Mini Profile

One evening earlier this week I was looking through some of the adoption links I had saved on my computer.  It had been awhile since I had been on some of the sites and I like to keep up to date on what is going on.  I found a great new feature on the AdoptOntario site. 

This site is a branch of the Adoption Council of Ontario.  The organization that ran the first introductory adoption seminar Nic and I went to.  This site in particular is a tool used by prospective parents, adoption practitioners and social workers to help match children in CAS foster care with forever families. 

Almost two years ago I signed up for the site.  You can enter the age and sex of a child you are looking for and they will bring up some of the children who are adopt ready in the system.  Unfortunately not all children are in the system for prospective parents to see, but they do work hard to keep the program used by practitioners up to date. 

I had forgotten about the site because when I first used it only a child or two were coming up in our age range, most with severe mental or physical disabilities.  This time I recognize the children that came up from The Adoption Resource Exchange we went to in Toronto. 

They now have a great new feature where you can enter a more detailed profile about yourself that practitioners/social workers can see.  You do not have to have your homestudy complete to do it and it is free of charge.  They even have a section where you can select what stage you are at in your homestudy and PRIDE training so that they know where you are in the process.  It is called a mini profile.  Once your homestudy is complete you can update it with your full profile. 

I made some time and sat down to work on our profile.  Nic thinks it is a bit too long to be considered "mini", but I am still happy with how it turned out.  Allot of the profiles I have read online are geared towards birth parents and are a bit breezy and detailed about your past, family life, and plans to raise your child.  Because this is geared for social workers and practitioners I tried to keep it more professional, and less fluffy.  A big thank you goes out to Leslie and her fabulous editing skills.

I am glad I found this tool and am excited to have a profile online.  With a date for our home inspection nowhere in sight (it has been 15 days since I have heard from our practitioner), it felt good to be pro-active and get us out there.  Our pride training starts May 6th, which we are both excited about.  We still have a ton of reading to do before then.  Fingers crossed we find some time for it on Sunday.