Articles by Joanna Ivey
Work may be reprinted with permission of the author.
Choosing Photos for Your Adoption Profile
Every Picture Tells A Story… Don’t It? Besides being the refrain from a popular song it is the rule you should follow when choosing photos for your Adoptive Family Profile. Your profile will be the single most important tool you have when networking for birthparents, and you shouldn’t waste a single inch on photos that don’t share something significant about your family.
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How To Write A Really Great Adoption Profile
A blank piece of paper, or a flickering cursor stares back at you as you sit and think. How do you begin? What do you say?
How can you possibly convey all that is in your heart as you think about adopting?
This letter you are about to write will be read by one of the most important people
that will come into your life- a birthparent who may someday choose to place her baby
with your family. The enormity and importance of this letter sends you into serious
writers block, and you doubt every instinct and emotion as you begin to put your thoughts on paper.
Sound familiar? Congratulations, you have joined the thousands of hopeful adoptive parents that have faced the same struggle.
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An Open Letter To A Friend: Welcome To The Sisterhood
When we spoke today I didn’t have the right words to comfort you.
Hearing your struggles took me back a few years, and it has taken
me until tonight to collect myself. So now, my dear friend, I
would like to offer you this story…and my love.
Infertility is like a party- a big, year or two long party
that no one really wants to go to. In fact, it is a pretty
lousy party, not much fun at all. But by the time you get
the invitation, you are already there. Perhaps it is
your doctor that gives you the invitation, or a specialist,
or perhaps just plain old time that gives you the nudge
that this is one party you won’t be missing.
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Love is Multiplied, Not Divided
I’ve had the same conversation three times in the last week, all in different contexts. Why all this week I’ve no idea, but I find it curious enough to write about it, and have the conversation with you on paper as well.
A child in my son’s school class asked me why our younger son looked different
than our older son. As I feel we are ambassadors charged with creating a positive
image for adoption I knelt down and explained that Marcus was adopted. “Who
is his real mother?” the boy asked. I gave a short answer about how he has both
a birthmother and me as a mother, and we are both very real. He then pointed to
my older son and asked “Do you love him more because you are his real mom?” (I
forgave the comment. He is after all, just five.)
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