That's the minimum of how many we have to send to the adoption facilitators so they can build our various web and print "profiles."
Action photos of me...
Action photos of Chris...
Action photos of the two of us together...
Family photos...
Close-up portrait-y photos...
Our pets and our house...
As I sit here clackering away on my laptop, Chris is busily working at his computer pulling together the photos we've selected to put on a CD to send along to the facilitators.
This is a Herculean task.
We've never, aside from our wedding, taken any formal portrait photos together and most often we end up taking photos of each other, but rarely do we have a photo of us together as a couple. So finding those has been especially challenging.
The facilitators indicated that they don't want us to be wearing hats or sunglasses in our photos.
Crap.
Since many of our best pictures were taken while we were in Maine on vacation, we're wearing just those very things in most of the shots.
Oh well.
The facilitators will just have to deal.
Apparently, since we do not currently have any children, we're not supposed to send shots of us with the children in out lives (our two nieces, 10 year-old sister, and friends' children) because we might give birthmothers "the incorrect impression that [we] already have children."
Really?
Come on.
Will expectant mothers who are viewing our profiles truly think that we have children if the photos are labeled clearly?
How completely annoying since some of our best photos have recently been taken with Chris' little sister, our nieces and our best friends' kids.
The facilitators suggest that we pose shots to be taken by a family friend or relative if we don't have the requisite number or kind of photos already available...our instructions read:
Photos should be: Current, Up to date (within the last year) - various poses, activities & different clothing.
Think cozy. Think silly. Think active. Think h a p p y !
Think I may vomit!
The instructions also read:
Pictures can be fun to do! Remember - these will make a great scrapbook/baby book for your new little one.
Really?
So fake "posed" photos are an honest representation of us?
Why not let us send photos from each year of our marriage that truly represent who we are as a couple?
We have so many great fun, loving photos of us from our various trips, holidays and everyday life that we've taken over the years. Genuine photos that show who we really are.
Wouldn't that make a much better scrapbook for our Little One?
Apparently not.
Chris grumbles loudly at his desk.
"Maybe we should take some photos of each other tomorrow," I suggest to Chris a minute ago after he reveals that we definitely do not have enough photos to meet the minimum 30.
"Oh yeah," he says, voice full of sarcasm, "that would feel so natural."
So we've put out the plea to our relatives to search for and send more current photos of us.
Somehow I have the feeling that we may end up doing some of the posed photos...
Say "Cheeeeeese!"
Eeeuuuwwww.
Finding pictures was horrible. Writing the letter was horrible. Meeting our facilitator's guidelines was horrible. We needed "natural, loving photos" which apparently meant hanging on each other. He's a foot taller than I am! Ugh! You have my sympathy. BUT we got through it. We have a letter i'm mostly happy with (truly by the end I was "screw it!". She's a professional, I'll deal! Good luck slogging through!
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