I finally realized that the fist step was to just gather photos. I spent a lot of time going through the past 12 years of photos looking for happy memories of the two of us. You need vacation photos, hobbies, etc.
I found 135 and then DH found some. The next step was to uploaded them to Shutterfly. That took an hour. While I was waiting I browsed through the sample book the agency gave me. They said that this couple was very popular.
They are very cute. They both look the same in almost very photo, so I am not sure if they just aged well or just used recent photos. I tried to figure out what was so special out this couple. They have great large smiles. They seem playful. They had a lot of writing.
After my photos uploaded, I used the storyboard feature which allows you to group related photos on the same page. Then once you are done it automatically fits them. At this point I had over 40 pages. The sample book had 40 and the SW said 20-30 is common. The book comes with 20 and every page after that costs extra. I have to keep the cost per book down bc I need to send 5 to my agency for their various offices and then I might want some to pass around locally.
I started to rearrange the pages, cut out photos, cut out pages. I got down to 25. DH said that you don't want to make it too long and have someone loose interest.
I went back and added more text and took out more photos. I realized that these photos give me happy memories when I look at them bc I was there. When a stranger looks at my photos she won't have the same experience. That is when I thought that this is more of a story book than a photo album. The main focus is the text that provides a story about the two of us and the photos are just a visual to back it up.
DH is going to edit it this weekend and then I am sending it to the SW on Monday for her review. My stomach has been in knots bc I know that she will rip me apart. I have to just face this a plow forward.
When we did our profile, our facilitators told us the opposite...the pictures are what the expectant moms will look at...the verbiage second. Since we haven't been chosen yet...I wonder if the words are just as important. Interesting. I guess one thing to keep in mind is that the expectant moms are most likely going to look at more than one book...they may look at many...so how much time are they going to read...I guess that was the message our agency was trying to convey.
ReplyDeletePrayers for the editing and the submission of the books! We're still discerning if adoption is what God is calling us to do. I can only imagine how hard assembling your life story in pictures and words for the perusal and consideration of birth parents is. Here's to hoping that however difficult the process is, and however difficult re-editing might be, that it is all worth it and that birthparents will respond really soon! <3
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're doing a great job on this huge undertaking!! Similar to prayerfuljourney, our agency told us to make sure the writing was short and sweet. They said many of the birthmoms they work with struggle to read, so they wanted us to write simple sentences and short paragraphs. I have a feeling we still wrote too much, but our agency told us it looked good when we submitted it, so we just went with it. I hope your SW is easy on you when you present it to her!! Let us know how it goes!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love your new blog look!!! (Can you tell I've been gone awhile? :-D)
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited that you've started on your profile book - it is daunting - but gathering the pics for your book and narrowing them down is a great step!! I don't think that too many photos is a bad thing - I hope your SW will be kind instead of her negative-Nelly self. Ugh.
Please ... let us know how it goes!!