I need help with an adoptive parent life book...

Oomis · 06-29-2007, 05:20 PM

We had our homestudy last night and the case worker told us we need to put together "life book" for us that shows our house, our family, things we like to do etc. I LOVE to scrapbook so I am sure I will do it in that format. Do any of you have any input on how to put it together?

They said to take pictures of us, the house, the pets, my step children and our families...also include pics of us doing things we love to do.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Amy

anang · 06-29-2007, 06:59 PM

Oomis we made our simple just a smallish book with a one or two pictures on the page. We introduced ourselves- Hi we are _____ and _____ (we used our first names. ) then had picture of what we liked to do- play outside, read, cook, play games. I put the pictures on bright card stock but did not scrap book them fancy in any way. we had a picture of getting the room ready (painting) and one of the front to of our place and that was it. Very simple. We had lots of positive feed back on the book and our kids still like to look at it. Good luck!

What age kid/kids are you looking to have placed with you?

babygirl18905 · 06-29-2007, 10:50 PM

We did ours pretty much the same as anang did theirs. Our first picture on the first page was one of us together, then we did a few individual pictures, took pictures of the house inside and oout took a few extra pictures of the nursery (since it was already finished) took pictures of the pets etc.... We did not add pictures of other family members though we pretty much did it just as if it was just us and the Social Worker said it was fine which I guess it really was fine since the agency ended up choosing us. The first page really just explained our life styles, our education backgrounds what we do for a living etc. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

~Traci~ · 06-30-2007, 02:42 PM

I've never done a parent lifebook. Since you said you like to scrapbook though, here's a great website w/ lifebook (children's) examples: www.scrapandtell.com Maybe you could get a few ideas from that website!

Oomis · 06-30-2007, 07:02 PM

Thank you so much for that link! I was trying to find something like that earlier but couldn't.

For those of you that have done one how did you refer to yourself? As Mom and Dad etc?

For the family part I thought about doing a puzzle theme and on the last page doing a blank puzzle piece and putting something like "the only missing piece to our family puzzle is you!" Does that sound too cheesy lol?

We are requesting an infant thru 6 years old and a sibling group.

tariana · 06-30-2007, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oomis

For the family part I thought about doing a puzzle theme and on the last page doing a blank puzzle piece and putting something like "the only missing piece to our family puzzle is you!" Does that sound too cheesy lol?

To me, it sounds too "forced" or "cutesy" but I am not a big fan of cutesy. So many of the examples we were shown at the agency were so FAKE-LOOKING. Or, at least, I have never met people who actually live the way those people appeared to live. For ours, I did a very simple layout... an introduction page for the both of us, individual pages for each of us, a page called "where we live", a page with our pets... I can't remember exactly because we are getting ready to move and I think I already packed the extra copies of it we have. Ours was very simple, because I didn't like the looks of the ones the agency showed us. We were only shown to one birthmother before getting placed with our daughter, and obviously she didn't choose us, but I don't know if the book really played a role in that. She may have wanted her daughter to go to a black family, and we are white. Our daughter's birthmom didn't choose us either -- she wanted the agency to choose a family and we had been waiting the longest so they chose us. *shrugs* So I really have no idea if ours was good or not, but it was very much US, and I figured that was important as I really did want the birthmother to feel comfortable placing with us and feel she was really being told the truth about who we were.

anang · 06-30-2007, 11:38 PM

OOMIS - My oldest son had just turned six when we were picked. I tried to make it "for" him and put things in there a six year old would want to see or know about his forever family. Make it you. keep it simple. the social workers will look at it, but they did give it to our sons as a way to introduce him to us. It was what we looked at first when we met him. He had questions about it and it gave him a way to "claim" us even befor we met.

If the puzzle feel good do it! it sounds cute to me.

babygirl18905 · 07-12-2007, 02:57 PM

Just wondering how the book is coming along?!

Oomis · 07-13-2007, 07:26 PM

I have not started it yet...our caseworker said to hold off until all the licensing is done. She is coming again on Monday to talk to my stepchildren and then us again as a family. Then hopefully we will know more soon.

I have bought everything for the book. I found allot of cute paper with bright primary color patterns so I am just going with that. I am going to keep it fairly simple...but I want it to stand out. The caseworker said it honestly looks better to make it appeal to the caseworkers and later on the child(ren) we adopt.

I have all the pics printed but need to get an updated one of hubby and I.

Thanks for checking on me!