Adoption Portfolio

We turned in our portfolio the beginning of this month! This assignment ended up taking much longer then we had anticipated and may have been one of the challenging tasks we have had to do thus far. 

A portfolio is what agencies hand to birth parents as a first view option. This is something the adoption parents create that shows pictures and fun details about their lives. Picture a young girl, sitting on the floor of her room with five different booklets (portfolios)...some tossed aside and some opened up to specific pages that resonate with her. She is working through one of the biggest decision of her life and these booklets are her first link into how her future may transform. Ultimately, our portfolio is a glimpse into our life and we hope that the portfolio will give a warm picture of who we are as a family. For us, we pray that our portfolio resonates with our birth family and they easily are able to see a future with us. 

For the design of our portfolio our agency asked for specifics. These were listed neatly on a piece of paper for us to study. Some examples: size needed to be 8x10 and the book could not be bind at the seam. Because of these specifics, we had to get creative with the design. I couldn't use snapfish or other book printing websites because they didn't really offer options to print the pages separately. I was on the hunt for a folder to hold our creation and I wanted something that resembled that thing we used in elementary school to turn in our reports on volcanoes or a book report...do you remember? Below is what we ended up using and I loved how it turned out.  I found these on-line with Office Dept. They were a reasonable price and were delivered to us very quickly. With this folder choice we had the ability to slide pages in and out and move or adjust the layout.

This is our portfolio cover page.

We did hit a small road block, we had to come up with a tool for our page designs. Whenever roadblocks like this emerge, I usually call on Nolan (my computer genius). He put together something through the gmail presentation app. With this option, both of us could log into the application at the same time from different computers. We could work together and see each other typing. It was fantastic! Because the final product needed to reflect our relationship and life...what better way then to work on this thing together like this. It was also a nifty resource because Nolan travels a lot and we could make changes and work together from afar. We would set up date nights to work on our portfolio...he would be sitting in his hotel room and I on our couch and we would work through the details together. 

Questionnaires were provided to us from our agency. These questionnaires prompt responses from us that shed a small spotlight on different topics. Like: Insight into our personalities--are you more of an introvert or extrovert with a number rating scale. 

Questionnaire 

The most difficult addition to our portfolio, was our letter to the birth parents.  This letter had specific requirements from the agency as well. Some of these requirements include: both parents needed to write a separate letter and the note needed to be one complete page normal font. I gotta say that I had such a difficult time writing this letter. Putting my thoughts and emotions into words and writing them down on paper was what made this so difficult. In my mind, I could not process how to begin a letter to someone we have not met yet. Someone who we hope to soon meet. Someone who, through her choice, could dramatically alter our home and hers. Someone who I already have so much love and adoration for that as I would sit to write tears would start to pour down my face and all I would end up doing is praying for her. I did finally write a letter and so did Nolan.

Letter to Birth Parents

The section of the portfolio that took up the most pages consist of our pictures. Here we chose pictures that are a good reflection of us. For example, Nolan had a killer mustache for most ALL of last year. Because its not his normal look we wanted to make sure to choose pictures that reflected his many stylish ways. We also wanted to make sure that pictures were of head shots, that they were clear and told our story. 

Here is what we came up with:

Family Section

For our family section, we would loved to have been able to add pictures of our extended family as well as the immediate family but didn't really have any recent big group pictures to select from. We are happy with the pictures selected here and super excited that the then Miss. Jenny and now Mrs. Jenny could be represented in the family photo.

Friends Section

Nolan and I have a motto: people we just meet quickly become our friends and friends quickly turn into family! So many friends and families that we surround ourselves with here in Nashville, have extended family living in different states. So...when holidays, celebrations or even hard times arise we choose to do life together and love doing so.  The pictures we choose for this section show families that have come to visit from afar and families we do life with every day.

A section on Nolan and I and our Home

For these two sections, we wanted to show some pictures of us giving a little insight into how we met and who we are. Nolan and I really do have big fat crushes on each other. The home section was a portfolio request from the agencies. We needed to show a picture of our home. In these pictures we needed to make sure that our address was not visible. I conveniently placed all of our many pets in the picture to show what all our home has to offer.

A section sharing things we LOVE

Nolan and I have always enjoyed taking adventures. For us life is one big adventure. With this page we wanted to reflect that the adventure will continue as our family grows. Then there was a music section - most of you already know that this is a huge part of our life. Because this is what Nolan does as a living we needed a page to reflect the uniqueness of what he does.

If any of you are thinking about adoption or are currently going through the adoption process, putting together a portfolio is a very big step.  Here are some tips I learned through this process.

Tips for a successful portfolio:

• Understand all the expectations for portfolio design, needed additions, and overall look from your agency before you start the creation. 
• Choose current pictures or at least several pictures that are within a few years time. The pictures need to reflect what you look like now...not when you were in high school.
• Take the time to stage picture's if you need to.  We live in a different state from most of our family, so getting specific pictures highlighting important people could have been difficult. Planning a trip into town and hosting a small party and inviting all these important people too, was going to be our plan. We were also going to invite our friend/professional photographer to come and snap shots of all who attended the party. Thankfully everyone we requested pictures from sent us so many amazing photo's, that we had more than enough to choose from (thank you)!
• Don't write long captions for your photos! Choose photo's that tell a story and then simply highlight details in the caption. You want the photo to be the highlight, not the caption.
• Ultimately, the portfolio needs to be a reflection of the couple. We wanted to pick subject that we cared about: Family, Friends, Our Relationship/Story, Adventures, Home and Music. Having these subjects helped us when choosing pictures. 
• Choose pictures that DO NOT reveal personal information: addresses, last names, anything that will give too much lead into your life. Guard yourself and those you choose to feature in your story. Many eyes will potentially scan your portfolio pages (its now on the internet for crying out loud) you want it to be intimate but not too revealing. There is a proper place and time to start revealing details of your personal life. 
• Have more then one/two sets of eyes look over your portfolio for spelling, revealing personal information and just advice. Most all agencies, would love to help you with this process and offer services to look over your drafts. It would be horrible to spend the money to print out pages only to realize something was misspelled.
• Save a copy for your own records. Keep one for the books and add it to your futures child's box of resources. This step is very important for us, we want our children to know all of the unique details of their journey.

