Thinking about Life-Books...

When we started our adoption journey, we were encouraged to do a life book for our child.  If you don’t know what a life book is (we didn't)  … 

It is a very personal book that tells the story of the child and how he/she became part of the family.

 Unlike a baby book, the parents use factual information, pictures, art work etc. to tell the child’s story before, during and after adoption,

Information may include:

           ~~  Facts about child’s birth family and reason for adoption placement

     ~Facts about child's life in the orphanage or foster care

     ~How the adoptive family prepared to welcome their new child (the adoption process, ~getting nursery ready, showers etc.

     ~Adoption process

     ~first day as a family

Of course it is very important to tell the adoption story honestly and in age-appropriate manner. The main goal is to encourage the child to ask questions about the adoption and express feelings.

We absolutely love the idea of making a Life Book for our baby but at the same time it is pretty intimidating.

How do we write about relinquishment/abandonment, unknown birth parents etc?

Our first instinct is to protect our child from anything that may hurt her in any way but at the same time we understand the importance of sharing the information we do have with her. There is one thing we do know for sure- we will never pass judgment.  Regardless of the reason why our little one was placed for adoption, we are so thankful to the birth mother for choosing life for the child she couldn't care for (when she had other options). We want our child to know that we respect and honor her for the role she plays in our family

Anyway, we purchased a Life Book (the easy fill-in the blanks type of book) very cute but just realized that it doesn't include pages with key information such as information about birth Country, foster care etc. We think it is more appropriate for a domestic adoption (Can’t return it because we bought it over a year ago :0(

Here’s what we have done so far:

~Completed an online class about Life Books through Adoption Learning Partners     

     ~Purchase the eBook for Kindle: Before you were mine” (we just love the idea of including God in our adoption story)

For now, we will continue to learn more about how to create a life book and what information to include for our baby girl…