Life Books

I am a long time believer in the importance of preserving family history through scrapbooking.  We have a huge bookshelf dedicated to our family scrapbooks.  All of our children have one, and there are multiple books that record the life of our family.

I feel that Jennifer and Abigail must each have a book when they arrive home so they can see that they are important to us.  Enter the LIFE BOOK.  Apparently these have been popular in the foster care and adoption movement since the 1970's.  It takes the scrapbook just a little bit further, in that it begins with a history that we were not a part of, so as to retrace (as much as possible) their past before coming to live with us.

Since 1999, the orphanages in China have been required to run a provincial newspaper advertisement for children that are found and brought to their orphanage. These are referred to as "Finding Ads," and are a part of the process of making the child "paper ready" for adoption.  These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them. Originally these were text-only ads, but most provinces now include photographs in their ads. These photographs are usually the earliest available pictures of the children.

Brian Stuy, a dad who himself has adopted children from China, has obtained the ads throughout the years and catalogs them for parents like us who are looking for answers for our children concerning their personal history.  I was able to get the finding ads for both Jennifer and Abigail through Research-China.  These ads were a great find as I now have an early baby photo of both girls as well as information as to how they came to be cared for at the orphanage!

I have been very pleasantly surprised at the amount of information and number of photos I have been able to collect for the life books.  I have them sorted and laid out by page, and am now collecting the scrapbook papers, stickers, etc. to do it up pretty.

I've also ordered a couple of books to give me ideas since these are a little different from the scrapbooks I would typically create. I'm using these as reference/idea books:

Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child by Beth O'Malley.  Description from Amazon: The lifebook process prepares you to talk about delicate subjects as well as adoption basics. Best of all, in the end, your child has an unique book that captures their often complicated life story. In this adoption classic, Beth ( who is both an adoptee and adoptive parent) guides you step-by-step and page-by-page just as if she were right there with you. It's all explained in full detail with a light touch of humor.

Would you rather see how someone else completed an entire lifebook before you get started? That's covered, too, with three full-length examples in the back section which include: Domestic/Infant , Foster-Adopt , and International.



 
and

  Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings  by Cindy Probst  Amazon's description " easy-to-read workbook for international adoptive parents and waiting parents who wish to document their children's early lives for them, in the form of a lifebook. Through exercises and text, readers become more comfortable telling children the truth about their beginnings while emphasizing their strengths and resilience. Adoption specialist Cindy Probst guides parents through such topics as talking with children about their birth parents and orphanage or foster care experience, answering "why was I adopted?" questions, and using empowering adoption language. 'Adoption Lifebook: A Bridge to Your Child's Beginnings'is an invaluable resource for helping children feel good about who they are."

I purchased the three-ring binder type of scrapbooks that will allow for easily inserting extra pages as I come upon new discoveries.  I'm  looking forward to getting things glued down!