Birthmom Scrapbook

I say go with your gut! I think it would only show your enthusiasm to parent a baby. It's not as if possible birth parents don't realize this is mostly about the baby! ;) Your book should reflect you and your husband. Just be sincere! I too love scrapbooking. We needed 6 copies of our booklet so I didn't buy albumns. We bought ribbons and buttons. We three-hole punched the pages, loosley tied them with ribbon, and glued a matching button on the center of each knot. It's 'cutsie' but I'm cutsie/crafty and my DH loves that about me, so it works for us! Good luck and know that it will take a long time to complete, but every thoughtful touch will be well worth it! Imagine showing the book to your child some day! That some day will come true! ~Nina

Thanks Nina, I went ahead with the baby scrabook. I am glad you gave me the nudge to go with the one that I really wanted to get. I have been working on it most of the day. It really is ALOT OF WORK! But, we know in the end it is going to be SO WORTH IT! How long have you been going through this whole process? I need start dinner, I have been so one minded all day with this! Hope you had a nice Saturday! Jenn

Hi again Jenn~ We considered international vs. domestic adoption for a couple of years, talking about the options and educating ourselves. Then almost 2 years ago, we decided for sure exactly what we wanted to do. We decided that we wanted to experience parenting a newborn at least once, so we picked domestic adoption. Next we realized we needed to come up with a clearer financial plan so we began working on that. Next, we started planning for our new home to be built on a lot that we owned. We knew that would take a great deal of time and energy so we tried not to 'put the cart before the horse'. Once we broke ground in early spring, we began our home study. We completed that in June and for the first three weeks or so in July, we worked on our scrapbook. I am a teacher and in the summer I work part time, so it gave me something fun to do in the afternoons, besides helping with the house. Because we knew we would need several copies of our booklet, I went digital. I learned how to use a cool program by Broaderbund called Creative Memories Scapbooker (or something similar). It was slow going at first, but it was a real labor of love! Have fun with yours, but walk away from it from time to time. I found that some pages came easier than others. It was helpful to have my DH do a bunch of the writing (he likes to write). Be sure to have several people look over it when ou are done. We missed a couple of errors that others picked up. We just completed our own website, and it just went live Friday afternoon. I tried to make it look like my booklet. There are more pages in my booklet, but if you check out our website (love-to-adopt.com) you will get a feel for what ours is like. While I like the website, there is nothing to compare to holding the booklet. I'm glad I took all the time that I did to make it extra special. I didn't want it to be 'just good enough'. I wanted it to reflect our lives and our excitement to become parents. I'm sure yours will be beautiful! It will touch the heart of your possible bithmother and help you build a connection. Be sure to make a high quality color copy for you and your child down the road. It will be a keepsake to teasure. Good luck and don't burn your dinner! Nina :D

Jenn, I have to respectfully disagree with the previous poster. We were told to NOT have a baby theme. That it reinforces this difficult decision that she is making. Who wants to see a cutesy, baby-like "scrapbook" when you are not keeping your baby?-is what we were told! I am sorry to be blunt, and I know you've said you've been working on it all day, but *IMO* it smacks of poor taste. Maybe you and others might disagree. Our "book" had a background of sky and clouds. Personally, we wanted something that seemed "soothing" to the pbmoms. Like I said, JMO, but I would reconsider having a baby theme to your book. I would ask your agy for advice for what others have done (not so that it can be the same, but to see what others do!) Who knows? Maybe everyone at your agy HAS a baby theme and you could do something different to "stand out".

HI, I appreciate any and all feedback. The inside of the book contains nothing of a baby theme. So whatever way we go, the inside stuff will fill whatever album we use in the end. Of course I will go over this with the agency before I would turn anything in. That is why I was asking...so anyone that has an opinion...PLEASE SHARE IT WITH ME!! Jenn

Hi Jenn, Ask your agency but I say there are birthmoms who like to see that and there will be birthmoms who may not like to see it. The important part is what is inside. Our agency kept the scrapbook in their office and showed it to birthmoms. For our first adoption we did our scrapbook. Both my husband and I slaved over it. We wanted it to be perfect and spent so much time working on it. The second time we TRIED to adopt our agency did our scrapbook. Thank God! I'm sure they did a better job and they knew what to put in and what to leave out. Unfortunately we didn't have any luck with a domestic adoption this time around. But we were able to experience our son's birth and all the days since (he's three and quite adorable!) We started our 2nd adoption (1 1/2 years ago) hoping again for a newborn. But I want my children to be close in age. Since we've waited so long for this 2nd adoption we're now pursuing international and the youngest child we can adopt from Ukraine (we've chosen Ukraine) will be 14 months old. We will do a simple photo album showing our home and family. And it will be up to the judge to keep this or not. Enjoy the process but don't let it hand you up. Some advice...check with your agency/attorney every 3-6 months to see what kind of activity they've had on your biography. Hopefully you will have plenty of activity ie. showing your biography and scrapbook. And if they don't have a lot of activity do your own advertising. The best to all you who are waiting for a newborn to change your life completely.

I say keep it neutral. When I was looking at bios when I placed҅I didnt want to look at cutesy baby bioҒsI wanted to look at a bio that reflected the adoptive couple and their life together. You might consider getting something that reflects your tastes or a hobby (if you have one). Good luck!

Oh, wow... I don't want to undermine anyone's gut feeling or anything... sometimes you just have to go with what your heart says.... But I have to agree with Brandy and sadiegirl.... It really would have broken my heart to see a baby-themed album (even just the cover--that's the first impression of the scrapbook, after all) when trying to choose aparents. Just imagining it I'm kind of tearing up inside. It was hard enough seeing baby photoalbums in the book store I worked in while pregnant... seeing a p-acouple's book presented in a baby-themed album probably would have just made me cry.... Maybe other p-bmoms could take it, I just know I couldn't have.... Whatever you decide, good luck! N

Thank you all for your help! I am definatley going with the garden themed album (my favorite past time). I am an adoptee myself, and it is nice that there are so many birthmoms on this sight. I have both books here and will put the baby one aside for someday when I can fill it with pictures for myself! Thank you so much, all of you are GREAT! Jenn:)