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Adoption
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Intro and a profile question
Hi, ladies! I've been a super long-time lurker on this board, and I'm ready to take the plunge. Here's a short version of our story:
DH and I found out we were infertile last summer and immediately decided we wanted to adopt. We have talked about it for years, since we knew that we might not be able to have biological children. We were ready to dive into the adoption process, but DH had to take a little trip for Afghanistan for 8 months. We did everything we could on our homestudy with him gone, and spent the last 8 months researching our options.
We were pretty set on doing a private, independent adoption and networking for a birthmother on our own. We thought that it would be a good way to keep the costs down and stay out of the "business" of adoption (DH thinks it's like paying for a baby). Now that our homestudy is almost approved and we're ready to get started, we're seriously considering going with a local agency. I'm ready to just do it already, and the networking seems a little daunting. We visited with the agency today and decided that we'll start working with them and keep networking on our own. Whichever way brings us our baby first is what we'll do.
So onto my question about the profile. At the agency today, they showed us some sample profiles, and I'm ready to get started making ours. The book has to be 8.5"x11", and they suggested 8-20 pages and spiral binding. Can anyone recommend a company where I can design and print the books? I usually use Shutterfly for photo books, but they don't have a spiral-bound option in 8.5"x11". I was hoping maybe some of you who have done this already have some ideas.
Sorry for such a long intro! I feel like I know you all already, and I'm so excited to join the board.
PS - I was a long-time nestie, but I got a new screen name now that I'm ready to move over here.
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This discussion has been closed.
Re: Intro and a profile question
costco online has a spiral book you can make! It is nice and a great price!
www.costco.com
Photo section
I don't have any suggestions on that specific of a book. Mine was hardbound.
But lots of luck on your adoption journey!
I'm no help on the book, but I just wanted to say welcome and good luck!
Welcome to the board. I think Kinko's does spiral binding.
We worked with an agency and networked on our own -- letters to family/friends/doctors, etc., wrote a blog, had an adoption website -- but in the end our daughter's birthmom found us through our agency. If we decide to adopt again, we will definitely use an agency again.
No matter how you go about it, there will be some fees for adoption. If you adopt through a foster program it may be considerably less or the state may pay some of the fees (at least that's my understanding), but beyond that there are always fees. You are not "paying for a baby" as your husband feels, but you are paying for the administrative/legal/home study/ fees that vary with each agency or attorney. There are a lot of agencies out there with more reasonable fees; you just have to look for them. There are also a lot of benefits to using an agency -- they may have contact with many more birthmoms (expectant moms) than it would be possible for you to come in contact with on your own, they can walk you through everything step by step, they can offer support to the expectant moms, they can offer classes/support to adoptive parents, etc.
Adopting is a huge undertaking and we felt a lot better working with people who do this all the time. They made us feel comfortable with each step of the process.
Good luck to you. This is a great board for anyone in the adoption process.
Hello! I don't post very often, but read a lot here. For our profile books, we used https://www.mimeo.com/. They seemed to turn out very well and you get 50% off your first order, so it made it pretty affordable.
Good luck!
History of IF and 2.5 years TTC. The day we were to start our first IUI we received a call that changed our lives forever and 10 month old Olivia joined our family. Shortly thereafter we got a surprise BFP and baby 2 is due July 5, 2012
Thanks so much for all the input. I think I'm going to check out Costco for the books. I don't have Publisher, so I want to use a company that can help me design it, too.
DH has come to terms with using an agency, and we both totally understand where the fees are going (i.e. not buying a baby). I think he was just hoping that we could do it on our own. I'm hoping that we end up finding our match through the agency. The services that the agency provides are definitely worth the fees they charge, so we're not worried about that. I'm just excited to find our baby no matter how it happens!
I can understand him wanting to find a match on his/your own; we would have been happy with that, too (especially because our fees would have been less with a designated adoption like that.) I only know of one couple personally that found her match without the help of an agency, but I know we always hoped maybe someone we knew would know somebody...it just didn't work out that way for us.
Sounds like you're happy with the agency you picked - that's great. Let us know if you have other questions about the profile as you go, too.