A Life Book: Nice idea! Now what?

Creating a Life Book seemed like a great way to help my child answer questions like: Who am I? Who are my people? How did I come to be adopted? How did we come to be a family?

I was all excited to create a life book, until I got stuck! What words should I use? How should I make the life book? Where would I get photos? What was too much information? Should I include the birth certificate? How could I make him feel special and loved? Should I handwrite it or print it?

Again, late night searching to the rescue. I relied on two authors, Beth O’Malley and Joy Rees for ideas about what to say and where to find the info. A few tips really stayed with me. Tell the story in order of the present, the past and future (Rees). Speak positively about the child and the first parents. Say what happened wasn’t because of anything the child did. Convey there was a plan and who was involved like first parents, social workers, a judge and the adoptive family. I decided to get binders and plastic inserts from Simple Stories. I printed messages and cut them to fit the page inserts. (*See Resources below.)

Turns out Precious Boy really liked the Life Book. He loved seeing the photos. I was surprised that he did not seem to recognize his parents. Maybe it had been too long since he had seen them. Who knows? We have read the life book many times. He still keeps it by his bed. There are blank pages so we can add to keep adding to his life story as he gets older.

Bea Hopewell

Resources

Life Story Books for Adopted Children by Joy Rees http://thejoyoflifework.com/life-story-books/

Lifebooks : Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child by Beth O’Malley https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B002BMOJWA

Making History: A Social Worker’s Guide to Lifebooks by Joann Harrison, Elaine Campbell and Penny Chumbley https://manuals-sp-chfs.ky.gov/Resources/Related%20Resources%20Library/Making%20History-A%20Social%20Workers%20Guide%20to%20Life%20Books.pdf

Simple Stories https://www.simplestories.com/collections/all

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