Adoption Media Blitz

Thanks SO much everybody for your input on which family pic we should use for our profile.  After much thought and weighing of the feedback we received (as well as trying out our two top contenders (options D and F from this post) on the actual profile itself to see how it looked as a tiny thumbnail as well as on our main profile page), we went with option D.  The feedback was incredibly helpful (and flattering) and we really appreciate the kind comments.

So you might notice that we have a new adoption blog button on this blog (and on our adoption blog as well).  This weekend I went through our adoption blog and reworked some of the content.  I unpublished a number of previous posts to streamline the information and make it a better resource for a birth mom.  (In case anyone is wondering, the content still exists but I thought a lot of the posts were more geared toward Kayli and if I have learned anything about adoption it is that every birth parent is different and I felt like it was important to clean up the blog and post things that would apply to our next child's birth mom.)  This upcoming week marks one month that our profile has been live with LDS Family Services.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but Kayli contacted us at the one-month mark so I have been thinking about this a lot lately. 

We have had a number of friends and family ask us what they can do to help us get the word out and when and how to start spreading the word, etc. that we are hoping to adopt again so this post is meant to serve as a go-ahead for anyone who would be so great as to help us out.  We'll call it our little adoption media blitz.  Here are some ideas for how you can help:

1.  Share the link to our adoption blog on Facebook with a little blurb like "Check out my friends' adoption blog at http://paulandamyadopt.blogspot.com.  They are hoping to adopt their second child and need your help!"  The more people who know about us the better.  Even if you just follow our blog anonymously and don't actually know us it would still mean so much to us if you would pass along our blog info.  We had a little blitz like this when our first profile went live and let me tell you, the number of hits to our blog skyrocketed that day and stayed high for a while after that. 

2.  Add our blog button to your blog, if you have one.

3.  Mention our hopes to adopt in a future blog post.

4.  Send me your address by email (amynash at gmail dot com) or just leave it in a comment and I will send you pass-along cards (which are on order and will hopefully be delivered by the end of this week).  Give the pass-along cards to your hair stylist, bishop, Relief Society president, co-workers, mom, sister, aunt, personal trainer, ob-gyn, etc.  Seriously, I know multiple couples who have had successful adoptions because of these little cards.  If you want to read a pass-along card success story, check out this guest post written by my friend Brittany.  With our first adoption, I took a stack of 30 cards to church and asked to make a quick announcement before Relief Society started and then passed them around with the clipboards that always go around.  A number of our friends and family did the same thing for us in their wards and if anyone is willing to do that this time around, please let me know and I will send enough cards to go around (we have ordered 1,000 cards for starters, which sounds like a ton but the first go around we burned through 500 cards just by adding some to each Christmas card and had to order another batch). 

5.  Talk to your moms about your friends (us) who are hoping to adopt.  Honestly, the mom network is so amazing and it seems like they are always the ones who are aware of unwed girls who are daughters or nieces of friends or co-workers who are pregnant and deciding on what to do.  Especially with family reunions coming up, it seems like that sort of thing gets discussed a lot with extended families.

Anyway, I can't tell you how weird it feels to be asking for help like this.  It felt strange and awkward the first time around and it isn't the most comfortable thing in the world to do the second time around either, but I feel strongly that it is important for us to do all that we can to find our little one who will join our family someday.  We obviously have no idea how long the wait will be or what the future holds in store for us.  But we are aware that there are many people who love us and want to help and hopefully this little adoption media blitz will help everyone get excited and our information to get spread around a little bit.