Tips for creating your Adoption Story book

Many of our adoptive parents love to create “Adoption Story” scrapbooks for their adopted children – a fun book to share the details of the adoption process. These adoption baby books have become a popular trend, and we get questions from parents all the time about how to create them.

It’s a big task, and it’s not always clear where to start, especially for families who aren’t scrapbookers. So this month, we decided to write a blog post and share our best tips for creating the best Adoption Story book for your special angel.

Make it your own

Every adoption story is different, and every family is unique – so don’t feel like your book needs to conform to any standard. Some families use pre-made scrapbooks, some create everything from scratch, and others do everything digitally. Don’t stress out over finding the perfect example to model yours after – what matters is spending time to create something amazing.

Design chronologically

Your child’s adoption story is just that – a story. The book will have much more meaning if you tell the story from beginning to end (or almost end, because you’ll need to leave room for our final tip). Most families start the story before the birthmother was chosen, covering all the important dates. You can stay on a strict timeline, or you can insert fun photos and details scattered throughout the main chronological story.

Include all important people

Your Adoption Story book isn’t only about your child. You’ll want to include backstory about both parents, information about the birth parents, and everyone else involved in the entire process. Share details about the doctors and nurses, stories about the delivery, info and details about the adoption agency staff, the home study specialists, and anyone else who helped make your adoption a reality..

Highlight important moments

Following up with the idea of including everyone who was a part of the process, it’s important to include details about the important moments in time that were vital to the process. Include sonogram photos, photos with birth parents, photos from the delivery, and even a story about the moment that the adoption was finalized.

Explain steps in the process

The book isn’t just a celebration of the adoption process, it’s an explanation. Many adopted children love to use their Adoption Story books to educate friends and other family members about their adoption. Make sure you include all the important steps in your adoption process and details about how you felt or reacted to certain steps.

Include family trees

It’s not uncommon for adoptees to feel confused when they’re asked to create a family tree in school. Include your own family tree so your child can see how they fit in to the family history. It’s also important to include a family tree for the birth family – it helps adoptees understand their personal identity and celebrate where they came from.

Let siblings and birth parents participate

If you’ve got other children, it’s always fun to let siblings participate in the creation of the book. They can share their own feelings and memories of the process, which many times provides a completely different perspective.

Birth mothers usually love to write a special letter for the book, and many times provide their own photos. It’s a great way to include the birth mother’s perspective and include her in the process. We love to send a special note from Lifetree to go in your book too!

Leave room at the end

Your child’s Adoption Story book is the story of their life – it doesn’t have to end when the adoption is finalized. It’s fun to leave blank pages at the end that your child can add to as they get older. Whether it’s photos or stories from meeting their birthmother or their own fun stories about family vacations, letting your child make the book their own makes it even more special.

If you’ve got any other great tips for Adoption Story books, leave them in the comments below! We’d love to hear your personal tips.