[sfbaymom2000]

I have heard about people creating a small photo album to give to the child(ren) you are matched with during pre-placement visits. My social worker also suggested this. I love scrapbooking, and am excited about doing this. I am just wondering what other people have done. Do you keep it pretty small, short, and simple? I don't even know whether to use a 5x7 album or 8x10 album. Do you use only current pictures or include some older ones (for example, or your other children at younger ages)? Did you label the pictures with names, and if so, do you put the parents' first names? Or do you put 'Mommy' and 'Daddy'? This is somewhat related to a question I posted a while back about what children choose to call the fost/adoptive parents in the beginning. Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Lynn

[Midmodad]

here's what i did, kept it very simple, printed pics out on 81/2x11 paper with a cover sheet. used 1 or 2 pics of the family, pets and house including the bedroom. I used first names for a couple reasons. i am looking for older children and for case workers to look at.

i attached the document to my profile with the state so that it can easily be copied and sent out. that way the child could see it first off.

on a first visit i will take the same pics and a few more of the family extended in a small portfolio easy to carry and give it to him if i feel things have gone well.

just me though !

[joskimo]

I'm working on one right now, I'm keeping it very simple and the goal of it's use is for prepalcement, after we've all met and know that placement is iminent, something for the child to have and look at with the SW or foster family.

I'm using a 1/2 sized album, I have a family picture and I use our names not mom and dad, I had to really think about that one. On one side I have text and the other side I have the picture. I have a picture of the house, a picture of the animals, a picture of our boat and a fish we caught, and I'm going to get a picture of our neighborhood park and duck pond. Not sure that I'll put much more in. I have really simple text, almost like a child's story book. It's pretty cute, I'm happy with it.

It's been fun to work on because we're in wait mode I feel like I actually got to expend energy on something and have a tangilble result!

[mj77]

We made our "welcome book" age appropriate according to what age we were interested in. Our first book (first time we adopted) had our dog introduce our family and narrate who we are. I basically did pages showing who we are, what we do durring our days (ie. dh works on computers and I was a homemaker so I showed dh with his computer and me cooking) and I showed what we like to do (ie. go to parks--showed our local park, go on drives--showed our car etc...). Our dog concluded we were looking for a very special boy or girl to be a part of our family and we couldn't wait to meet them. We included a poem too. We got our digital camera out to do all this so our pictures were posed. We could have just as well bought a roll of film specifically for this.

My second book I wrote it as a story about us. I used recent pictures though some were copies from our first book, 3 years old. I didn't overwhelm the book with many pictures or people. I included our closest family, those who the child would see regularly.

[sfbaymom2000]

Thanks so much for all the great ideas! I think the dog doing the talking is very cute!

Lynn

[Howdy]

I've used the small soft cover 4x6 albums like Walmart sells for a couple dollars. I put in a couple pictures of me, such as one doing yard work and one more normal sort of pose, a picture of each housepet, pictures of my mom, brother, niece, nephew, and one each of the horses, chickens, barn cats. I put a little label with the name of the person/animal on each picture.

I also make a video. Since I've known the children's ages (the two times I've done it), I included some video of the outside of the elementary school and the inside lobby of the school (including whatever kids and noise are happening). I put the school footage at the end of the video, along with the local McDonalds (which unfortunately has gotten rid of their play area), the rest of the short video is normal stuff - the outside of the house, walking up to and in the door, the interior, their room, the pets, then the barn, the chickens, brief scene of me riding my horse, the trampoline, etc. And I carry around the tape cassette with childrens music playing so that makes a nice background sound. For one school shot of a group of kids in the distance, I dubbed in a song, so it seems like they are out there singing. That was for the very end, and then I let the picture run out and the music continues for several seconds more (so it isn't a sudden end to the video).

The videos seem popular, both kid's previous foster parents reported they watched it over and over and got very happy and excited about coming. They like the pictures too, and enjoy knowing things like who my brother is when he first comes to visit, etc.

[FinnigansMom]

I'm starting a preplacement photo album as well. Some suggestions that I plan to implement are:

pictures of the child's future school
a playground, park or rec area
church/synagogue (if you attend one regularly)
child's future bedroom
backyard

Good luck!

[kidsrcoming]

This was one of the most enjoyable projects my husband and bio children had during our adoption process. We started out by buying a regular photo album (one where you can add pages), and started out with "Once upon a time...." We put a photo of our house and yard, and pictures of Mommy and Daddy Dating, Our Wedding Info., Each bio had their own page, (Then we inserted a page with a piece of tin foil, framed it like a mirror, and title the page, "THE ONLY ONE MISSING IS...YOU!", so when they looked at the page they saw their reflection, I put a page in for "MOM'S KITCHEN", made it look like a menu, put a page of pet photos, you get the picture (NO PUN INTENDED ), JUST LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD!! GO TO YOUR LOCAL CRAFT STORE THEY HAVE MANY ROWS OF IMBELISHMENTS!! What a great way to express your artistic and inner qualities as a family.