We are thrilled that this step in our adoption journey has been completed. We are happy with how it turned out. Now we wait patiently and pray for that special someone to choose us. 

let it begin...

 

sewing project

I thought I would share this fun project with y'all. Have you ever heard of a quiet time book? I hadn't either, until the mother I Nanny for began talking about her interest in getting one for her daughter. They are taking a trip within a few weeks and she felt it would be perfect for the plane ride. She was showing me an etsy shop that she loved: SweetJuicyApril. I was checking out the site and thinking...I can totally do this no problem. So I gave it a shot and here is what I came up with.

Please know that I took most of my inspiration and lead from the etsy sight I referenced above, I do however, have to be original and feel the end product was a success.

Here it is:

Cover page

Most all of the book is made out of felt pieces. I have lots of scrap materials such as buttons, ribbon, inlays and other fun options that I used as texture pieces throughout the pages. Above, is the cover page, featuring her name. I used mettle circle clamps to hold the pages together.

Page One

This page I took direction from, SweetJuicyApril. This is the design that was referenced as a favorite from the etsy page, so I had to try to make it. I of course had to make some of it my own design. I added the ability for the mailbox to open. You pull on the black tab and the flap folds down. The fun letter can then be stuffed inside and pulled out. It's held to the page by a fun string detail piece.

Page Two

How cute is this little dinosaur. On this page, the dots can be counted and a little felt piece representing a leaf, can be fed to the dinosaur. The leaf can be stored in a little pocket as part of the tree when not in use.

Page Three

This page is quite simple. I just added some of my fringe detailing I had extra of. These can be touched and or counted.

Page Four

                      Knock...Knock...Knock....

Page Four

I adore this page. The door opens to a sweet girl waving hello.

Page Five

Everyone loves to smell the flowers...even the little bee. The bee is connected by a fun string detail and can be stored in a pocket located in the vase when not using.

Page Six

A little underwater scene! The friendly octopus has fun little balls that can be counted. I used a hot glue gun to attach all of the white fluff balls. This is the only page that I used a hot glue gun.  My sewing machine and some hand stitching did most of the work.

The book consists of six pages total and is tied together by ribbon to keep secure. Because its felt it weighs hardly anything and can be rolled up and crammed into a carry on bag. 

I had so much fun making this book. I believe sweet Abby is going to be very entertained with her quiet book for her first plane flight. 

let it begin...

Starting out 2015 with a CELEBRATION

The month of January has just ended and leaves us with hearts full! Nolan's brother Danny and the girl of his dreams Jenny, were married January 10, 2015.

Weddings are always a special celebration. For the Rossi family this celebrations in particular was a grand release, over the past several years we have had much sorrow in family.  Starting off this new year with the a most wonderful celebration is a way to usher in a season of joy and happiness.

I had the honor of spending the week prior to the wedding with Jenny. She was such a joy to be around and we had so much fun working on each and every tiny detail for her special day. All of the decorations she choose were brightly coordinated and a perfect reflecting her cheerful longing for wedding bliss. The couple choose a Wes Anderson (he is a movie director) themed wedding and decorations had a crafty reflection of his unique style. Guests dressed in character and attire from  favorite movies. Danny had his suit bespoke for him with the charm of a Wes Anderson's style. Jenny looked breath taking in her stunning wedding gown.

The ceremony was designed by Danny. Every special part of the ceremony was craft-fully a reflection of the special love the couple share for each other. He wrote the most amazing song for Jenny and this song played as she walked down the isle. As she entered the room every eye full of happy tears and she walked half way down the isle where Danny met her. He gently kissed and took her hand to walk her the rest of the way to the alter. There were a few very special men in Danny's life who played a part in this ceremony, they brought laughter, tears and the Holy Spirit. Danny's brother Bryon actually married the two and announced them as HUSBAND & WIFE.

The reception was nothing but one big celebration!!! The wedding cake was hand made by Jenny's mother with a soft blue icing color. The cake toper had a porcelain wolf bride and wookie groom and this matched the couples personalities to a tea. The maid of honor, Jenny's best friend gave the most beautiful toast and the wedding party raised juice boxes paying tribute to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", Jenny's favorite movie.

Danny's bestman (Nolan) may have given the most epic toast ever....EVER (I may be a little bias). He began his toast with a sweat heart felt, hold back the tears, few words and then moved into the most epic display of creativity following the theme of Wes Anderson. Let me just show you and you can decide. Click on this link to watch his video toast.

How epic is that video and that mustache!

Anyway, the reception was filled with love and joy! The couples first dance was sung by one of the bride mades and close friend as another good friend played guitar, it was perfect. Once the dance floor was open guests danced the night away. Danny and Jenny Rossi are loved and adored! It was an
amazing celebration.

To Jenny and Danny....let it begin