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 mother and our subsequent reunion are commemorated in a much different way, than those regarding my adoptive mother who has always been there since day one.
Over the years I have collected many thoughts, poems and quotes on the subject of adoption. These can be incorporated into your layouts and albums, to make your experiences all the more special and unique.
Adoption Quotes
Be assured that if God waits longer than you wish, it is only to make the blessing all the more precious.
For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I
asked of him. — I Samuel 1:27
Children are a gift from God; they are His reward. — Psalms 127:3
When they placed you in my arms, you slipped into my heart.
Parents hold their children’s hands for a while, their hearts forever.
Some Definitions to Ponder
Natural Child: a child who is not artificial.
Real Parent: a parent who is not imaginary.
Your Own Child: a child who is not someone else’s child.
Adopted Child: a natural child, with a real parent, who is my own
One sought for you a home that she could not provide –
The other prayed for a child and her hope was not denied.
Adoption Poems
Legacy of an Adopted Child
— Author Unknown —
Once there were two women
Who never knew each other
One you do not remember
The other you call Mother.
Two different lives,
Shaped to make your one.
One became your guiding star
The other became your sun.
The first one gave you life
And the second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love
The second was there to give it.
One gave you a nationality,
The other gave you a name.
One gave you a talent
The other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions,
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile,
The other dried your tears.
One sought for you a home
That she could not provide
The other prayed for a child
And her hopes were not denied.
And now you ask me,
Through your tears
The age-old question,
Unanswered through the years.
Heredity or environment
Which are you the product of?
Neither, my friend, neither.
Just two different kinds of love.
We’ve added to our family tree
A stronger one to make
A child from another plant
Has become our new namesake.
Just as a limb is grafted
From one tree to another,
It alters and improves the plant
Making it, uniquely, like no other.
Our family tree has been improved
Adoption made this so.
For love, much more than bloodlines,
Makes us thrive and grow.
We chose to share our life and love
And all the joys to come
Our “family tree” has blossomed
With the arrival of our cherished one.
Adopted Child
I
Did not plant you,
True.
But when
The season is done –
When the alternate
Prayers for sun
And for rain
Are counted-
When the pain
Of weeding
And the pride
Of watching
Are through-
Then
I will hold you
High,
A shining sheaf
Above the thousand
Seeds grown wild.
Not my planting,
But by heaven
My harvest –
My own child.
Adoption Creed — Anonymous
Not flesh of my flesh
nor bone of my bone,
but still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
that you grew not under my heart,
but in it.
A Child To Love
You can have your wealth and riches
All the things so many seek,
Position, power, and success,
The fame you long to keep.
You can earn as much as you wish,
Reach a status high above,
But none of these can equal
Having one sweet child to love.
‘Tis the greatest gift from heaven,
Little arms that hold you tight,
And a kiss so soft and gentle
When you tuck them in at night.
A million precious questions
And each story often read,
Two eyes so bright and smiling,
And a darling tousled head.
God has never matched the goodness
Of a trusting little face,
Or a heart so full of laughter
Spreading sunshine every place.
A child to hold and cuddle,
‘Tis a gift from God above,
And the world is so much brighter
When you have a child to love.
Kelly McGinnis
“Musings” by Iliad Press and Cader Publishing(c)1995
Our Child
Our child
Can never not be yours,
Nor not ours.
So somehow,
We must let you know
Our unbound gratitude
For this precious gift you nurtured
then gave into our keeping.
Thank you for sharing life.
For allowing it uterine maturity
In place of abortive non-existence
Which you could have chosen.
Thank you for
Caring deeply enough,
For trusting enough
To place your babe into a small secure ark,
To float in the rushes of life
Without even a Miriam at the watch
To tell you where
His path will be.
We honor that trust,
And shall love and cherish him
As strongly and surely as you do.
Our child
Will grow tall and well
Undoubtedly with the stumblings
And skinned knees of life.
But always we will be there.
And you also, in spirit, close by.
A mother’s spirit knows no abandonment,
No matter what circumstances
Produce separation or distances
Our child will always know that you care.
We pray for your joy and well-being
We humbly acknowledge your gift,
And in spirit closeness
Share with you OUR CHILD.
Adoptive Mother
There is no mother more deserving of our praise
Than one who takes anothers child to comfort and to raise
Who has the blessings of the court to keep and call her own
A baby some what selfishly allowed to live alone
Her name is foster mother, but it should be angel queen
For she is all the nobleness that motherhood can mean
Why she is a bit of heaven on a cold and cruel earth
Where all to often human life is deemed of little worth
Her child belongs to her not by the grace of nature’s art
But by the choice made freely from the goodness of her heart.
For more articles on the subject of adoption, please visit the Families.com Adoption Blog.