Adoption Stories : Infant Adoption Guide

IAG 007: Adoption advertising and networking: An interview with Hal Kaufman of MyAdoptionAdvisor.com [Podcast]

Posted on 14. Jun, 2013 by Tim.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:57 — 62.7MB)

In this episode of the Infant Adoption Guide Podcast, we talk with Hal Kaufman about domestic adoption advertising, networking and use of the internet in your adoption journey.

Hal is an adoptive dad (two domestic infant adoptions) and the founder of MyAdoptionAdvisor.com. Since 2008, he has worked with hundreds of adopting parents who are pursuing domestic infant adoption, helping them connect with expectant parents.

After years of infertility and tragic losses, Hal and his wife were matched with each of their children’s birth families in just 4 months from the time they were approved to adopt. Through MyAdoptionAdvisor.com Hal brings his unique experiences and specially designed training to help you better understand the domestic adoption process, anticipate bumps in the road, and adopt more quickly.

Hal will help create your adoption website and profile. He can even run an online advertising campaign to drive relevant traffic to your website.

In this episode you’ll learn about:

Hal’s story on how he became an adoptive dad.
What MyAdoptionAdvisor is and how they can help you.
How the internet has changed (and still is changing) the domestic adoption world.
What open adoption means to Hal.
How to better avoid potential adoption fraud and scams.
Tips on how you can have a faster and successful domestic adoption.
AND MUCH MORE!

Links discussed in this episode:

To learn more, you can contact Hal by clicking here or call him at 612-801-6896 or email him at [email protected].

Question: What do you think about domestic adoption advertising and networking? Click here to leave your comment below.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. If you like what you hear, please leave an honest review in iTunes. Thanks!

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Adoption Book Review: My Paper Pregnancy Journal PLUS 5 reasons you should write down your adoption story

Posted on 27. May, 2013 by Tim.

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Have you thought about how you could write down your adoption story?

Delana H. Stewart, author of the adoption book Nine Year Pregnancy, has put together My Paper Pregnancy Journal – which is full of prompts, quotes, inspiration, and plenty of space to write about your adoption journey. My Paper Pregnancy Journal book cover

When my wife and I went through our two domestic adoptions, we wrote down lots of milestones and captured our thoughts – but usually in a day planner or on the computer. While we did a good job writing down all of the important things, we could have used My Paper Pregnancy Journal to help us organize our thoughts.

Before I get into my review of My Paper Pregnancy Journal – I want to give you my 5 reasons why should you write down your adoption story.

1. Remember the details (the small stuff)

Writing your story down as you live through it – or even shortly after – will help you remember those little details that may seem insignificant at the time, but are gems that you can fondly look back on. Months after our first adoption story, I was surprised how many little details I forgot until I went back and read them.

2. Relieve stress (also known as: vent!)

The adoption process can be a roller coaster ride – all of the ups and downs can get you stressed out. So it is far better to write it all out than to suffer a headache from banging it into a wall (maybe just a little overdramatic – but not much).

3. Keep track of important dates

When you decided to adopt – when you began your homestudy – the day you were matched…writing down the date and even the time (like when you got “the call”) will help you remember exactly when these important events happened.

4. Recall (and tell) important stories

Stories about how you made it through each step will be very valuable later on – when you can share them with your child. You are bound to have some special stories – some fun ones and maybe some kinda painful ones. These are what your child will want to hear about when you tell their adoption story.

5. Great way to stop, think, and reflect

When my wife and I were writing down our thoughts and experiences during our adoption journeys, it allowed us to talk about the events as they happened. This is particularly important during the days when you first meet the birthparents or the first day you meet your child. My Paper Pregnancy Journal is filled with great questions and thoughts to help you reflect and write about your story.

My Paper Pregnancy Journal uniquely uses the stages of pregnancy to help you go through your adoption journey:

First Trimester:

Conception (when your adoption journey begins)
Expecting (when you are researching what kind of adoption you want to pursue)
Heartbeat (begin to wait)

Second Trimester:

False contractions (bumps in the road and setbacks – anything that causes you to worry or grieve)
Bed Rest (if you have a long wait time)

Third Trimester:

Contractions (you are matched!)
Labor (final waiting time – for placement)
Delivery (placement – bring your baby home!)

The journal concludes with a section called Being a Parent that helps you chronicle a lot of your child’s “firsts”. Finally, the appendix has some questions for you to consider before adopting along with challenges you may face after adopting.

