Creating a LifeBook for a Foster or Adopted Child

Foster children and adopted children often lose many of their personal belongings during moves and transitions. Because memories are important to us all, a lifebook should be created. Lifebooks are simply "scrapbooks" worded differently. It is a celebration of the child's life. No matter where they go or end up, the goal is for the child to have a running book of memories to keep and treasure. When everything else has been taken or lost, a lifebook can remain.

What does it take to create a lifebook? Time and a book. There are some supplies that are required and some that are optional. Lifebooks can include pictures and look great with them, but they do not have to. The required supplies are an album, pen, and paper. Lifebooks can really become fun and creative with stickers, photographs and memorabilia, colored papers, punches, stamps, and other scrapbooking supplies that are used to create photo albums and scrapbooks.

Create a lifebook for a foster or adopted child by helping them tell their story. Begin with their birth. If you know anything about it, help them lay it out. Pictures and birth memorabilia are wonderful, but many foster/adopted children do not have these items. Ask them about memories from their childhood and lay it out in chronological order. Gather as much information as you can. Perhaps the school or foster/adoption agency has additional information, pictures or memorabilia that you can include in the lifebook. Have the child tell stories and help them to write them in the book. If you do not have actual photographs of events, allow the child to draw a picture of what took place. Include recent pictures, schoolwork, artwork, awards and other items that the child has. If you know where the child previously lived, drive by and take a picture to include in the book. Include pictures of biological family members and new family members. Some lifebooks are continuous and foster children take them with them when they relocate to a new home. Mention any lifebooks in progress when the child relocates. Send the scrapbooking supplies with the child so they can continue to work on their project.

Other items to include in a lifebook are:
*Phone numbers of friends and family members
*House rules
*Character traits
*Favorite foods
*Favortie toys or activities
*Holiday traditions
*Pages to journal on