[sfbaymom2000]

kidsrcoming,

You are very creative! I love the idea about "The only one missing is you! I think with all the wonderful ideas suggested by everyone here, I am well prepared to make a very special book for a very special child!

Thanks!
Lynn

[kidsrcoming]

Have fun!! We were staffed and picked as our new kids forever family on Friday. They were given our book yesterday, and the sw said they love it, the little one wants to sleep with it. We get to meet for the first time next week!! God bless and good luck!

[sfbaymom2000]

The last post brings to mind another question...about timing. I see that kidsrcoming gave the book to the children prior to meeting them. Midmodad is planning on giving it to the child at the first meeting (possibly). I am curious to know what the other people who posted did or are planning to do. I guess I assumed it would be given to her after we met, at the first or second meeting. I'll see what our SW suggests, also.

Congratulations to you, kidsrcoming! Can you tell us any more about your soon-to-be kids? Boys/girls, ages, etc.

My daughter and I just went and picked out a cute scrapbook and colorful paper and stickers to decorate the pages. Thanks again to all of you for your suggestions!

Lynn

[Mommy_NLL]

I took a picture of my Bio-son and I, laminated it and glued it to the tummy of a teddy bear. I gave the bear as a gift to my Fost/Adopt Son on our first meeting (that meeting did not include my Bio-Son).

Then as a part of pre-placement we have 3 weekends of visits. So I took a lot of pictures during those visits. During those visits we went to the school, the park, restaurants etc. We took picture at those places. So the pictures show the 2 boys having a good time in the new surroundings . I then put them in a photo album and gave it to my Fost/Adopt Son on the day he came to live with us.

We looked at the pictures together on that first night.

Good Luck
NLL

[gclvaruba]

Just another perspective...each situation is different and hopefully our bad experience is far and above what most people have to go through....

DH & I put together a photo album of our home, family, the new school, pets etc. We presented the album to our prospective adoptive daughter on the day which we asked her to join our family.

Of course she took the album to school and showed it to all of her friends. The contrast between present environment and future environment was a horrible stimulus for jealousy and ultimately peer pressure.

She was told how she would "never fit in", "why do you want to go live with those rich people (we are far from rich- but of course compared to what she had and where she was...), "You will not fit in, you will not be able to make new friends, the other kids are going to be too' different, the other kids will dress different. I think you get the picture.

Needless to say her friends knew much more than we did (well at least SHE thought they did). A week prior to placement, after 4 months of visiitations, the child decided not to join our family and stay in the group home where she was living.

Next time I think we will hold off on the album until placement. Instead, we will purchase some disposable cameras and a nice photo album in which to place the photos. They can then accumulate whichever memories they like of their present home, school, friends, pre-placement visits, etc.

[Waiting_Family]

gclvaruba, oh, I'm so sorry about your experience. Our DD has been with us two weeks, after living in a group home for a year. Talk about a bunch of teenage drama queens! Her behavior improved greatly since she has been with us, as they all seemed to feed off of each other's drama. I can see how that peer pressure on her must have made her uncertain. How sad that she missed out on your family.

Hopefully some pics of my album will post here: I used the smaller 7x7 Creative Memories album. They only had the star out when I made mine, but now I see Mickey Mouse, a heart, etc. If it doesn't show, and you are interested, email me and I will send you photos, if you would like.

Oh, and our sw told us she was relieved when she went looking for our album in her office, that our family name was on the first page! She said sometimes people forget that, and it is important!!

<img src=http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B54%3B8%3B23232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2329%3D823%3D58% 3C%3DXROQDF%3E23235%3A45%3B9278ot1lsi>

<img src=http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B54%3B8%3B23232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2329%3D823%3D58% 3C%3DXROQDF%3E23235%3A45%3B6%3B%3B7ot1lsi>

<img src=http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B54%3B8%3B23232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2329%3D823%3D58% 3C%3DXROQDF%3E23235%3A45%3B%3C337ot1lsi>

<img src=http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B54%3B8%3B23232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2329%3D823%3D58% 3C%3DXROQDF%3E23235%3A45%3B%3C43%3Bot1lsi>

<img src=http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B54%3B8%3B23232%7Ffp64%3Dot%3E2329%3D823%3D58% 3C%3DXROQDF%3E23235%3A45%3B%3A86%3Aot1lsi>

Well, you get the idea! Our pages were named:
Title page with family name
Mom, Dad, J.
Waiting for our star! family photo
Our Pets
Home Sweet Home (on 3 pages)
Family Room and Kitchen
Your Room
Our Park
Cars
J. (our bio dd)
We Play
We Camp
We Explore
Memere
Nana and Papop
Our Street at the end of the Rainbow (I had a photo w/rainbow)
Not the end, only the beginning (showing chicken hind parts!)
Our Star comes home (with place for our new dd's photo)

[Waiting_Family]

Drat the luck! The html works in other forums...I don't know why it didn't here. Sorry! If you want to see, email me!