I love how Delana puts in some extra things into the journal including: well timed verses and quotes, recommended adoption books, and parts of her own adoption story as she writes in her book Nine Year Pregnancy.

I recommend getting both her of books – My Paper Pregnancy Journal and Nine Year Pregnancy.

As you take the time to detail every part of your adoption story, you will write about the good and the bad days – maybe even have a few tear stained pages.

The journal will ultimately be a treasure for you and your family. It will show your child how very, very much they were wanted.

QUESTION FOR YOU: Have you written your adoption story into a journal? Let us know by clicking here and entering your comments below.

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IAG 005: Adoption Agency Review: An interview with Mardie Caldwell from Lifetime Adoption Center [Podcast]

Posted on 09. May, 2013 by Tim.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:05 — 69.7MB)

In this episode of the Infant Adoption Guide Podcast we talk with Mardie Caldwell, COAP (Certified Open Adoption Practitioner), CEO and Founder of Lifetime Adoption Center.

Mardie is a nationally recognized adoption expert. She is the author of 7 books (soon to be 8) which include AdoptingOnline.com, Adoption: Your Step-By-Step Guide, and Called to Adoption.

She has been dedicated to bringing couples and birthparents together since 1986. She has struggled through infertility and the loss of 7 pregnancies. Her most important title – adoptive mom.

In this episode, you’ll find out about:

Mardie’s domestic adoption story about how she became an adoptive mother
How Mardie went on to start Lifetime Adoption Center
Tips from Mardie on how to get past open adoption fears
How the Lifetime Foundation helps support birthparents
Advice for anyone who may be just starting to look into adoption
Mardie’s Mother’s Day stories
And MUCH MORE!

Here are the links that we discuss in the show…

InfantAdoptionGuide.com/adoptionagencies -for more information about domestic adoption agencies.
Lifetime Adoption Center FAQ frequently asked questions page - for more information about Lifetime.
Lifetime Foundation- a non-profit charity helping birthparents with basic needs as well as educational scholarships
Mother’s Day Special of the TV show Marie (on the Hallmark channel -hosted by Marie Osmond) where Mardie was a guest along with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding – and new author of INSTANT MOM).

Click on the iTunes logo to subscribe to the podcast.

Click on the Stitcher logo to subscribe to the podcast.

QUESTION: What research ideas do you have in finding the right adoption agency?

Click here to leave your answer in the comments below.

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IAG 004: An Adoption Story – an interview with adoptive parents Josh & Laci [Podcast]

Posted on 15. Apr, 2013 by Tim.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:10 — 116.6MB)

CLICK HERE or on the PLAY button above to listen right now.

In this episode of the Infant Adoption Guide Podcast you’ll hear the adoption story from new adoptive parents Josh and Laci – and how they adopted their little boy in early 2013!

They share the ups and the downs of their adoption journey – and what it was like to adopt a newborn from the other end of the United States.

In this episode, you’ll find out about:

Josh and Laci’s domestic adoption story
Why they went on the Price Is Right game show to raise money for their adoption
Tips from Josh and Laci on how to talk with a birthmother
What it is like to be matched with a birthmother
Some of biggest obstacles they had to overcome
What it was like to adopt a newborn from the other side of the country
And MUCH MORE!

CLICK HERE (or on the iTunes logo) to subscribe & listen to the podcast in iTunes.

CLICK HERE (or on the logo) to listen to it on Stitcher.

Your Feedback

If you have a topic that you would like me to talk about on an upcoming episode, send me an e-mail.

For more stories, please check out my post domestic adoption stories to inspire you.

As we talk about in the podcast, Laci is a graphic artist and she creates adoption profiles. Her website www.LaciMorganCreations.com shows you her “Made With Love” adoption profiles – she can help you create your adoption profile so go check it out!

Question: What other questions do you have about adoption fundraising? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Thanks for listening!

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An update of our second adoption story (our newest addition is here!)

Posted on 19. Nov, 2012 by Tim.

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My wife and I have been on our second journey to adopt a newborn.

If you haven’t already, go see how our first adoption story happened and you can check out how our second adoption story began.

Here’s the latest update to our story. I hope this will encourage and inspire you on your own adoption journey.

The Call and the Match

Waiting for a match with birthparents was long and difficult. We tried our best to be hopeful and prayerful that we would get a call that some birthparents found us and wanted to match with us.

