I love the idea that a local birthmother shared with me about the scrapbook she and her daughter’s adoptive mother are building together. While many birthmothers or adoptive mothers create scrapbooks or lifebooks for their children individually, this process is unique and has created a way for the two mothers of this one little girl to bond.

Monica* and her daughter’s adoptive mother, Kristy*, are creating their daughter’s (Jenifer) scrapbook/lifebook together. Monica and Kristy didn’t have a whole lot of time to get to know one another before Jenifer* was born as Monica... more

Another therapeutic activity that is a personal favorite of mine is scrapbooking.

I’ve written before about Charlie’s life book. Creating his life book was empowering, healing, and therapeutic for me. His life book contains pictures, information from my childhood, and other miscellaneous information about my side of his biological family history. When creating his life book, I found comfort in the fact that through the life book he would always have something... more

In a recent post, I introduced you to my efforts at digital scrapbooking. In this post, I will share some of my favorite digital scrapbooking websites and the programs I personally use in my own digital scrapbooks.

Just like with old fashioned scrapbooking, digital pages are created by layering photos with backgrounds and embellishments. Many of the digital scrapbooking programs come with lots of backgrounds, embellishments, clip art, etc. that can be used to enhance your pages.... more

Digital scrapbooking is a new trend in the scrapbooking circles. Technical geeks like me love it! I’ve been digitally scrapbooking for about a year now and have come to prefer it over the old fashioned form of scrapbooking. I made Charlie’s lifebook (a page from the lifebook is the photo for this post) using digital scrapbooking software and don’t think I could have completed it as quickly as I did had I used the old fashioned method.

Perhaps you want to make a scrapbnook full of milestones and pictures of your child for his/her birthmother or you want... more

Back in November Christian Adoption Blogger, Laura Christanson, posted about a cool scrapbooking Contest. The deal was you were to make a scrapbooking layout on a way that scrapbooking has changed your life or that you have passed on a legacy. Well, you know how much I love Charlie’s life book and what a great thing I think it is, so I decided to enter the contest and make a layout about passing on my love... more

I thought my lifebook series was complete, but a comment in one of the lifebooks posts got me to thinking about circumstances where a child’s birthmom might not be able to make a lifebook.

Chances comment: I have also made one for my adopted son that I explain to him who these people are, and I have put pictures that I have (before he came to live with us), and as much of his family tree as possible. But I had just copied your post and I am going to send it to his b.mom and see if she would be interesting in making a book from her perspective.

Perhaps... more

While creating a lifebook for her birth daughter, my friend Brandy, recalls feeling that it was lacking something. After much thought, she decided to add quotes that she found meaningful all through out the pages of the lifebook. It turned out beautiful and Brandy has agreed to share some of those quotes with us. Maybe one or two will touch you and find their way inside the pages of your child’s lifebook.

“One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove or what kind of clothes I wore. All that will matter is that I... more

Now, that you know almost everything there probably is to know about creating a lifebook for your child from my previous posts, let me share a few resources and other ideas with you!

I love scrapbooking websites. They can provide you with inspiration, great quotes, poems, layout ideas, etc! In searching, I found a lot of websites that have ideas for adoptive parents of children adopted internationally or sell products geared towards scrapbooks for internationally adopted children but unsurprisingly there is not very much information out there that is devoted... more

Part 1 Part 2

When should I give my child the lifebook? Whenever you want! Some birthmothers begin them during pregnancy and give them to the adoptive parents upon placement. While others (like me) waited awhile to make them. Older birthmothers could also make one to give to their child upon reunification. No matter their age, a lifebook is something that will be treasured for years to come!

What age level should I gear the lifebook towards? This is dependent... more

Continued from Part 1

How can adopted children benefit from having a lifebook? A lifebook constantly reaffirms your love for your child and can also make you more “real” to your child if you are not able to visit much. The adoptive parents can use a lifebook as a teaching tool to educate him or her about his birth family.

What should I include in my child’s lifebook? Below are some ideas of what you can include.... more