural’ pictures as possible to show off our personalities and hobbies.

You might have to pose for some ‘candid’ pictures.

Because I wanted to included specific things about us, we had to stage some of our pictures. 

For example, my husband and I always stay in and play board games on New Year’s Eve. Since it’s only us two, we have zero pictures from NYE. So we decided to stage a picture of us playing board games. 

Think about the fun things you and your family do together and include those in your book, even if you have to recreate moments.

6. Pet Photos

If you have pets, of course you want to include them in your book. They are family too.

A friend of ours suggested to include pictures of our dogs looking as friendly as possible. So I made sure to show them with other people and kids. 

I included some pictures of only our dogs too, but wanted to others to see their loving personalities. Even if you write about how sweet your pets are, it’s best to show it through a picture.

7. Involve Everyone

This was my favorite page of our book. Our families have always been supportive and involved, so we wanted to include them in the creation of our book.

We asked our friends and family to include a small note to our future son/daughter in the book.

It could be about anything, but many of them wrote about what they looked forward to doing with them. We loved including our family in the process.

This also showed how much love we had to share as an entire family.

Suggestion: Throughout your book, refer to the baby as “your child” or “your baby.” This accurately refers to the baby at this time and keeps your book respectful.

8. Keep It Simple

After you finish your book, review it to ensure everything makes sense and is easy to read.

Some of the example books my agency provided us were so long and wordy, I didn’t even bother reading them.

Most people skim when reading longer texts, so try to use phrases, captions, and bullet points throughout your book.

Also, go through and check and check and check the spelling and grammar. It’s so easy to overlook something simple, especially when you have spent hours on your book. 

As you finish up your book, don’t over think everything. If you want to include a picture/paragraph/story, then do it. 

The right match is out there for you, so most importantly, create your book in a way to best show off your family.

**Requesting a PDF of your book from Mixbook**

Mixbook will send you a PDF of your profile book after you have made your purchase (at the time we made ours in August 2018, they were still doing this).

After complete your purchase, start a chat with customer service and ask for a PDF of your book. They will tell you they don’t offer this service, but then tell them you need it for your adoption profile.

When I told them it was for adoption, they happily processed my request and e-mailed me a PDF.

If you’re like me and want a checklist including everything here and more, you can download one from my resource library. Complete the form below for access.

If you have any questions or would like suggestions when making your book, I would love to help.

Shoot me an email at hello@littlebeautifulmess.blog and we can connect.