Advertisements
Hi!
My name is Lisa and I am a birthmother. Shortly after my son was born last year I began writing a journal as a way to collect all of my feelings, thoughts and experiences with adoption. I had planned on giving it to him someday so he would have a way to know that I did not release him because I did not care about him.
His first birthday was this month and looking back into the journal I realized that if I were the one to receive this book that I would be overwhelmed with some of the things in it. I decided to start a scrapbook instead. I use my journal entries from the book as the journaling in the scrapbook. I have included pictures from the hospital, from the day when he was 6 months old and I got to spend the afternoon with his family, as well as his birthfather's college graduation, a family reunion this summer, and plan on adding to it more of the special occassions that he misses in my life. I would like ideas from anyone as to what else to include in this special book. It is something that I plan on adding to until he his old enough to understand its signifigance. I am not creative enough to make my own layouts, but like to take ideas from other people's layouts. I have tried searching for ideas on the internet, but there is not much out there from the birthparent's side. I usually find products for lifebooks which are wonderful, but don't really fit my needs.
Any ideas?
Lisa
Like
Share
I think your idea is wonderful. I have one son (11 years) and am hoping to adopt a baby soon. I LOVE scrapbooking, and have been the historian for our family for years. Let me tell you that ANYTHING that is important to you will one day be important to your child. If you are worried about overwhelming your child someday, you can try this little trick....fold up the more personal journal entries, or ones that might be a little more intense....and put them inside an envelope that you attach to the page. That way, your child can pull out that journal entry, or letter, only when he feels like he can handle it. Also, it enables other people to look at your scrapbook without having your private thoughts read by everyone else. I would LOVE for my future adopted baby's birthmom to do that. I think it would be wonderful.
Sincerely,
Kristie
Advertisements
I have one son so far (adopted), and I'm working on a 'personal' scrapbook that I will give him one day when he's old enough to appreciate it. This will be when he's an adult, out of his teens, or perhaps before he goes to college.
This scrapbook will be for his eyes only and so I can get as personal as I want to get in it. I also don't have to worry about being too "artistic" as the point of the book is to give him something of me that he can carry with him throughout his life.
I took a neat seminar at a scrapbook convention recently. It was called "Passing It All On," and was led by a nice young lady named Marci Whitford. She gave some great tips on creating this type of scrapbook.
You want the scrapbook to be a part of you that your child can always hold dear, and it should answer questions like "why you love them so much;" "what your personal struggles have been;" "advice on the big stuff;" "what are your faith and values;" etc. She suggested making "pocket pages" where you can continue to add to the book through the years by slipping letters, notes and photos into the pockets of the book. So, you'd have one page called "hopes" or "dreams" and you'd share what you hope for his life and yours. You'd be able to keep adding to the page through the years by slipping more stuff in the pocket.
Choose a "theme" for the album, i.e. a couple of colors of cardstock and one or two patterned papers, and stick to that theme throughout the album. That will create a cohesiveness and a "flow" to the album.
I hope this helps someone-- i'm working on my son's album now and am really enjoying it.
I just started working on my son's scrapbook and he's 3 1/2. I have lots of catching up to do. It took me so long to get started because I'm not the most creative person. I have to be "inspired." I began doing his scrapbook like most others, and have been blessed to find some adoption related stickers and poems. Those can be hard to find; Until I found this thread. I did my first pages at a scrapbooking party with some friends, and it was great to see what they had done to get ideas. I did about 5 pages at the party, and then came home and did 5 more in just a matter of 3-4 days.
The journaling will be more difficult and personal, so I thought I'd start with the pictures. I really liked the idea about adding pocket pages!
Hi there,
I am a bmom to an almost 2 year old and have been working on a scrapbook for him that I plan to give him when he is older, possibly as a high school gradutaion gift. Working on his pages is hard but can also be healing. I plan on including the ultra sound pics and info about why I chose adoption I will also include a little info about me and my family (his biological family.) And might even include a few pics of me as a child for comparision. I also include a news clipping of something big that happened in the US, like Sept 11, then I journal my thoughts on it. As he gets older, he could compare his thoughts on big events to mine.
I am also the co-founder of a bmom support site, [URL=http://www.birthmombuds.i8.com]BirthMom Buds[/URL] . I am going to copy and paste some tips I wrote for our newsletter.
*For those in an open adoption, scrapbook pictures of you and your birth child. Continue to do this over the years and you would have a great high school graduation gift.
*For those in a closed adoption, write down your feelings when something BIG happened in the world, so when your birth child looks at their scrapbook years later, they will learn how you reacted and felt to major events.
*For those in either closed or open: add pictures of yourself over the years along with adoption poetry, quotes, or sayings that were special to you.
*Also for either type of adoption, if you are missing your child a lot more than usual, clip the date from the newspaper and put it in the scrapbook. Continue to do this over the years and when your child looks through his or her scrapbook, they will see how much you thought of them!
Also, there is a MSN community for scrapbookers in the adoption triad. It was formed and is run bu a birthmom. I am a member there and there are other bmoms and amoms there as well. Its a good group. You can check it out if you want: [url]http://groups.msn.com/AdoptionScrapbooks[/url]
Good luck i n making a scrapbook for your son. I know one day he will treasure it!!
Hugs,
Coley
Advertisements
Hi Lisa-
My name is Stephanie and I'm an adoptee (at birth) and now the mom of two boys gifted to me through adoption. My birthmom and I reunited when I was 18 yrs old and we have a pretty good relationship.
The one thing that I enjoyed most from her was hearing what she was like at different ages. For instance what she was like when she was 18 and graduating from HS or what she was like when she was 12. Maybe throughout the years as your son turns a specific age you could include what you were like at the same age. Did you enjoy Christmas when you were 10? What kind of birthday party did you have when you were 8? Those type of things. Having a small portion of my birthmom's history was very cool and gave me an insight as to how we were similar and also different.
I think it is awesome that you are making this scrapbook for him. I'm sure when the time is right he will really appreciate it.
~steph~