Lifebook Extravaganza

I don't do so well with sitting around and twiddling my thumbs. Violet is almost a month old, and we really don't have any more of an idea of what is going on with her and what our role will be in her life, than we did on the day she was born.

I can't do a darn thing about the circumstances, or about helping Violet have a permanent placement.  Its just not in my control, but I it goes sooooooo against my inner drive to get things finished and all squared away!

So I am focusing all of my nervous energy on creating Violet's Lifebook.  Although she may not stay with us, I was an eye-witness to her birth and have had many conversations with her birth mom.  I know a lot of information that could be really valuable to this girl, and every day that I go without sleep is another day that I may forget some of the details!

Time to get started.  For those of you who do not know what a Lifebook is, welcome to the club!  I was all set on making a pretty scrapbook until I took and adoption online course about how to make a Lifebook for an adoptee, foster child, or a child who lives with a single parent.  Basically, it should be a binder that contains every document surrounding her birth and placements, as well as accounts of the facts surrounding her birth and early weeks.

I got a three-ring binder, some plastic page covers, pretty stickers and paper, and I am ready to go!  I made a section on the birth story, birth parents, biological family, birth family culture, placement story, significant events, interests and hobbies, school, and milestones.  I've included every piece of paperwork I had surrounding Violet's birth and life, and my own accounts of the stories I heard from the birth mom and the details of her birth.  I wrote down everything I know, including what kind of Chinese food her birth mother prefers!

Adopted children lose pieces of their past in the blink of an eye, and there is not much I can do to stop that loss.  All I can do is try and preserve as much information for Violet as possible.  This is really the only thing I can do right now, I'm pretty helpless in any of the other areas of her adoption right now.

So add Lifebook making to my other skills, like vacuuming and staining tile grout.  When you look at it that way, I have a lot of skills!