Bookmaking... For Life
Back before scrapbooking became a verb, we all made the same kind of book. We bought bound volumes of gray construction paper, a supply of "corners" and tried our best to make sure photos were straight. Sometimes we remembered to add handwritten notations, in our best penmanship with fountain pens (ink from a bottle) that inconveniently faded over time.
When my friend Cindy was waiting to adopt, she started her memory book, in which she writes on a regular basis, and she plans to show it to the boys when they're grown and have families of their own.
Before she adopted her boys at ages 5 and 6, she wanted to see life through their eyes. During the pre-adoption visits, she gave each boy a disposable camera and told them to take pictures of whatever they wanted. When the boys came home, these photos were the front pages of the family's first joint scrapbook - separate from the boys' lifebooks. |
And when treasured mementos were too big or awkward, like school drawings and pressed flowers, they were stuffed into back pages in the hopes that they wouldn't fall out and get lost.
Welcome to the PresentToday, we have a multitude of designs and styles. We have journals and memory books to record our written words and perhaps some sketches; we have
scrapbooks, which focus on shared family activities and memories; and in adoptive and foster families, we have the wonderful treasure of
lifebooks.
Beth O'Malley believes that LifeBooks are magic; that they promote attachment and identity. She believes so strongly in the positive effect of these simple books that trace a child's life experience, from the child's viewpoint, that she's written an entire book about them: what they are and aren't, how to make them, and how to use them to build attachment and a positive grasp of identity. Her book is called
LifeBooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child.
In the first chapter she writes:
"A LifeBook is more than a story. It is a unique opportunity for parents to honor every minute of their children's lives. It is the single most meaningful piece of "paperwork" that any adoption social worker can complete. And foster parents? You can give an adoptee/foster child a sweet childhood memory."
Now that we've got an idea of what a Lifebook is, let's get started making one.
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