My family is in the process of adopting a teenage girl. The process has been long, frustrating, disappointing and even heartbreaking at times. One of the things we had to put together was a Family Life Book. The book is to represent our family and what we have to offer a waiting child.
I take a lot of photos of my family so it really wasn’t hard to come up with photos but I wasn’t sure what they wanted in the book. I found very limited information on the internet. I think the limited information was in part because each state and agency has different requirement or in my case no requirements.
What my book contains. The first page is a photo of my family in front of our home. The text is a short write up about our family history and parenting experience. The next two page layout is of our son. Photos of him shooting hoops, riding his bike, hanging out with friends, in his marching band uniform, several photos of him at band practice, performances and competitions.
Photos of my husband and I are on the next two pages, both pages include a short paragraph of our lives. Family and Friends come on the next two pages. The photos include pictures of my Mom, her husband, my brother with his daughter and grand daughter. There is even a recent large group photo of my Grandmother and her six children. The other page includes photos of my son’s best friend, other kids from band and a few group shots of the band in formation.
The final two pages are photos of places that are important to us. Photos of the high school, our church, our home, my son’s best friend’s house across the street from our and a photo of the room we have set up for the daughter we are hoping to adopt.
Sharing photos of what is important in our lives with people that hold your entire future in their hands is an odd experience. Hopefully in the end it will all be worth the work.