Profile Done!

Time for another post.  Our lives have been so hectic!  Today, I finally mailed in our profile proof.  Our profile is a 7 page (front and back) booklet that contains our birth mother letter with pictures that let her get to see up a bit more.  I have been working on it for several months and am a little embarrassed it took so long to get done.  I had it close to be completed, but I just didn't feel content with how it turned out.  I didn't like all the pictures I had, or felt I was missing some.  I didn't like the layout, the color, felt it was too simple, etc.  I was stressing myself out about not feeling exactly right about it.  I felt like there was so much pressure to have it perfect.  I finally set it aside so I could come back to it with a fresh mind.  But then life decided to get crazy.  We then had to get ready for Gabe's move as well as having several family visits.  But now that Gabe is sipping Mai Tai's on a beach and I am sweltering in Missouri, I finally had time to sit down and finish my project.  I finished our profile, printed a proof, and mailed it to our agency for their approval and suggestions.  And I feel very comfortable with the profile I created.  It is simple like we are, nothing flashy or over the top.  I have a feeling they are going to say we don't have enough "action shots" (shots of us doing things like playing piano, playing basketball, etc. but it's not a posed picture).  But with Gabe thousand of miles away, they are going have to be ok.  I think it represents us the way we want to be presented to birth-mothers. 

Below I posted the first and last page of our profile.  I would post more, but Gabe doesn't like lots of personal information floating around (me having a blog is a big deal).  But if anyone is interested in seeing the full profile, I can email a copy in PDF form.

*first page of our profile*

Picture 2 glittery green brads on the left side binding the booklet

*last page of our profile*

Now our adoption is out of our hands.  We have done all the steps we can do for now.  It's a waiting game now.  Gabe is getting really antsy, and I'm getting anxious too.  We are so excited and ready for the next step.

Now to clear up one little thing.  Some people are wondering why I didn't go with Gabe when he left for Hawaii.  He is there to train which will be very time consuming, then deploy.  I didn't want to be stuck on an island of people I don't know, alone.  As it turns out, Gabe will be in Hawaii for a month, then will leave for a course in California, and straight on to his deployment.  So even if I was in Hawaii, he wouldn't be there.  It's also a God thing, because Gabe needs to take this course, and I'd rather him take it now than when he gets back from his deployment.  It would be hard for him to come home and adjust to life back home, then leave, then re-adjust.  And honestly, when he gets home I'm not gonna let him leave for a long time.