In the sports world, you’ll often hear a coach talking about placing his or her players in the best position to succeed. At Adoptimist, we try and do exactly same thing. But for all the targeted web advertising and social media outreach we perform, none of it guarantees your success. It still takes dedicated families with engaging profiles to make adoption matches and connections. So much of your adoption success will be based on factors that are out of your hands, like luck, chance, and even a birthmother’s personal preferences. You need to do everything... Read more…

Waiting for an adoption can be a long nerve-wracking, frustrating, and just downright difficult process. Between waiting for that special message and the disappointment of scammers, it’s easy to get bogged down and stuck in a negative loop. Although the circumstances may warrant this uneasiness, constantly being dragged down by negative thoughts (“Our adoption will never happen.”) or self-doubt (“Their profile is so much better than ours.”) will only hurt your personal well-being and stress levels. Many adoptive parents believe their adoption will... Read more…

Adopting a baby can come with a lot of challenges, including networking and marketing your family to reach potential birth mothers. At Adoptimist, we are experts in marketing families and hopeful adoptive parent profiles. We know from experience that promoting a family on the internet comes with a unique set of challenges, including keeping your private information safe and protected, while at the same time, getting your adoption profile seen by many people as possible. Adoption scammers put hopeful... Read more…

Using social media can be a great outlet to help in your adoption search. Creating a Facebook Page or Instagram profile can give a glimpse into your family, and show an expectant mother what your family is all about. Authentic human connections are the basis of social media. It makes networking easier, faster, and expands your reach 10x over.  While it can be a useful tool, many adoptive... Read more…

Take a look at some of our successful families. Other than the fact that they found their adoption connection through our service, what do they all have in common? Not a lot, on the surface. They live in different states, with different ethnic and economic backgrounds. Some are traditional, some are single parents, while others are same-sex families. Some were on our site for years before connecting. Others were for literally just a few hours before meeting their future birth parents. ... Read more…

Have you ever considered what an amazing time it is to be a hopeful adoptive parent? There are unprecedented resources and opportunities available to help you meet all your family goals—tools that even a decade ago were not available to adoptive parents. But with all these new opportunities and technologies come a lot of decision making. Are you going all in on Instagram based on the recent hype? Or are you sticking with a more traditional presence on a platform like Facebook? Maybe you are thinking outside the box and running ads in newspapers, or perhaps... Read more…

Myth 1: Scam messages are a sign your outreach isn’t working.  Scam messages are not necessarily an indicator that your outreach isn’t working. In fact, they may be a very strong indicator that your outreach is doing its job. Here’s why: typically, an adoption scammer’s online behavior will mimic that of a legitimate person who is considering adoption. They may do similar Google searches, look at similar sites, and view or contact adoptive families, as well. So, the very outreach that helps you complete your family is also the reason you are... Read more…

It’s a great time to be pursuing adoption. There are more ways than ever to get connected with someone and create the family of your dreams. But your time and energy aren’t limitless. And neither are your financial resources. So you’ll want to make smart, careful decisions and consider all your options during every step of your adoption journey. You’ll need to be creative and open-minded at times, stubborn and tenacious at others. Your adoption success will require effort... Read more…

In today’s world of social media, private adoption has become much more dependent on making sure you have an online profile, often with both your adoption professional as well as on a site like Adoptimist. Although adoption scams have existed for decades, prospective adoptive families are expected to “put themselves out there” more than ever. Prospective adoptive parents come into adoption in a very vulnerable state... Read more…

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) This was the one article I have put aside and avoided writing over and over again. This is such a tough situation. On one hand, parenting by the biological parents should be celebrated and supported (in most cases); on the other hand, we, the potential adoptive parents, experience a loss similar to those who have been pregnant and had a miscarriage. Failed... Read more…