Adoption "Lifebook" versus "My Adoption Story" Scrapbook

Choosing a medium to help your child document their special adoption story is an important decision. For those who are short on time and not particularly crafty, purchasing a "Lifebook" may be the appropriate choice for your family. A Lifebook contains pages with templates to help with filling in important milestones in your child's life, particularly details surrounding how they came to join your family.

I, however, chose to create a "My Adoption Story" Scrapbook for my first daughter for a few reasons. The first reason is, I am fuelled by the creative process and love to create, so I appreciate the flexibility of creating a scrapbook from scratch. Another reason is philosophical nature in that I feel there is a fundamental difference in the titles of the two projects alone, "Lifebook" versus "My Adoption Story" scrapbook.


I feel the differences between the two different books sends a very different message to your child. "Lifebook" implies a documentation of your whole life. "My Adoption Story" on the other hand, implies a description of the beginning part of your life, describing how you came to join your family. The implications of these approaches is that with a "Lifebook" since you are adopted you are different for your whole life and need a book that documents that difference.

"My Adoption Story" scrapbook sends a message that I may have joined my family in a different way, but now I am a part of that family and we also have our own story together. If I were adopted, I would not want to feel that I am different for my whole life. It may be true, but I'd rather choose to think that adoption is the beginning of the story with my family and my family and I are writing the middle bits together as a family. We are in it together.

So, it's for those reasons that I have chosen to create an adoption story scrapbook for my older daughter and will do one for my younger daughter as well. I took as many pictures along the way as I could to help document the steps in the process. At times it was difficult to take pictures and I wish I took more, but there were moments that were too emotional and I just didn't have the energy to go and get the camera. In another blog I'll describe some of the page titles I used in my daughter's adoption story scrapbook.