Creating an Adoption Lifebook – Presenting their Background Details
This post is part of a series on creating an Adoption Lifebook. These posts reflect my personal journey creating an album for my son. I welcome your thoughts and tips on making an adoptee or foster care Lifebook as we go along.
This is the second in the series. Just to refresh:
A Lifebook is not a scrapbook even though you can make one in a scrapbook style (which is what I am doing). It is the true story of a child’s journey through adoption. From the moment they are born until they are a part of their forever family.
Last time I focused on when they were born and today we giving them a bit more information about their parent and the start of their story.
Beginning Their Story
In open adoption cases you may have much more information about the story of their birth but for closed and international adoptions you have to be a detective and piece together their history from bits of information in the reports.
We were luck enough that the birth mother completed an interview prior to giving Mr T up for adoption. She filled in a bit of information about how she met the birth father and their relationship.
I struggled here a bit as you can read between the lines and see the negative side to the relationship. There is a balance when adding this information to the book. I did not want to hide information but I also did not want Mr T to think he was a mistake.
My recommendation is to stay factual and not add any of your feelings into this page. Let them come to their own conclusions later on in life.
On the other hand if you find a positive highlight it.! In this case the birth mother shared the meaning behind Mr T’s name and it showed her love for him and her wish for him to have the best in life. It showed she cared and he was worth it.
You can tell she really cared about him and hopefully it comes through on this page. This page also gives him a bit of insight into his parents and that is very important.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. Feel free to share in the comments below or e-mail me at maryd73@capturingmagicalmemories.com
References:
- LifeBooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child by Beth O’Malley
Scrapbook Page Layout Credits:
- 3:21 and UnfoldBundles by Mye De Leon
- My Life & Story Template by Biografitti
Adopting is so exciting. I know it’s an extensive process, but SO amazing. Love your layout.
I’ve never heard of doing this…what a great idea!
This is an amazing book.. it too over 2 years to make, that is incredible.
I’m visual and like directions too!! That page you’ve shown there has an awesome layout.
I have Beth’s book but have not finished my daughter’s lifebook and she’s 7! You’re motivating me to work on it!
That is so sweet, what a great way to make a story and keepsake.
What a beautiful idea! Creating an adoption lifebook is a great way of celebrating and looking back.
A great idea! My SIL is in the process of making a book like this to my niece (she’s not adopted, but they worked really hard to have her). Such a nice thing to do.
That’s really smart to keep emotions out of it so as not to influence their feelings.
How cool. What a great way to keep track of this amazing experience.
What a precious gift for your child! 🙂 I love it.
This is beautiful. I have to share it with my friend
I stumbled upon your page because I am an adoptee preparing to make contact with my birth mother. I’m wanting to make a scrapbook to give her when I meet her! Thank you for sharing this! Your son is really going to appreciate this as he gets older!