Dear Birthparent

Oh the letter I've been thinking about writing ever since we started thinking about adoption. I mean really what do you say to the person or people that could make you a parent. Jeff and I each have to write a letter individually to put in our profile. How do you know what is important to include and what is ok to leave out. What are these expectant parents looking for? what will turn them off? what do you say to make yourself stand out? I am trying very hard to make it sound like me and not like a professional letter. My first attempts at starting it came off too impersonal when I read it back, with nothing that felt like me. I feel like now after four of five drafts I'm starting to get closer to what I want. I have had trouble limiting it to just one page, but finally was able to.
I can't help but get excited that we will soon be a waiting family. Because at that point any day we can be chosen or matched. But I also hate that I am getting excited because I need to be realistic and know we will probably wait for a year or two or three. I'm so excited to be waiting yet it also makes me nervous because we will be done with our checklist of things to do, and the hardest part starts... just waiting and waiting and waiting.
Our adoption counselor did encourage us to network, and said she would gladly send our home study to other agencies or lawyers if we liked. We did not orignially know that was something that was encouraged, so that opens up many new doors and is something we will probably look into once we are approved.
I have some anxiety about making our profile perfect. I am not a perfectionist, but every few minutes I am tweeking one part or another, constantly over analyzing how this picture or how that sentence will be viewed or percieved. I often think, I need more pictures of this, or this picture isn't good enough, or why don't I have a picture of this. I want it to be perfect and at the same time don't know what would make it perfect. I try really hard to know that it will seem perfect to the expectant mother that is carrying our child. I do believe that we will be matched with the child that was intended for us, so I need to let go of the perfection issue I have been having.

These are just some of the thoughts I have during this last part of the process, and all these thoughts really stem from the main question that is constantly turning in my head "how long will we wait?" and "what can I do to make that shorter?" haha