Help for Waiting Adoptive Parents

We do not charge for our services, but we do have rules. If you wish to have your portfolio placed on this site you must have a completed home study, you must agree to respect the contact and privacy requests of any birth-mother that contacts you, and should your listing here result in a successful adoption, we ask for a photo of you and your baby that we can use on this site in the future.

Getting Started

• How to Do an Open Adoption
• Links to more Adoption Information and Support
• Preparing Content for this site
• Why we do this...

More about us and how to get started:

1) Why we exist: I originally created this site to assist us (my wife and I) in locating and getting matched with a prospective Expectant Mother. It worked. We adopted a beautiful baby boy in December of 1999. I work for Microsoft as a Web Application developer. I didn't care for the quality of online adoption sites, their lack of focus or purpose and the amount they charged, so I did it myself. Once we adopted, we didn't need the site anymore, so I decided to make it available to others.

2) What we charge: Right now, we're free. I suppose there is a business opportunity here. Maybe I'll charge in the future, but that's not where I'm at with it right now. This is really just a hobby site for me. I work on it when I get a few extra hours here and there.

3) How to get your portfolio placed with us: The more you do yourself, the faster you get your site online. I only work on the site in my spare time and a significant portion of my effort goes towards search engine registration and placement efforts. I will do all of your site development for you, but the more work there is, the longer it takes. I will scan regular photos sent by mail, but if you can email digital images, it's better. Look at the other portfolios on our site. Use them as examples. Create your letters, bios, etc. Email your content and images. I'll do the rest. Don't crop or size your images. I would rather have large source files to work with.

4) Think about privacy: It's usually a good idea to have a separate phone line or 800 number installed just for this effort. Don't give the world information about how to find you initially. You can always provide more info once you're connected with someone. You can start off with just an email address if you wish.

5) Get ideas on what kinds of things to say about yourself: Look at other sites and portfolios to get ideas about what to put into yours. I left ours up as one example for those of you who need ideas.
Link to Daniel and Marlaina's online Portfolio

6) This site is just one small piece of the puzzle. You still need stuff that we aren't involved with at all. These things might include: home study, other types of advertising, adoption attorney, social worker, counseling for a birth mom, etc. There are strong support groups everywhere for people trying to adopt. They can help with ideas, recommend attorneys, give great advise based on personal experience. If you haven't already found a group, talk to the local maternity wards or talk to an adoption attorney found in the phone book. This can be very helpful in getting you started.

7) Home studies and this site: We will not place your portfolio online without evidence of a current valid home study. It's the least we can do for a prospective Expectant Mother.... If you have your home study and are wanting to be on this site, please mail a copy to:

Daniel and Marlaina Moore
12136 NE 107th Avenue
Kirkland, WA 98034

8) How long does it take to get the portfolio up? I tend to work in spurts. I may do nothing for 2 or 3 weeks and then I will get 3 sites up in a day. It just depends. I have a busy job and a new baby. I have recently enlisted the help of a good friend of mine to assist in creating portfolios so the wait time shouldn't be as long.

Good luck - Daniel

That's it! If you wish to continue or have more questions, please drop us a line...

WaitingParent@Open-Adoption-Services.com