As a foster parent, we are required to make a "life book" for our foster children. The purpose of a life book is to document important information, and mile stones of the child's life while he/she is in care.
I have made the first few pages in Lil mans scrapbook/life book. The first page says "It's a boy", and his birth date, weight, and the location of his birth. It also includes the full names of his birth parents. What is missing is a picture of a tiny baby boy.
Sadly our Lil man came with nothing, not even a picture. He has lost the first four years of his life, and memories to the system. Passed events will be forgotten, and questions will go unanswered, because we simply don't know.
He has been in seven different homes, and not one person had the time or desire to create a life book for him. He often talks about people, and I have no clue how they are related. He speaks often about the dog he had in his previous foster home.
There is no record of important mile stones, no evidence of birthday parties, or Christmas celebrations. I have tired to gather information from his DFAC's worker, but she can barley answer her phone let alone find out important information.
I hope that when he goes onto his forever family, his life book will be able to answer some of the questions he has. I hope he will see that we enjoyed having him in our lives, and that we tired our best to give him a normal life.
I love that Lil man, even when he spits in my face.
I love that you are actually doing this. My kids have over 25 placements combined. I have one baby picture of TTops and nothing of my boys. Not one single piece of evidence before about age 4. Nothing. So sad. And hard.
ReplyDeleteIt kills me..It is a requirment of our agency, and they check to make sure your keeping stuff/taking pictures. I made a scrapbook,and bought a keepsake box for his art work etc.
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