[PapaElliott]

Our family is just starting a lifebook for our future adoptive child. I was just wondering what other families have put in their lifebooks that had a real impact on their adopted child. What did you include or exclude from you lifebook?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Elliott
Snapshots From Our Journey

[Betelnut]

I did an "adoption" book for my daughter. I think the parts she likes the best are pictures of her birth mother and pictures of herself as a baby. The book only goes up to about a year after her adoption at 18 months.

One thing I did leave out that I regret is that my daughter has two siblings in Guatemala. I left out that information as well as any mention of her birth father. I have the names of her sister, brother and father but just included her mother. I have actually thought of redoing the book and including that information. (I do tell her that she has a brother and sister but it gets sort of marginalized since it isn't in her book.)

So I would recommend including information about his/her birth family that you have (age appropriate of course) and lots of pictures of him/her as a baby (they LOVE that!)

I would use some humor. For example, I wrote, "So Mommy waited and waited and waited and waited and waited" (and so on for a whole page!). She thinks that is hilarious since it is so exaggerated.

Good luck and have fun! You probably won't be able to do most of the book until you actually adopt a kid since it will be unique to his/her adoption.

[Thalasshaya]

We included photos of everyone in our extended families, and wherever possible made it a photo of that person holding our daughter. She thinks it is way cool that she's on every page of her book.