•9:39 AM
This week is the second time that my children have gone to VBS. The first time was a year ago, the week this blog was born. During VBS, I find that I have fifteen hours of solitude time; the only such time all year long. I have to figure out how to spend these fifteen hours, for they are fleeting and will never return once spent.
The first roughly nine hours of this time, I spent doing basic household organizing (roughly 25% of the time) and working on my children's adoption lifebooks. An adoption lifebook is a type of scrapbook that you create for your adopted child, in which you carefully write the story of the earliest part of their life, prior to joining your family. You begin with the day they were born, and then write out, in an age-appropriate way, their own personal story of their beginning. This is a place to tell the truth about their life prior to adoption, sharing as much, or as little, as you know in a way that is gentle and understandable to them at their age. When the lifebook is done, it can be read like a very unique and special storybook, and it does a great job of breaking the ice when it comes to discussing difficult issues from their past. It can also be used to share what you know about the culture of the country where your child was born, bits and pieces of your experience in adopting them (although the book is not intended to be an adoption travelogue -- that is for a different scrapbook), your feelings about them and the way they joined your family, and any information that you do have about their birthparents. So, for example, page headings in our lifebook include: "The Day I was Born", "My Birthparents", "Why I was Adopted", "Life with My Foster Parents" or "My Life in the Orphanage", "My Journey to America", etc. You get the picture. The lifebook turns out to be an important tool and springboard to discussing your child's adoption with him or her.
Well, I had completed Little Son's lifebook back when he was two or three years old, save two of the last pages. But I had never done Baby Girl's lifebook. This was a heavy burden of guilt for me to carry, so last year, during VBS, I decided to do Baby Girl's lifebook. Which I did, except I never did finish it. I still had 4 pages left to do. These went undone, all year of course, until this week. Plus Little Son's lifebook needed two pages to be complete.
Drumroll, please. I am pleased to announce, that as of Wednesday, both lifebooks are finished! And I read them to the children again, and they like them very much. That is such a big load off me! Whew! (Baby Girl didn't even realize that I was making a lifebook for her until this week).
The next three hours of VBS time were about wrapping and shipping a Father's Day package to my FIL, and a birthday gift (now over a week tardy) to my nephew up north. Also, catching up on housecleaning that had fallen behind.
Which brings me to this morning, the final three hours of solitude for the year. I think I'll spend part of the time blogging (check), doing some correspondence, and maybe actually get to some reading. As usual, I am reading several books at once, but that's for another post.
The first roughly nine hours of this time, I spent doing basic household organizing (roughly 25% of the time) and working on my children's adoption lifebooks. An adoption lifebook is a type of scrapbook that you create for your adopted child, in which you carefully write the story of the earliest part of their life, prior to joining your family. You begin with the day they were born, and then write out, in an age-appropriate way, their own personal story of their beginning. This is a place to tell the truth about their life prior to adoption, sharing as much, or as little, as you know in a way that is gentle and understandable to them at their age. When the lifebook is done, it can be read like a very unique and special storybook, and it does a great job of breaking the ice when it comes to discussing difficult issues from their past. It can also be used to share what you know about the culture of the country where your child was born, bits and pieces of your experience in adopting them (although the book is not intended to be an adoption travelogue -- that is for a different scrapbook), your feelings about them and the way they joined your family, and any information that you do have about their birthparents. So, for example, page headings in our lifebook include: "The Day I was Born", "My Birthparents", "Why I was Adopted", "Life with My Foster Parents" or "My Life in the Orphanage", "My Journey to America", etc. You get the picture. The lifebook turns out to be an important tool and springboard to discussing your child's adoption with him or her.
Well, I had completed Little Son's lifebook back when he was two or three years old, save two of the last pages. But I had never done Baby Girl's lifebook. This was a heavy burden of guilt for me to carry, so last year, during VBS, I decided to do Baby Girl's lifebook. Which I did, except I never did finish it. I still had 4 pages left to do. These went undone, all year of course, until this week. Plus Little Son's lifebook needed two pages to be complete.
Drumroll, please. I am pleased to announce, that as of Wednesday, both lifebooks are finished! And I read them to the children again, and they like them very much. That is such a big load off me! Whew! (Baby Girl didn't even realize that I was making a lifebook for her until this week).
The next three hours of VBS time were about wrapping and shipping a Father's Day package to my FIL, and a birthday gift (now over a week tardy) to my nephew up north. Also, catching up on housecleaning that had fallen behind.
Which brings me to this morning, the final three hours of solitude for the year. I think I'll spend part of the time blogging (check), doing some correspondence, and maybe actually get to some reading. As usual, I am reading several books at once, but that's for another post.
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1 comments:
If I had fifteen hours alone I would spend all of them sleeping. I am so not kidding.