Lifebook No 2 - Complete!

Well, E2 has been home for just over a year and I finally completed his lifebook (story of his adoption). For E1's lifebook, I used headshots of all the family and adoption agency people and the Sizik cutting system to make basically bobble head people. I wrote the story out then hand stamped the words. Though I love E1's book and am very happy with the results, the stamping was time consuming and there was no way to make sure all the words fit on one page, so there are several sentences that continue on the following page which is annoying when you are reading it. I am including a page from E1's book with this post so you can get an idea what it looks like. I have really enjoyed reading it to him and I think he really likes seeing the pictures of his Madre, grandparents, himself and mom and dad.

E2's book was a tougher nut to crack, while I knew that I wanted to type the words, I have never scrapbooked electronically before. I started months before with a title page that described him as a grown man traveling back to the town in which he was born and speaks to the sights and sounds of the town. After that page, I was pretty much lost. My friends suggested a book call the "The House that Jack Built", that I might be able to use that as a base and twist it into the adoption story. I wrote the whole thing out....this is the town that E2 was born in the Country of Ethiopia, this is the lady that took care of E2 in the town where he was born, in the Country of Ethiopia....etc. When I was finished, I totally hated it. A few months past and I found myself in the bowels of the "Change I Can't Control" (see post below), somewhere in my wallering in self pity, loathing, spiteful, negative attitude, I started to write E2's adoption story. Combined with my drive to do something meaningful and my melancholy, I just couldn't stop writing. Now normally, I am in bed by 9:15, but I found that I just couldn't stop and pushed the clock each night beyond 11:00. It is finished, through all the chaos of the last few months, I am REALLY really, happy with the result and hope that E2 will treasure it as he grows up. I haven't figured out how to post a picture of one of the pages as it was created in word and I can't convert it to a jpeg, but here is the basic setup. There is a full size pictures on the left side of each facing page with words laid over the picture that read "My mom and dad tell me I am XXXXXXXX", (i.e. blessed, prayed for, loved...etc), the facing page on the right describes in more detail his adoption story and why he is blessed, prayed for, loved, etc. with additional photos to help tell the story. I can't wait to read it to him.