Foster Parenting E-Magazine, November 2010
Foster Parenting Announcements
November is National Adoption Awareness Month! Find new ways to celebrate--featuring a great idea each day for the entire month of November--with our Adoption Month calendar of ideas. And what a great month to share your story! We'd love to read about how you and your family celebrated, supported, or advocated National Adoption Awareness Month. We are looking for real stories from all members of the adoption triad--not solely limited to National Adoption Awareness Month stories, but can be anything from your journey as an adult adoptee to single parent experiences. This month is about opening up, sharing, giving back, reaching out, supporting, and participating. If you have a real life story to share with us, please submit it here.
Creating Foster Lifebooks
For many foster children--and even for some foster parents--foster care can be scary and intimidating. For many foster care children, stability isn't a term they would use to describe their current situations. They may feel that they are just a number and not an individual. They may feel lost in the chaos and uncertainty of life. But helping your foster child create a foster lifebook can help immensely. Let's start with the basics.
What is a Lifebook? A foster lifebook is a mix between a journal, a scrapbook, and a memory book. Keep in mind throughout this creation process that there isn't one right way to create a foster lifebook. Let your foster child get creative, and let both of you enjoy the process of creating and remembering.
How to Begin: First, talk with your foster child. Understand his or her story, troubles, hopes, fears, dreams, and goals. Once you know these things, you will have better direction on the best way to create a lifebook and what should be included.
Contents: Keep in mind that this can be different for each child. However, here are some of the more common contents in a foster child's lifebook.
- Day of Birth: If the child has pictures or other information, include them. This includes birth statistics and date and time of birth. Also include his or her full legal name.
- Birth Family: Again, pictures are great in this section because it will provide easier access to memories of his or her birth family. Have your foster child write what he or she remembers about his or her birth family, including physical characteristics, personality traits, or common phrases each person used.
- Foster Family: Encourage your foster child to write or draw his or her favorite foster family members or memories. Try to be uplifting and positive during this section. Some foster children don't consider their foster experiences to be something they want to remember. Help them to find the good in their personal life experiences.
- Personal History: This is where he or she can detail where he or she has been. Your foster child can track his or her progress in school, emotional healing, personality, and physical abilities.
- Achievements: Has your foster child had academic, social, or ecclesiastical achievements? Focus on each one that you can discover or remember. If he or she has certificates, medals, or trophies, include pictures of them in this section.
- Talents and Skills: This is a section in which both you and your foster child should participate. Let him or her brainstorm and list all personal talents and skills. After your foster child is done, it is your turn. Add more skills and talents that your foster child may have forgotten or just doesn't see in himself or herself.
- Positive/Happy Memories: What are your foster child's happiest or favorite memories of his or her life so far? He or she can write it, include photos, or draw pictures.
- Goals: What does he or she want in 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? 10 years? What does he or she want to accomplish or achieve?
How It Helps: Lifebooks are a fantastic way to encourage positive thinking within your foster home. It can help your foster child to realize his or her self-worth and importance to your family, his or her own life, and the world. It provides a convenient source of all the good things in his or her life-an easy, happy reference. It can also show your foster child how much he or she has progressed through life, goals, school, and personality. Sometimes one doesn't know how far they've come until they've seen where they've been.
The Future: As you help and encourage your foster child to create a foster lifebook, make sure to leave many blank pages in the back of the book. Let your foster child know that he or she is important, and you want him or her to continue to fill in that lifebook. It is a constant reminder that life is full of ups and downs, positives and negatives, but that he or she should dwell on the positive things in life or how far he or she has progressed.
Creating a foster lifebook with your foster child is not only helpful to your child but it can strengthen your relationship, and it can provide another great, happy memory to add to the book. Take the time needed to create a lifebook for each of your foster children. It will be something you'll both cherish for many years to come.
The Adoption Photolisting
Hoping to Adopt? Create Your Profile Today and get 30 Days FREE!
Find Your Family with Parent Profiles ®
Sign up with Parent Profiles to create your adoption profile today and start connecting with expectant and placing parents. Your profile will be featured on many of the best known adoption websites. Mention you saw this ad or when completing your paperwork use code PPCN and we will give you 30 days free*.
*Contact ParentProfiles.com for details.
How can ParentProfiles.com help you?
ParentProfiles.com is there to assist you as you navigate through your adoption journey.
ParentProfiles.com is an internet listing site dedicated to helping couples and birth parents with useful information about their options. We empower each side of the adoption triad with the ability to be actively involved in the process of choosing the best opportunity for everyone. We offer information for birth parents, listing services for couples who are hoping to adopt, and give agencies an avenue for their couples and birth parents to connect.
Our profiles are detailed and engaging. We offer options such as video, an audio recording, add-ons for additional exposure, and more. The profiles can be viewed 24/7 removing boundaries such as time, state, or agency availability.
Please feel free to visit ParentProfiles.com to see how we can help you in your journey.
The information and links displayed above relate to profile posting services provided on the ParentProfiles.com web site, which is a service of Adoption Profiles, L.L.C., who sponsors this section and is solely responsible for its content.
Foster Parenting Blogs from AdoptionBlogs.com
Why Do Your Foster Children Call You Mom and Dad?
When we get a placement, we leave it up to each child what they will call us. We introduce ourselves by using our first names. After that, it is up the child what to call us (I guess within reason-no foul language). Every child that has come through our home has called us Mom and Dad. [more]
Foster Parenting Community, News & Events
Foster Parent Support - Stood up to CW - boy did that feel good!
Foster Parent Support - Class Yearbook Problem
Foster Care to Adoption What is it Like? - gotta call about a little girl...
Foster Parent Support - I am Flabbergasted!
Every Tuesday @ 8 PM CST Foster Parenting Chat: Learn more about Foster Parenting, Adopting from Foster Care and becoming a resource in your local area by connecting with other Foster Parents in our weekly Foster Adoption Chat Night.
Each week, Adoption.com hosts a number of online chats on many different topics. To learn more about the Hosted Chats, visit the Adoption.com Events Calendar.
Add your non-marketing adoption related event at no cost. Get started today by registering for an account.
Foster Parenting Tip of the Month
It's National Adoption Month! Participate and encourage your foster children to participate in local events.In Your Words
"My husband and I started fostering children in 2002. Our first foster child was a 6 year old Hispanic boy. Months later we also got his two sisters, ages 3 and 5. We fell in love with these children and wanted to preserve their heritage in the Hispanic community. In turn, we came to love the Hispanic culture. After 13 months in our home, the children were moved to an adoptive home. Unfortunatly we were not allowed to keep contact with them; to this day we still miss those children. My husband and I are people of faith, and we began to pray that God would send us a Hispanic son to adopt. Three years later the Lord blessed us big time with our new son Samuel. Sam was abandoned at the hospital right after birth. We received a call from foster placement and we took Sam in as an emeregency placement, little did we know at the time this was the son we had asked God for. We really did not expect a newborn baby, it just doesn't happen that way in foster care. But God heard our prayers and He answered them. Only two weeks ago our adoption was finalized and now Sam is all ours. Since he was abandoned, he wasn't given a name, so we got to name him and Samuel, meaning 'asked of God'!" - Scott and Lynny
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