During our adoption journey, there have been some really special moments, as you might imagine. I call these special moments my “WOW” moments. It is when I am so taken with what just happened that all I can do is say…WOW. Well, one of these WOW moments came when we first heard that some birthparents where interested in us.

We were eating dinner one night when the phone rang. For a fleeting moment, I thought “this could be the call” but then it was a telemarketer so I hung up. Ugh. No sooner than I sat back down, the phone rang again. This time I jumped up and picked up the phone thinking I’ve got that telemarketer calling me back. I was wrong. [...]

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My top 5 birthmother blogs

Posted on 06. Aug, 2012 by Tim.

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If you’ve ever wanted to know what a birthmother is thinking, what she would like adoptive families to know, or how she feels about adoption you need to check out my top 5 birthmother blogs.

1. BirthMom Buds

BirthMom Buds is an organization and website that provides peer counseling, support, encouragement, and friendship to pregnant women considering adoption as well as women who have already placed children for adoption. Birthmom Buds was created by two birthmoms, Coley and Lani who found each other shortly after they each gave birth and relinquished a baby into open adoption.

Before finding each other, they wanted to find someone who understood how they were feeling. When they found each other, they became best friends and started Birthmom Buds so other birthmoms can easily connect with each other.

The site has a newsletter, forums specifically for birthmoms, and a blog. The blog is updated regularly and covers every angle of being a birthmother. Click here to go to their Facebook page.

2. A Birthmother Voice

This blog is written by Kelsey Stewart, author of the book “The Best For You” which is a children’s book explaining why one mother chose adoption for her child. She blogs to “tell people my story, my thoughts, my trials, my heartaches, my pride, my joys.” She has 5 children, 3 of which she has placed for adoption and 2 she is raising with her husband. You can also click here to go to her Facebook page.

3. Monika’s Musings

This is a blog about how Monika became a birthmother in 2010. She says “musing about life in an open adoption and about adoption in general.” Click here to read about her story. She is passionate about open and ethical adoption, as well as adoption reform. Click here to go to her Facebook Fan page.

4. The Happiest Sad

The Happiest Sad is a blog from a birthmother named Jill who had a baby girl she calls ‘Roo’ in July of 2009 and placed her for adoption nine weeks later on the first anniversary of her dad’s death (he had brain cancer). She began writing her story around the time she decided to place Roo for adoption. Click here to go to her Facebook page.

5. Blessings in Disguise

This blog is written by Elizabeth, a birthmother. She has been documenting her journey since 2010, writing about living life after choosing an adoption plan for her baby girl. You can go back to read her earlier posts (when she began to journal) at http://tink-1010.livejournal.com and then switched to her current Blessings in Disguise blog in 2011.

Here’s the description she writes about why she blogs: “The moment I knew I was pregnant, I promised her innocent little self a beautiful, happy life; a life full of potential and love. At some point, I realized that her biological father and I had no means to guarantee that my promise would be fulfilled, other than love. So, I decided to place her with the most amazing family I could ever have dreamed of for my child.”

“I don’t write for an audience, I write for myself. My blog is public in the hopes that maybe I can help someone else who is going through what I went through. It’s not always pretty, but it’s my therapy. Sometimes it’s positive, sometimes it’s negative, but it’s always real. Children and mothers never truly part, bound together by the beating of one another’s heart.”

I especially enjoyed her post called Things I Wish All Adoptive Parents Knew. The post is a list of things she wishes more adoptive parents would keep in mind, especially after placement. Number 10 on her list got my attention as she says “we didn’t give our child to you, we gave you to our child.”

What do you think? What are your favorite blogs written by birthmothers? Post a comment below – I’d love to hear what you think.

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My adoption story on America Adopts! “My Dream To Become An Adoptive Daddy”

Posted on 16. Jun, 2012 by Tim.

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AmericaAdopts.com was born from one simple idea: to give prospective birth parents and adoptive parents more control over the open adoption process. They do this by posting online adoption profiles and helping birth parents and adoptive parents to interact, share, and connect.

They also have a blog that I was honored to be a part of just in time for Father’s Day.

My guest post there is called “My Dream To Become An Adoptive Daddy”.

It is my story about how I’ve wanted to be a daddy, how adoption became a part of my dream, and how the dream became a reality.

Click here to go and check it out on AmericaAdopts.com.

