Creating an Adoption Story Book

by Greta Johnson

The following article is reprinted from the January 1996 issue of Ni Hao Ma, the newsletter of the Baltimore FCC.

I finally finished Xiuxiu's adoption story book! Its creation took some time (a year or so) and considerable thought, but it's done and I'm very happy with it.

It is common knowledge that it is valuable to tell the story of your child's adoption from a very early age. For Rod and I, the story of Xiu's beginning with us is something we treasure, and we want Xiuxiu to know how welcome she is in our family. A book illustrating our love for her is just one way we can express our lasting commitment to her.

All philosophical reasons aside, the story book was a delight to create. After a few cycles of working on it a bit, then putting it aside for a few weeks, the book began to take on a life of it own. At its completion, it is 18 pages long (both sides) and contains over 100 photos and illustrations! I could improve it some more, but decided to follow Rod's sage advice: "better is the enemy of good" , so I'm done.

Here are some ideas which were helpful in the construction of Xiuxiu's book:

I found a copy store (Kinko's) which has color laser copying and which can also copy the text onto card stock (before the addition of illustrations) and can laminate and bind it.

I kept the book simple. Finding that one or two sentences per page gave me more room for photos, I managed to become one of few words.

I used colored construction paper to back each photo and illustration which provided contrast an interest to each page.

These are the general topics I covered in the book:

• A short description of our lives together before her adoption (what type of work we did, the places we have lived, what we like to do in our spare time, and so on).
• The story of her actual adoption from the time we decided to adopt (and why) to the completion of the adoption in Nanjing. Illustrations included Xiu's assignment photo, pictures of her 'home town', photos of the orphanage and staff who cared for her, plus a photo of Rod and I signing papers in Nanjing.
• Photos of all the people involved in the adoption process including agency personnel, officials from the orphanage, the province, and Beijing.
• A description of how we came to name her Margaret Xiumei.
• Her adoption announcement .
• Illustrations of how happy everyone is to have Xiu as part of the extended family. I included some of her welcome baby cards (much reduced) plus some personal notes from family and friends.
• Illustrations of how happy Rod and I are to have her as part of our nuclear family, such as photos of our trips and special times together.
• A page about Xiu becoming a US citizen.
• A page about Xiu's Chinese Zodiac, and another page with a quotation from the Tao Te Ching pertinent to her international adoption.

The process of creating Xiu's adoption story book was a wonderful one. Each time I went hunting for photos and illustrations, I delighted in the trip down memory lane. I'm glad it took a year to complete, as it's a much better book for all the time I spent thinking about it. I'm also glad it's done, for now Xiu has something to look at (which she hopefully cannot easily destroy) when we tell her about our trip to China to bring her home. And I know her adoption story book will be something Xiu will treasure for a lifetime.

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