Search Results for: blog scrapbooking your adoption experience

Hostility Can Harm Your Immune System

Researchers from Duke University have found that hostility and depression can harm a man’s immune system and increase the risk of heart disease. Negative emotional states can also increase a man’s risk of diabetes, chronic inflammation, and high blood pressure. Hostile, angry, and depressed people are more likely to have increased levels of C3 — an immune system protein associated with chronic inflammation. Elevated C3 levels have been connected to heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. The Duke University study tracked more than three hundred male Vietnam veterans over a decade — these study participants were part of a … Continue reading →

Scrapbooking Your New Family Pet

As it is, we are a crazy family. Anyone who knows us, knows that once we blended our families, we wound up with five children total! But for whatever nutty reason, that was not enough and we decided to expand our large family further. No, I am not expecting a baby, but we did add a new puppy. It wasn’t enough that we already have five children, three cats, two guinea pigs (and a partridge in a pear tree!) but now – a new puppy. Molly is a two month old Border Collie. Because our new puppy is such a … Continue reading →

Your Family Storybook

I’ve written before about lifebooks, books about foster or adoptive children which show the continuity of their history from birth, through each residence and caregiver until they arrive at their permanent home. Family storybooks are another tool for bonding in adoptive families. This term is used in two slightly different ways. One type of family storybook is a book which is designed to give children an overview of their new home and family. In some cases it may also serve as an overview presented to the state foster care workers or committee reviewing the family’s application. (Some couples looking to … Continue reading →

One of the Best Gifts You Can Give Your Child: a Lifebook

A “lifebook” in the adoption community has similarities to a scrapbook, a baby book and a storybook. However, its main purpose is to provide the adopted child with a sense of continuity and a way to make sense of the past. Most adoptive parents have plenty of photos dating from their child’s arrival. But some adopted children have been known to believe that they were not born as other children are born, that they literally came from an airplane or an agency or sprang into existence as preschoolers. Others are old enough to realize they had a prior existence. While … Continue reading →

Scrapbooking Your Adoption Experience

Scrapbooking your adoption experience is not a whole lot different than scrapbooking your everyday life. You create a page in the same manner you would a traditional layout. However, because your adoption experiences are so special and unique, you might wish to commemorate them into a whole album dedicated solely to the experience, and use special journaling, poems or quotes. I am part of the adoption triad, I am an adoptee. I have a great relationship with both my adoptive mother, and my biological mother. Both women are included in my albums. However, my experiences with searching for my biological … Continue reading →

A Touch of Asia

I recently heard from a reader who wanted me to know that she and her family related to a post I wrote about scrapping untraditional holiday traditions. Apparently, they spend every Christmas Eve dining at their favorite Chinese restaurant before going home to open gifts. The reader’s comment made me think about expanding on the idea of scrapping Chinese dining experiences. Asian design is very popular in scrapbooking. In fact, you can actually purchase scrapbook kits that feature an Asian theme. DigitalScrapbookPages.com offers a Good Fortune kit that features a gorgeous Asian layout with traditional red, gold and black designs. … Continue reading →

The Importance of Ancestors

The other night, my daughter and I were watching a movie that was made in a city where I used to live about twenty years ago (or more.) When the movie ended, we started to talk about my life at the time I lived in the city (pre-kids) and as she kept asking questions, we continued to weave back and back and back until I realized that what was just “my story” to me, is really part of her ancestry. She wanted to know about life BEFORE she came to be here. Not just in passing comment, but she has … Continue reading →

Confessions of a Life Story Worker – Part 2 of 2

This artice is the follow on article from Confessions of a Life Story Worker: Part 1. Whose job is it to do the Life Story Work? When I began doing Life Story Work I was worried that I may be breaching statutory laws. I saw the work as belonging solely to Child Safety Officers. My Australian experience with Child Safety workers told me that they were too busy and spent minimal time on their case loads and Life Story Work wasn’t being achieved. Also, their understanding of Life Story Work appeared to fit within a Freedom of Information framework – … Continue reading →

One Gave Me Roots, The Other Wings

Hi there! I’m Nicole Humphrey. You probably recognize me from the scrapbooking or frugal living blogs, but I have just accepted the position of blogger on the adoption blog as well. I am very excited about it. I will still be very active over at the scrapbooking and frugal living blogs, I just added another topic near and dear to my heart. I have really enjoyed being a part of this ever growing community at families.com over the past several months and look forward to forming even more new friendships in the days to come. As I am sure you … Continue reading →