I recently completed our third adoption portfolio. I decided this would be a good time to provide a little advice on completing your own. Our agency is not high tech and therefore our portfolios are in hard copy format. I created the portfolio in PowerPoint then uploaded to FedEx Kinkos for printing. We have ours bound and printed in color. I have heard of others doing theirs in electronic format and I am unfortunately unfamiliar with creating one in that manner. Either way, you may be interested in our order of layout and contents to be included. I created a post in July of last year on creating your portfolio. I have updated the post with recent information. Here you go...
Your adoption agency will probably ask you to create a portfolio. The portfolio is used by the agency to introduce you to birth mothers. Your portfolio is basically a condensed scrapbook of your life. If possible, ask your agency to let you review portfolios of past adoptive parents so you can get ideas for content, design, etc. I am not a creative person, I needed to see what others had to done to get an idea of where to start.
We kept our portfolios fairly simple and took them to our local print shop to have them copied and bound. Your agency will tell you how many copies you will need. I always made an extra for our child's adoption keepsake box.
We created a new portfolio for all of our adoptions, of course the second and third portfolios had to include our sons. It was suggested by our agency to include our sons in the portfolio, but maybe not on the cover. At first we didn't know what to think about that suggestion. Our initial thought was they are the most important persons in our life. We want the birth mother to know their child will have older siblings, our boys had to be front and center.
After more thought and consideration, we decided the agency was probably correct and they absolutely should be included but in the sequence of events. If a birth mother saw a portfolio with children already the center of attention right on the front page, they may not think their child could fit into our family. If we took the time to introduce our sons and how they came into our lives, a birth mother would get a better impression of how their child would fit into our family.
Our portfolios started with a picture of Brian and I on the front. Use current photos. You want the person in the portfolio to be the person a birth mother meets, if you are chosen. Also keep it simple. Simple colors, not a lot of design or anything that could be distracting. Also, keep it short. You do not want the birth mother to grow tired of you before she even has a chance to meet you. Our portfolios were no more than 20 pages, some pages were just pictures with little decoration.
Inside, the portfolio was a chronological scrapbook of us. Brian and I met in grade school so the first page included a short narrative about how long we have known each other, when we started dating and when we got married. I included a photo of us together at our high school prom and then a wedding photo. I think by including both photos I was showing longevity in our relationship. The narrative was short and to the point, about a paragraph.
Next, were pictures of us participating in activities we enjoy together with a short narrative of what we like to do and why. Our dog had a page. We love dogs and she is a part of our family, so they were included. A grandparents page, with pictures of our parents and a short paragraph written by them and addressed to the birth mother. In our second and third portfolio, this is where our sons came in. We had a few pages with pictures of us with them as babies, pictures of us on vacation, all of us at the zoo, the aquarium, the park, etc.
Include photos of your home, this gives the birth mother an idea of where the child will grow up. I included photos from our neighborhood that showed what a great family oriented neighborhood we have with walking paths, fishing ponds, swimming pools and a playground. Include a photo of the decorated nursery. It gives the birth mother a visual for where their child will be cared for and sleep at night.
Brian and I each wrote a letter to the birth mother explaining our feelings and thoughts about each other, our children, our families, the adoption process and about her. We thanked her for taking the time to look at our portfolio and giving us her consideration.
Finally, I ended our portfolios with a page and photos of our family. Brian and I are only children so I included pictures of cousins, aunts and uncles, everyone we are close to. I wanted to show even though we are only children our children will be surrounded by loved ones.
You never know what a birth mother is going to pick out to latch onto in your portfolio. In our first adoption, it was the dogs. The birth mother loved dogs and wanted her child to grow up with a pet. Our second adoption, the birth mother liked the grandparents' letters. She liked all the family we had around us. She liked the longevity of relationships in our family. Our parents have been married for over 35 years and Brian and I have been together since we were teenagers. She liked the stability.
I think the social worker at our agency put it well when she told us, birth mothers will look at your portfolio and try to picture their lives turning out like yours. It puts a lot of pressure on your portfolio, but I think it is the most important task you will complete during the adoption process. You will not get to meet a birth mother unless she likes your portfolio. It is your resume and your first impression.
