A Lifetime of Memories

By:Karen Ramirez-Smith

There are many ways that scrapping has improved my life. The most noticeable is the assistance it gave us in adopting our son. He was 3 years old and had been in one foster home for 2 ˝ years and it was my scrapbook that persuaded the foster mother to work with us on the adoption. I had done an 8x10 book to introduce us to prospective families and other social workers. It detailed our family, friends, hobbies, home and pets. When the foster mother saw the love and effort that had gone into making this she knew we would be great for Mark and began reviewing the book with him daily. By the time we met him for the first time, he already knew who we were and in fact he came running out yelling “Mommy” when he saw me. It was one of the most memorable occasions of my life.

Since that day, I have made a history of our lives together including that first meeting, birthdays, holidays, travel and momentous occasions (like the finalization of the adoption). Not a week goes by without him wanting to look at the pictures and remind himself of all the great things we have done in 3 years. It’s like a lifetime of memories that are starting to be built one book at a time. We are now updating that original book to incorporate the addition of Mark in the hopes of adopting a little sister for him. He can hardly wait to show her all of his pictures. I am so happy to be documenting our lives in this way. I know that 100 years from now I will still be around in pictures and memories that will last more than a lifetime and look forward to doing these books every minute I can.


Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Grandma's Books, by By Shannon, Mesa, AZ