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If the idea of sitting down and writing out your child's story in first person as the parent overwhelms you, consider taking yourself somewhat out of the equation and instead, writing it as a novel style of book. One of the scrapbooks in our store says, "Once Upon a Time..." Tell your child's story this way can not only be an opportunity for you to be able to get down on paper the little things that you value and deem important, but it can also be a way that your child may be able to enjoy with his story in a way that he may not be able to otherwise.

If the idea of sitting down and writing out your child's story in first person as the parent overwhelms you, consider taking yourself somewhat out of the equation and instead, writing it as a novel style of book. One of the scrapbooks in our store says, "Once Upon a Time..." Tell your child's story this way can not only be an opportunity for you to be able to get down on paper the little things that you value and deem important, but it can also be a way that your child may be able to enjoy with his story in a way that he may not be able to otherwise.

Consider writing out a short story of your child life, including any adoption details that you feel they would find interesting to learn about at the young age in which he will be reading the book. There will be things that you should avoid including, such as if the birth mother was struggling with drug addiction, this is obviously something that you would not want to include. However, your child will find great delight in reading a book about himself at bedtime where he feels that he is the star. The book can explain how the little boy in the story was adopted from the same place, such as Chicago, Illinois, as your child. Every single adoption has very specific details that are unique to that family, so it can be hard to find a book that explains your child's story precisely. So feel free to make one yourself, even if it is only 10 or 15 pages.

If you grew up in the seventies, you may remember the story books that were advertised in the back of our mother's magazines where mom could send off for a book that told the story of her child. She would simply fill out a form with specific information about the child such as his favorite flavor of ice cream, the name of his pets, or the street in which he lived on. A few weeks later when the book arrived in the mail, the child would find it was a real book printed with his name, and talking about the street he lived on. Today, this can much more easily be done with print-on-demand services.

This can easily be done now with print on demand services where you can write out your child's story, in a storybook or novel form, and have it printed and bound for less than $20.

Without a doubt, there will obviously be a need for you to have a special place for you to share the keepsakes and photographs of your child's life. This is where an adoption scrapbook can be a special addition to be able to keep the memories of the journey of your family and how it came to be.

However, giving your child the opportunity to hear a story about himself, read from a bound book, and describing everything from his pet cat to how he and his mom and dad came to be a family, can give him additional security. This kind of book can help him fill in some of the blanks in a non-threatening way. An

It also gives you the chance to put aside some of your guilty feelings about not being able to keep up in your journaling and scrap booking for your child's life, while still providing a unique and special gift.

Despite all of our good intentions and hard work in trying to create the perfect adoption scrapbook that describes our child's adoption experience, it is likely the small storybook that he will be excited to pull out of his book basket to share with his friends.