Leave a comment below to let me know what you think – I’d love to hear from you!

To all the men (especially during this Father’s Day) that are waiting to adopt – my prayer for you is that your dream will become reality very soon.

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Updating your adoption profile: 2 more things you should know

Posted on 02. May, 2012 by Tim.

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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:

What is an adoption profile? and

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. [...]

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Domestic adoption stories to inspire you

Posted on 12. Apr, 2012 by Tim.

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The domestic infant adoption process is amazing, exciting, stressful, and sometimes feels like you are the only one that has gone through it. Reading about how other people have gone through the process is helpful, inspiring and comforting.

The stories let you know that you are not alone – others have gone through similar things in life and have successfully adopted.

You can adopt too!

Adoption stories are not always easy to find. I’ve gathered some special links where people have shared their domestic infant adoption journey. Have fun reading them!

Adoption Associates

An excellent agency that places 60 to 70 infants every year in their domestic adoption program. They have a great domestic adoption FAQ (frequently asked questions) page. They have at least a dozen stories listed. The couples share a lot about why they love Adoption Associates – they are some great stories to read.

Bethany Christian Adoptions

The largest adoption agency in the U.S. – they have been around since 1944. They have over 80 locations and are licensed in 30 states. Their domestic infant adoption page is very informative. They have several very inspirational domestic adoption stories. Check it out!

Click the following link to check out my domestic infant adoption story.

What do you think?

Enter your comments below or send me an email.

I am looking to add adoption stories to a new page for InfantAdoptionGuide.com. If you’d like to share your story, please email me.

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Another month goes by: An update of our domestic adoption journey

Posted on 25. Jan, 2012 by Tim.

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Hello, everyone! If you’ve been following the blog you know that my wife and I have started the domestic infant adoption journey again. I want to share with you an update on where we are on our journey.

If you haven’t already checked it out, read about how our first adoption journey went. You can also check out how our second adoption journey started. I hope this insight into our story will give you some inspiration and help on your journey.

Well, it’s been 16 months and we’re still waiting – no match and things seem pretty quiet. We are hopeful and prayerful that we’ll get a call soon. We are working with Lifetime Adoption Center as we had for our first adoption. Lifetime has us all over the web at sites such as OpenAdoption.com, AdoptionTree.com, and Lifetimeadoption.com.

With a lot of exposure on the web, we feel that since we’ve been waiting for a while we need to update our profile video. We’ve already updated our profile once – and now we’ve ordered our adoption outreach cards. If you haven’t heard about adoption outreach cards, they are small cards that are about the size of business cards. You can use them to promote your adoption plans and exposure to potential birth mothers.

The cards show pictures, some quick points about who you are, and your contact information. I recommend ordering these because you never know where your birthmother will hear about you – so by spreading these cards around it is another avenue to make a possible connection with her.

Even though we are updating some of our profile, here’s a little inspirational tidbit…no matter how much you fret over your profile, your audio or video, ordering adoption outreach cards – you never know how a birthmother will pick you. [...]

Tag Archives: Adoption Stories

Question: What do you think about domestic adoption advertising and networking? Click here to leave your comment below.

1. Remember the details (the small stuff)

2. Relieve stress (also known as: vent!)

3. Keep track of important dates

4. Recall (and tell) important stories

5. Great way to stop, think, and reflect

First Trimester:

Second Trimester:

Third Trimester:

Here are the links that we discuss in the show…

In this episode, you’ll find out about:

Your Feedback

The Call and the Match

1. BirthMom Buds

2. A Birthmother Voice

3. Monika’s Musings

4. The Happiest Sad

5. Blessings in Disguise

1. It is important to show what is unique and special about you.

You can adopt too!

What do you think?

Hello, everyone! If you’ve been following the blog you know that my wife and I have started the domestic infant adoption journey again. I want to share with you an update on where we are on our journey.

If you haven’t already checked it out, read about how our first adoption journey went. You can also check out how our second adoption journey started. I hope this insight into our story will give you some inspiration and help on your journey.

The cards show pictures, some quick points about who you are, and your contact information. I recommend ordering these because you never know where your birthmother will hear about you – so by spreading these cards around it is another avenue to make a possible connection with her.

Even though we are updating some of our profile, here’s a little inspirational tidbit…no matter how much you fret over your profile, your audio or video, ordering adoption outreach cards – you never know how a birthmother will pick you. [...]

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