Jenny here...I finished our profile book this past weekend (insert
HUGE sign of relief!). I was sure it
would be the death of me. This 15 page
Shutterfly book is what birth mothers and fathers will be looking at to decide
who will parent their babies. Just picture
trying to encapsulate all your values, what you stand for, your parenting
style, and your vision for your children in pictures and words in 15
pages. Oh and there’s a strict guideline
from our agency as to what needs to be on each page.
To say that I overanalyzed this would be putting
it mildly….do I include the picture of Penny dressed up in her Halloween
costume (why did I pick the French maid outfit for her first Halloween?!?)? What if a birthmom thinks it’s weird to dress
up your pet? Does Bailey’s hair look
okay in this picture? What if a birthmom
doesn’t like the super cute font I picked because she doesn’t like cursive
writing? Can I use a chevron background
on two back-to-back pages or does that look lazy? In the end, I had to keep reminding myself
that God will send us the child that is meant for our family, regardless if I
chose the herringbone background or the chevron one.
I do like the way it turned out. I would’ve loved to be more creative with the
format but it is what it is. As I was
working on each page, I prayed over each of them and what they would convey to
those reading it. Once our agency
approves our book, I will be able to upload it to Shutterfly, order copies and send them to
our agency to begin showing them to birth families!! I’m going to order a copy for us in addition
to the 5 our agency needs so I’ll be showing it off in person soon!
The completion of this next step means that we’ve also
been busy applying for adoption grants and continuing to sell our garage sale
leftovers on the Facebook buy/sell/trade pages to fundraise. I had to cancel the fundraising party I was
hosting at our house because I picked a Sunday that hardly any people could
attend. In place of that, we’re
launching 3 online fundraisers this week – today is Jamberry nails, Wednesday
will be Noonday and Friday will be Pampered Chef. Each one will go for a week or so and I’ll
post on FB when the links are ready. I’m
also working on our t-shirts which I’m very excited about!
Here is the info for today’s fundraising launch: My
friend Megan Allwein has offered to donate her commission from the sale of
Jamberry nails to our adoption fund. I
gave myself a Jamberry pedicure in the spring and I had them on 6 weeks before
I decided to take them off but they could’ve stayed on much longer! They’re easy to take off and even safe for
little girls’ fingers and toes! No drying
time, no harsh chemicals and here are TONS of patterns and colors to choose from. You can even upload your own designs into their
Design Studio.
Megan set up a Jamberry Facebook “party” for me but
apparently you can only invite 500 people and I reached the limit! I did the invite list alphabetically so if I
missed you, you can still order at www.meganallwein.jamberrynails.net
and be sure to select “Jenny Cramer’s Fundraiser” at checkout. Once you place your order, you can expect
your wraps to arrive within 7-10 days.
Thank you in advance for your support! We so appreciate your generosity and helping
us to add to our family!
PS Just got word as I was typing this that our profile
book has been APPROVED!!! Yahooooooo!!!
Off to go order on Shutterfly…
