Fall is here, and that means the leaves are changing color. But that’s not the only thing that’s changing. Families hoping to adopt are also changing up their networking strategy. This week we asked 16 hopeful adoptive parents about their plans this season and what they’re doing differently.
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Susan and Mitch Our plan is to update our adoption profile letter. We’ve learned a lot since we put our original letter together and this fall’s rewrite will be a great opportunity to incorporate new ideas and better photos. Beyond that we plan on having more fun, but in new ways like annual passes to Disneyland. |
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Kate and Maggie We joined our local Adoption Support Group, and look forward to our first meeting this fall. We will continue to share our story and regularly update our information through various avenues – our agency, social networking sites, adoption networking sites, people we know, people we meet. We will continue our adoption journey with love and hope that our baby find us very soon! |
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Sarah and Michael For the Fall, Michael and I have decided to start a blog about our adoption journey. We plan to continually update this new blog with photos, funny stories, and motivational quotes on a weekly basis. Through courage and perseverance, we remain hopeful that our journey will bless us with a child. |
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Coco and Shana As we move into a fall, we plan to expand our online outreach through various social networking sites. We’ve been super busy this summer with work so this fall we plan on refocusing our efforts on adoption outreach. But it won’t be all work and no play – Autumn is our favorite time of year and we look forward to Halloween festivities, apple picking, hiking and exploring the stunningly beautiful Shenandoah National Park area and enjoying our fun monthly potlucks. Hopefully, next year we will be sharing all our favorite activities with a little one as well! |
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Melissa It is my dream to share my love with a child through open adoption. I hope by spreading the word through websites and friends my dream will come true, and my family will welcome a baby into our lives. |
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Jan and Charlie This fall we plan on doing even more outreach to our friends and family all across the country through emails, Twitter and Facebook messages to everyone we know to let them know that we are hoping to adopt. Also, I’m going to find a way to work it into any conversation I have with pretty much everyone – at my daughter’s school, at work-related events, at church, maybe even the check out line in the grocery store! You never know who could make a connection that will lead us to our baby! |
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Dave and Anne As autumn approaches, we don’t plan to do much differently but we plan to continue to do all that we are doing (and more!). We don’t know how our special birthmother will find us, but we do know it’s only a matter of time before she does and we can begin talking about building a life together through open adoption. New Year’s Resolution: remain patient, optimistic and hopeful and cast as many seeds as you can. You never know which seeds will take root. Oh, and smile often! |
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Micki and Tony Fall is our favorite season and has always meant new beginnings for us since we’re both born in September – in fact, our birthdays are on the same day – so we hope this Fall brings us closer to starting a family too! Over the next few months, our plan is to really focus on sharing our story on social media and Internet networking. We’re crossing our fingers that a little one is out there somewhere for us and we also wish all the families here the best of luck! |
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Alia and Theresa This Summer we were grateful for the incredible support of other hopeful adoptive parents. We created an adoptive parents group with three other San Francisco families. In the Fall, we plan to reach out to hospitals and community clinics by providing them with the letters of all four families. By working together, we hope to maximize our exposure to birthmoms. |
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Alyse and David After sharing many terrific years together, we are looking forward to beginning our family through adoption. Along this journey we have turned towards social networking sites to help us make a connection. We are hoping that by sharing our story, using our website, Facebook, and webpages, we will create a personal relationship with someone special. |
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Mara and James We had originally been working with an attorney in our state trying to complete a domestic private adoption. We found this to be very hard because of the restrictive laws in our state and the expensive prices of newspaper & Internet advertising, so we have changed our approach a little for the fall. We found three agencies that are licensed to work in our state and have very low start up fees until you are matched with with a birth mom, and we have registered with them. |
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Laurie and Trevor We are so excited to build our family via an open adoption that we are considering several more ways to network and connect with others such as a YouTube video, blogs and continuing our Facebook page. |
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Irene and Greg We are hoping to spread the word about our dream to become parents by shifting our advertising focus from print to the internet! We are hopeful and thankful that our friends and family support us in every way possible. Hopefully this will be our season! |
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Fernanda and John This fall starts new hope for a baby to be blessed into our lives. We will continue to advertise, tell all and post to as many sites possible. We would love to have the miracle come our way again and let our son be the big brother he so wants to be. |
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Meg and Donald We are excited as the season changes from summer to fall to renew our hope in our adoption journey. We recently completed an outreach to pregnancy resource centers in several different states and hope that we find a lead. We remain hopeful and full of prayers that 2012 is our year! |
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Michelle and Rob We are planning on changing our advertising ad. We also are planning on revamping our profile along with trying to network even more this coming year. |
Now it’s your turn: what are you planning to do differently this fall in your open adoption journey? What pointers do you have for others? Please leave your comments in the section below. And don’t forget to find out more about what our hopeful adoptive parents plan to do by viewing their parent profile.