Life Book

So I bought this really neat book from the Christian Book Store which is sord of a guide to helping make a "Life Book" for our new children. For our older children we have a "baby book" as most would call it. But I've been thinking in my mind for months now (almost 5 now!!) how to make a special book for each of the little ones. My older children have always loved seeing their baby outfits they came home from the hospital in and their baby book in which describes preparing for them and their birth and usually a few years after they are born...Well when it comes to a Life Book, it can either seem overwhelming to me or simple. I choose simple. Simple in the sense that what their life was and is now should not be hidden from them. I was a bit disappointed to know that I may not be able to obtain a picture of birth parents. I'm really gonna try hard to get this for my children. I also am working on contacting their foster mom who fostered them for the past year and see if she has any info and also request a picture of her so I can place it in their book. I will get pictures of social workers and the judge who finalizes our adoption...I saved the outfits they came home to us in and will share with them what it was like when we first brought them home. I saved clippings from their first haircuts (at least first cuts in our home :) ) Please pray that if it be God's will I can obtain these pictures and info for their book.

Now timing may be of great consideration as to what and how much they need to know as age comes and goes...But I am under the conviction that nothing will be hidden from them. And as they hear and read the "yuck" God has called them out of, it will be followed with the beauty and preciousness of where God has taken them. It's finding that balance and helping them to sift through it all one day with grace and woven with mercy and sensitivity, and to see through it all biblically. One of the gals who wrote this book was adopted herself and explains that it was painful, yes, to go back, but needed and part of the healing process for herself and all adoptees...I had felt this way before I read this and I am so thankful for confirmation. I don't want my little ones growing up in a fantasy land about what things may have looked like or what they want it to look like, but the reality of what it is and was.

I understand this MUST be done with great care. This is a reason my husband and I have been very discreet about who knows what and how much about their past. We understand we can not just be flippant with their story. We understand it is their story to tell one day if they choose and hopefully they will and it will be a beautiful story to their own hearts we pray. This will take a lot of care and discernment on our part as parents...We will be completely depending upon God to lead us by His Spirit.

All four of our children's days have been ordained by God!! Every day! This is of great encouragement to me and will be what we encourage their hearts with. There was no mistake as to where they were and are now, it's all the story God is writing in each of their lives to ultimately bring Him Glory!!

Psalm 139:13-16

"13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.