Lifebooks

Have you ever heard of a Lifebook? I hadn't, until we began our foster parent PRIDE classes. Really, to maybe simplify, it's kind of a scrapbook to chronicle the life and events of a child while they are in foster care. Most parents naturally snap lots of photos of their children as they make their way through various milestones.
That's not the case for many kids in foster care.

Foster kids can get bounced around from home to home, and think about the emotional effect that has on them. Where are their photo albums, keepsakes, art projects, and general history? What happens when they have one of those school projects that requires a baby photo? Think about the potential embarrassment and maybe shame at not having anything to share?
And what about later, years down the road, when they may have questions about birth parents, medical history, family. . .can you imagine the sense of loss that can cause?

I've had the subject of Lifebooks floating around my mind a lot over the past year for our foster child. I have the pictures, ideas, keepsakes, and now I need to put it all together so this child has a record of this time of life. I've put it off for too long, and now is the time. That's why I'm writing this post. I hope it will kind of keep me accountable, and spur me to action. I want to record my progress and ideas (in a general way, to protect the privacy of our foster child).

I hope that perhaps this will help someone else out there who wants to do this but doesn't know where to begin. So, there you go, now I'm gonna go and make a few plans. Updates soon!