Adoption Book Ideas?

[Tara]

I have a friend who is trying to adopt and have agreed to help her put together a few pages about her family. I know I've read about other scrappers doing this (making scrapbook pages out of the photos and written material they are required to submit for adaoption) and just wondered if anyone out there had tips or hints?

I've never done this before and don't really know what needs to be done (of course, my friend has a better idea...we just haven't discussed details yet)...so I'll welcome any ideas. What have you done or seen done? Is there anything I should be aware of or avoid? Etc...

Thanks in advance!!!

[elizabethlmccoy]

i think margie has done this???? maybe not....hopefully you'll get your answer

[Corgi Lover]

Gosh - I haven't done one of these either but I do know a family that did one (paper scrapping). I remember her talking about having lots of pictures of them with family, children, each other, doing things they like to do (going to a zoo or whatever), pictures from their childhood (one grew up on a farm), stuff like that. I don't know if that is typical in what to include but I know that is what they did and had a successful ending! :) Good luck - keep us posted on how it is going!

[Tina]

yup, i remember Margie talking about the ones she had to make for Matt and Lizzie.

I'll link her here!

[Margie]

and here i am. :D we had to do a whole album for josh (ukraine) documenting us, where we live, etc. we just did a plain photo album though.
when you use a pic of the house, be sure to show the big fun yard, or no neighbors or great neighbors, whatever makes it a "good option". ours barely showed our house, but focused on the yard more.
casual pics are best (imo) as they're more "realistic" than a bunch of studio family shots. they are awesome and i'd personally include one, but i'd show more "real life" when possible.
watch the backgrounds of the pics. depending on where you go, who's looking, and how closely, they could be judged on their surroundings. if it's a great vacation picture, but there are idiots behind them, they may be judged as part of the idiot group.
if you do it "scrapbooky" be sure it's not over the top creative. still focus on the pics completely. you don't want it to look like you're trying too hard to get their attention. (all the while you SHOULD try to get their attention!)
one big tip, some countries like pets, some don't. be mindful of that before you put in (or leave out) a pic of a big friendly family dog!! or cat, or rabbit, etc.
help at all? they'll have requirements, so it should be easy to work off those and "spruce them up". they definitely will catch more attention! just pay close attention to the details. :)

[pahina722]

I had to do one of these when we adopted our son from foster care. In our case, the book was for the CHILD, not the agency. The idea was to give the child a sense of what his forever family would be like, what his house looked like--that there was a group of people waiting to welcome him home! I included pictures of all the immediate family (through grandparents and cousins) that he would see a lot, our family pets, main rooms in the house. I put in minimal embellishments but did quite a bit of journaling about the different people in the family. At the time I created the book, our son was six and couldn't read most of it, but his foster family read it to him. Now, two + years later, it's his favorite bedtime book.

BTW, perhaps because of that book, he loves watching me put together layouts for him and has lots of suggestions for new pages to go in HIS book.

[beachin]

Go to www.pagesofalifetime.com

On the left you will see project gallery. click on it.

click on search project gallery

type in adoption.

There are a few there to give you ideas. You could also type in family to see more.

Hope this helps