American Adoptions’ adoptive family profiles are an integral part of the adoption process because it is essentially the first contact birth mothers have with adoptive families. These profiles include family information, pictures, and a letter to the birth mother, detailing the adoptive couple’s desire to become parents.

Because these profiles are the first step toward receiving a match, a lot of care should be taken in their creation by the adoptive couple, and in their selection by the birth mother.

For Adoptive Families

The adoptive family profile is the only tool at the beginning of the adoption process that prospective parents have to get noticed by and communicate with birth mothers. It must effectively tell the adoptive family’s story, and most importantly, it must be honest and from the heart.

The adoptive parents will include information about their family, home, neighborhood, career, education and hobbies. Each section should use as much imagery as possible, so the birth mother can get an accurate mental image of what life would be like growing up in their home.

Other questions that adoptive families may answer in this section include:

• What are your strengths as individuals?
• What makes you unique?
• What is your most memorable moment?
• What are your family traditions?
• How did you two meet?
• Why are your pets important in your lives?
• What type of education will you provide for the child?
• What are you most looking forward to about being parents?
• How will you address cultural diversity? (If applicable)

American Adoptions takes the adoptive family profile one step further and asks adoptive parents a series of short answer questions, such as each parent’s favorite actor, candy bar, cartoon, food, movie, sports team, vacation spot, and many more. These brief questions may seem innocuous to many, but they really give the birth mother an even greater connection with the people she is considering. The more information they can have about the adoptive parents, no matter how trivial it may seem, could mean a big difference in feeling more comfortable with one adoptive couple over another.

Secondly, adoptive couples will include in their profile a heartfelt letter directed toward the birth mother. The letter should be very personal and include details that help the birth mother really connect with the adoptive couple. This is where topics like the couple’s dreams and goals, desire to be parents and parenting style could appear.

Finally, adoptive couples should put a lot of effort into taking and selecting effective photos to include in their adoptive family profile. The best photos to use are the ones in which the adoptive couple appear happy and natural. A picture of the prospective adoptive father playing softball is more effective than him standing on an empty baseball diamond. A picture of the prospective adoptive mother playing the piano is more meaningful than a picture of her posing next to the piano.

Not all of the photos have to include the adoptive family; in fact, they shouldn’t. Any photo that helps tell the adoptive couple’s story should be included. Examples of pictures that don’t include the adoptive parents are of the elementary school across the street from their home, a picture of their dog playing with their new kitten, a picture of a beach the couple vacationed at, and perhaps a picture of their friends and family at their annual barbecue.

The adoptive family profile should be treated as one of the most important steps in their journey to become parents. Birth mothers may view dozens of profiles, so couples should include as much information into their profile as they can.

Please visit the following:

Steps to Adoption

Domestic Adoption Process

For Birth Mothers

Birth mothers will be sent a packet of adoptive family profiles based on the characteristics that they are looking for in the ideal adoptive family. For example, if it is important to the birth mother that her child grows up in a large family out in the country, then she will only be sent profiles that reflect those wishes.

At American Adoptions, adoptive families are required to fill out the Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ), which helps organize families by these characteristics important to the birth mother. This makes the process easier for the Adoption Specialists to only send out adoptive family profiles of the couples that fulfill the criteria of the birth mother.

However, this period of the adoption process can be very challenging for birth mothers because they want to be sure that they are choosing the right adoptive family. It’s clearly a luxury for every profile to include her ideal family criteria, but that can also add to the challenge because she then must choose from families who share similar characteristics.

At this point, the only piece of advice anyone can give a birth mother is that she simply must follow her heart. Many birth mothers have said that when they read the profile of the family who they ultimately chose, they knew immediately that they were the right family. If a birth mother doesn’t feel a connection to any of the families, she can always request additional profiles.

Once the birth mother chooses the couple based on their adoptive family profile, a match is made and the Adoption  Specialist will set up a conference call between both parties. That way both the birth mother and adoptive couple can communicate via a moderator to make sure the match is comfortable for everyone.

For more information, please visit:

How to Choose an Adoptive Family

How Do We Screen Our Families?