Many adoptive parents who join our agency are initially surprised at our process for helping them connect with prospective birth parents — specifically, the requirement of creating a video profile.
We get it; this step can seem like a lot, especially if you’ve already taken a long journey to get to this point. It’s a rare person who enjoys seeing themselves on film, and cameras and tripods can be confusing to a lot of people.
So, we often get the question, “Can’t we just skip the video profile? Why isn’t the print profile enough?”
There is a reason why we are able to connect so many adoptive parents with prospective birth parents every year. It all starts with why prospective birth parents choose our agency — and the adoptive parent video profile plays a key role.
Don’t believe us? We recently spoke with Lindsey, a birth mother who worked with our agency, for her thoughts on selecting families from our video profiles. What she has to say may surprise you.
“I Skimmed Through Their Profiles, But It Was Really Their Videos that Grabbed My Attention Immediately.”
Like many birth mothers, Lindsey was balancing a complicated life at the time she found herself unexpectedly pregnant. She was caring for a daughter under a year old with special needs as a single mother. It didn’t leave much time for her to read through profile after profile in her free time.
So, she mainly selected her baby’s family after viewing their video.
“What I found myself doing — what was easier with my lifestyle and how busy I was — was to pop in my headphones, have the video playing, and that way I could hear it, kind of do other things,” she says.
It’s normal for adoptive parents to worry about every little detail in their print profile, wondering if including or excluding a detail will be the thing that makes a prospective birth mother choose them. But, Lindsey’s experience shows adoptive parents are much better served putting the same thought and soul into their video profiles.
People between the ages of 25 and 34 are those who watch the most online videos today, and many prospective birth mothers fall into this category. In fact, in today’s world, 79 percent of consumers prefer watching video to reading about something. Ask yourself: When was the last time you sat down and read a long-form article or book?
Prospective birth parents are the same way. Women like Lindsey prefer watching videos of prospective adoptive parents to reading about them. It’s faster, and they can get a better feel of who that family really is.
Think about that the next time you’re frustrated with the video profile process.
“[It] Was Really Nice Being Able to See the Family Interact With Their Family, and Interact With Their Pets and Other Children They Had.”
While you may think that a print profile can communicate much more about you than a video profile, prospective birth parents aren’t too interested in the details at the beginning of their search. They’re just looking for adoptive parents that they “click” with.
Lindsey had an idea of what kind of adoptive parents she wanted, but what really solidified her choice was getting to see them interact “in person.” Even before she spoke with them over the phone, she had an idea of what they were like in a way that a print profile could never communicate.
The message to take away? Don’t be afraid to show your true personalities in your video, and try to include as much natural video as you can from your everyday life. Prospective birth parents really want to know what you’re like; a written description on its own just doesn’t cut it.
“I Don’t Know What It Was [That Made Me Pick Them]. They Just Seemed Very Genuine. The Lifestyle I Wanted For My Baby, They Had; The Family Environment that I Wanted, They Had.”
Hopeful adoptive parents often ask their specialists what prospective birth parents are looking for in a family. Unfortunately, there’s just not a single answer. Every prospective birth parent is different, and so is what they’re looking for in adoptive parents. Sometimes, a prospective birth parent doesn’t really know what they’re looking for until they find it!
While Lindsey had a general idea of what she wanted her daughter’s parents to be like, there’s not one thing she can point to that made her pick them. It was a gut feeling — a sensation many other birth parents experience, too.
Sometimes, it’s even the smallest things that make a difference:
“They actually have a Boston terrier, which I love and I had one growing up. So, that was a little bit of a deciding factor for me,” Lindsey remembers.
You’ve heard it before, but we’ll say it again — just be yourself in your video profile and show off what makes your family unique. It might be the very thing a prospective birth parent is looking for.
“Honestly, the Video Was My Favorite Thing About the Profiles — Because I Really Got to Know the Family.”
Don’t focus solely on your print profile — as Lindsey says, the video profile is actually the most important part.
There’s just something different about seeing a family in person from looking at a picture on a page, and the video specialists at Show Pro Media will work hard to show off the best aspects of your family in your profile. Follow their instructions for filming, and they’ll work their magic to create a video to catch a prospective birth parent’s attention.
Without a video profile, Lindsey would have taken much longer to find the perfect family for her child — if she had found them at all.
Keep all of this in mind as you work on your own video profile. It may be frustrating or complicated at times, but it will be all worth it when your baby is finally placed into your arms. Remember: If you ever need assistance, your Show Pro video specialist will always be there to help.
Want to learn more about adopting with our agency? Give our specialists a call anytime at 1-800-ADOPTION or contact us online for more information.
