How to Make Your Adoption Profile Book Mess-Free but not Stress-Free!

For making a #adoptionprofilebook for the birth mother to 'pick you' out of, you have two options:

-Pay someone to do it for you (I got a recommendation for someone  that does it for $500) OR
-Do it yourself!

In this day in age, there are plenty of ways to go about it.  If you want it to look extra precious and #creative and are Type A like myself, you will need to purchase #scrapbooksoftware to make it the best you can!  YES, it would be lovely to have someone else make it, but another $500 toward this process and government cheese is headed our way.  OK I am being dramatic, but let's save where we can!

After a good day of researching, installing Microsoft Publisher and pulling my hair our, I gave in and ordered/downloaded #MyMemories.com scrapbooking software.  It got the best ratings! "OH the glory of digital scrapbooking!"  "I could spend hours choosing between daisies and tulips!" "Let's waste my life gluing tiny swirls on a page!" Those were not real quotes.  I found a 10 dollar off coupon which made it 30 bucks.  Not bad compared to 500.  I am pretty creative and love doing #crafts so this is up my alley.  It only comes with a handful of templates but you can take them apart and use pieces individually so hopefully my creativity will make it so I do not have to purchase anything else from them (they sell about a gazillion different pages, embellishments, borders, etc. UPSELL THAT SHEEEET GURL!)  I did a practice cover of the book last night in about ten minutes and was impressed with myself (who me?!), so I am happy knowing my half hearted attempt is probably about average level of most of the profile books I have come across as far as design.  All those art and design classes (I had dreams of being a broken hearted, ramen noodle eating artist in college) came in handy after all!  I sure use a lot of parenthesis (can I get a whhaaatwhaat?)

The #picture picking is the most difficult for this project.  DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PICTURES I TAKE?  If you are my 'real life' friend or just follow me on #Facebook (we went to HS together but never talked) you know I post my life out there, including pictures...and I have a whoooole slew of them.  I went through about 5 million with Hubs and we tried to narrow it down.  This process is one you may want to do alone.  It was a lot of this:  ME:  Oh this one is good.  HUBS:That looks like every other one...HUBS: OH this one is nice and goofy!  ME: I look ugly in that one!  We still only narrowed it down to about 50 pictures and only can have 5 double sided pages...leaving us with VERY limited space for pictures because we have to actually write about ourselves as well.  #aretherereverseshrinkydinks?

I have an outline though...so far it is:
Cover Page: Picture of us, the BEST one in the world that has ever been taken of us.  This is first impression.  We didn't want to make it too formal, so there went the best picture ever taken of us, because as with most people that is your wedding photos where you have starved yourself for two weeks, gotten a fake tan and have professional makeup and hair, so we are still on the hunt for our flyest photo.
About us:
Bullet points about Both of us, marketing our strengths yet being honest and vulnerable, this is where a couple goofy pics will come in, which clearly will be easy to find.
Family:
This will be one big page, Mirabello clan!! :)  I grabbed photos from both sides from our wedding pics and a couple from #Christmas and #Thanksgiving so hopefully that'll give the BM a good idea of what her kiddo will be getting into!  Sheer madness!
Hobbies/stuff we like to do:
me #dancing around, Hubs pretending he is Slash, a photo of a piece of my artwork, concerts, and perhaps a pic of us eating our our local Tex Mex restaurant which may as well be a hobby since we do it weekly.  Great, now I am hungry.
Travel:
Photos from #Italy of course, our bi-yearly hikes (is yearly a hobby!?), #Vegas (delete gambling pics) and our yearly #beach trips, etc.
Neighborhood:  Yes, they make you include your 'hood, and surrounding areas/attractions, hey they want their lil bean to be safe and have a nice #playground to get wild at like the rest of us!
I found some photos from our #community site, including the pool, lake and #fitness center that I have never stepped into.  Who needs that when I can on demand #yoga and #dance?  I also threw in a lovely pic of our house when the azaleas are fully bloomed, pre-lacebugs!

Still working on the rest, they recommend things like 'how you will dicpline' (encourage with pink sprinkled #donuts?!?) and quirky facts about each of you (Mike makes a mean cricket noise?!).  I will update once I have my final outline completed for those of you interested (that are adopting yourself).  AND perhaps I can figure out how to add a link to our actual book for all to see when completed.  SHUSH you know you wanna see it.


Micro-scoping our pictures with digital glue on my hands,
Bumpless Baby Mama