Monday, September 13, 2010

Getting back to it......

 

January 1992....the beginning of my journey into working within the fostering system.  My neighbor at the time & mentor Judy asked me to consider being her babysitter/respite provider.  Over the next 8 years I had the good fortune of working very closely with Judy and the special babies in her care.  She was very generous in sharing her knowledge and experiences.  By the time I was ready to open my own home up I had a pretty good handle on the system.

One of the many shared ideas Judy & I had was about  "Life Books".  Over the years, we have each evolved in our approached in how we make them.  Taking picture had long been a passion of mine.  Seeing how extra important it was to document " our babies" journey took a new importance when my K&A moved in at the age of 3.  I was their 7 th official foster home.  They had had numerous respite care placements & daycare's in addition to multiple short term stays with their birthmom & her family.  It is estimated that they had had approx. 40 different caregivers since birth.  They had nothing but the clothes they were wearing.  There were no photo's in their files.  Eventually, we received a few sad picture from their birthmom.  A previous support worker remembered receiving a picture of them when they were around 4months old.  This is the only nice picture that exists for their first 3 years of life.  Not one of their previous foster families had any photos of them to share.  No one wonder they felt like nothing !!!

Well to say that I'm passionate about scrapbooking/lifebooking/documenting is a understatement !!!  Since moving back to the island it seems to have moved to the back burner to some degree. Most likely because we've been grieving .....

So in a effort not to go stir crazy with all this time on my hands I've decided to get back to it by finishing up my nephews baby books and then onto the 2010 family album that is not even started !


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