Because we are adopting a newborn and the expectant mom gets to choose which family raises her child, one of the things we needed was a “profile book” of our family. Basically a photo album with a mix of posed and candid shots + answers to questions our hired-creator asked us like what are our favorite things to do and what are some family traditions, etc.
Because she had given us a list of the photos she would need (see below), we decided it was best to get a professional photographer to take some fun family pictures. My photographer-friend will agree, a candid, in-home family session was so incredible and I highly recommend having a photographer come and just capture candid moments of your life for an hour and I promise you will love them!
You can see our whole session HERE.
As someone who regularly makes photo books for our own family, I was tempted to take the job on myself. But we decided because our consulting firm had intense requirements the book had to meet, and I was also trying to finish up the paperwork piece, it was better to just pay the cost for a profile book creator to handle it for us.
I was giving a list of the kinds of photos we needed. It consisted of –
+husband and wife – 15-20 images posed
+husband and wife – 15-20 images candid (shockingly very tricky to find candid photos of us together without at least one child… so I was actually forced to look back into our newly-wed photos ;P I found a few I included and 2/3 were actually used in the book haha)
+husband with kids – 3-5 images (posed and candid)
+wife with kids – 3-5 images (posed and candid – again… tricky, but thankfully I could pull from some candid photos my mom had taken during her visits)
+husband alone – 8-10 images posed and candid, doing hobbies desirably
+wife alone – 8-10 images posed and candid, doing hobbies desirably (also tricky because when do I really take candid photos of myself alone doing things I enjoy? ;P )
+our crew – 5-10 posed and candid (easy.)
+kids – 8-10 images posed and candid (easy but tricky to pick my favs 😉 )
+extended family – 8-10 images
+house / community – 8-10 images
I really didn’t want to go past the middle of 2021 (before Spencer was born), but I still ended up pulling a few from as far back as 2015 so I could meet the picture quota for Aaron’s & my candid photo. After spending hours searching, separating, choosing, finalizing and submitting, I ended up turning in 130 photos.
What made this so challenging was I wasn’t just putting together a photo book for our family. I knew that every photo I included would be scrutinized by the expectant mother. She would literally pass or choose our family largely based on what she saw in these photos. My desire to keep it authentic but also putting our best foot forward was exhausting.
Once we submitted all the photos + the 14-page document with our answers to the variety of questions asked of us, we received our first draft back within a couple weeks. It was a beautiful book and I was happy with how our creator designed it and the photos she chose to use of our family. I felt we were well represented. After a couple rounds of proofreading, we were ready to print.
In addition to the PDF & 5 hardcopies our consulting firm received to pass along to expectant mothers we choose to pursue, we got to receive a keepsake copy as well.
After looking it over in person, Aaron said, “well… most expensive photo book ever.” hahaha.
We’ve shown it off a couple times so far to family and they’ve each said it’s a beautiful book and wonderful representation of our family.
All that to say, this was yet another labor of love we (I) put into bringing our precious child home. I pray that whoever gets to see it will hear and see our hearts and be drawn to our family if we are who they are supposed to choose.