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Hi...I am the pre adoptive mom to our lil guy who is 18 months old. He has been with us since he was 10 days old. He went from hospital to foster home to us. Bmom signed tpr last march, just moments before the judge was going to do it for her. I have collected EVERYTHING you can imagine for his scrapbook, including pics of bmom, notes from bmom, riboon, pics and scraps of bday paper , cards etc. I even saved a piece of his bdroom wall paper from his nursery. Next week I will go and take a pic of the hospital he was born in as well. I have a few questions and Im hopeing somebody can help. Where do I start? Do I start with the day he was born, or would you start with the day he was placed with us? Perhaps I should do a bmom scrap book and a forever scrapbook? Im just not sure what to do. There is a year of overlapping where he had 3x a week supervised visits with bmom and alot of pics were taken and many notes passed back and forth btw bmom and I. Notes referred mostly to his feeding schedule etc....but bmom usually always wrote something about how sweet babe is and how she loves him soooo much. I kept every scrap of paper bmom sent. Also is there a good book I can purchase to give me ideas on how to do my pages? I am not crafty at all, but this is something I want to do sooooo badly. I have drawers of things to put in the scrapbook but am unsure of where to start. Any and all help/ides would be greatly appreciated. TIA. Warm Wishes.....MamaTo6
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Hi Mama!! While I know how overwhelming it is to be behind, it's a mixed blessing. I started our daughters book when she was in fc as if she would be returned to her bps because that was the plan. Some of the wording is now awkward and I'm considering re-doing it. Things like...."here you are with ****, Dana's sister". It just sounds weird because now I would just journal "here you are with Aunt ***". Make any sense at all???
I definately think it's good to start at birth, with the birthname and a story about the day they were born if you have it. I also put on that page hospital footprints, ID bracelet and crib card. The one thing I REALLY wish I had was a sonogram picture.....I may ask their birthmom for a copy sometime. I have a box with all the notes from visits, and the few things they gave them. Creative Memories has a guide to putting together an adoption album you might want to check out. I haven't seen it, but someone told me it has some good ideas.
I LOVE scrapbooking.....it's my therapy....and probably more expensive :p !
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I did get a little done today. I started with the easy pages, 3 pages of his 1st b day party and 2 pages of his 1st pets. I think they came out pretty good.:) I think Im going to do one scrapbook starting from birth, but Im not putting bmom notes etc in there. I will keep those seperate and give them to him one day when he is old enough to understand. I never wanted to ignore that he was adopted, just didnt want to share his personal history with everybody he wants to share his scrapbook with while he's younge. I will include pics of bmom and pics of babe with the few toys that bmom gave him as an infant. I dont have foot/hand prints, sonogram etc and its unlikely that bmom would share them with me anyway. I do have 2 pics of him at minutes old and I will take a pic of the hospital he was born in. I also want to add the poem "The gift of life" I know his weight, length, time of birth too, so will add that ofcourse. I even have the two blue diaper pins he wore in his first diaper. (I was at his birth, but had NO IDEA that he would one day be my son) Dh may start a new job this week which would be straight nights. With the lil guy tucked in snuggly, that oughta give me plenty of time to get the first part of his book started. I will also check out the book you mentioned. Hope I can buy it off line as dh is paranoid about the visa over the net.:eek: Thanks for getting me started...Warm Wishes...MamaTo6 P.S. how are the boys?
Dear Mamato6, I should have known that I am not alone! I am trying to figure where to start on my scrapbook for my "out of wedlock" grandson. It is so comforting to hear from someone else who is struggling with their story of a child's beginning! I have been sitting at my desk for 4 months staring at this "baby book" that well-meaning friends gave dear old granny for a grandma baby shower. Commercial producers of baby books are not kind to those of us who have non-traditional families. For example, my grandson's "Dad" is just not interested in being in pictures of "my Mom and Dad before I was born" photos. If there is a good book out there for non-traditional familes, we sure have not found it. My daughter has a mission to publish a baby book that does not make assumptions about a child's beginning. I think you have given me a start - proceed carefully thinking about what this little guy (and maybe his Dad) will see in the future but embrace his first moments of his life. It is all about him after all! A friend of my daughter (bless her) gave her a beautiful generic scrapbook covered with baby themed fabric but without the usual cliches. Does Creative Memories have ideas for us? Would appreciate knowing if so. I am not artsy craftsy at all but maybe should work on that! So off to start something that I have put off far too long! Thanks! Happy G'Ma
CM does have a baby book that's pretty generic with sample layout ideas, but I bet other scrapbook companies do too. I'm not a CM rep or anything.....I like their stuff but some of it's pretty expensive. I like the style of their books because you can add/delete pages. I also have found lots of things at ores and even the chain craft stores.
CM has a website and I think you can look at their books on it.
Mama.....Good for you for jumping in and starting!! My crazy bunch is all doing well. Asthma is way better after starting Singulair :) . Thanks for asking. Keep us posted when you get to finalize.....isn't it coming up soon?
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Well good news and bad news. First is the good news...I am all caught up on babes scrapbook, atleast until I get this next batch of pics back. I think it looks great and have had many compliments from my sisters and a few friends. I journaled it in the 1st person, as if it was M talking. Like this is me and mommy or this is me and daddy. My absolute favorite page is titled Cute as a button. The centre is a beautiful 5x7 of babe smiling and really close up. All over the rest of the page, I hotglued buttons. I bought the bag of different blue colored shapes and sized buttons for a dollar at the dollar store. I am so amazed that MY book looks as good or better than the next persons. Really, I didn't know i was so crafty. lol. Now for the bad news... Im addicted. Im snapping pics for the sake of doing another page. Everything I see in my daily life, I ask myself if I can use it somehow in my scrapbook? Scrapbooking is sooo much fun!!! I've even started 5 more scrapbooks for my adult bio's. All my old pics are sorted and divided and I will start doing them right after Christmas. The plan is to give each of them a scrapbook of their childhood on their birthdays next year. Yup!! I got the bug. lol Anyway just wanted to update you on my progress. Happygma...have you started yet? Warning, its addictive. Tlc...glad everything is good on your end. Warm wishes...MamaTo6