How To Create An Adoption Lifebook

Creating an adoption lifebook can be as simple or complex as you choose to make it.  Some adoptive parents buy a ready-made one from a bookstore or online.  There are also printable pages that you can find online, occasionally for free, to use by placing them in a 3-ring notebook binder.  It isn’t what you use or how you do it that is important, it’s that you do take the time to put together a lifebook that makes all the difference in the world to your child.

A simple and easy way to get started is to gather together the following materials:

• A 3-ring binder- approximately 2-3 inches thick


• Clear page protectors


• Lined or unlined paper or cardstock


• Pens and markers (or use your computer to design pages)

Once you have your materials together, start at the beginning – his birth – and build from there, adding pages as he grows into adulthood.  Include pages that address his past, as well as the present, and add pages that he has created as well.  Getting started is the hardest part.  Creating a lifebook for, and with, your child is an act of love, and will create a memory that will last a lifetime.