Life Books: Where to begin?!?

So part of a child's journey in life inevitably involves the creation of a "Baby Book" of sorts.. It tells them their story through words and/or pictures.  In the Foster Care world and even Adoption, we call these books "Life Books".

I have created three, and I have to say that "A"arron's is by far the best... probably because it looks like a baby book.  It covers the first year of his life, his milestones through his adoption date.  For "C"indy and "B"ella I am missing all of their milestones and baby pictures.  I do have pictures of their birth families from physical photos given to them while they were in foster care... but the books still seem incomplete.

At some point, I found this fabulous letter from a CaseWorker as an introduction to the Life Book.  I was able to copy and paste it and edit it to my liking.  But now that I am working on my fourth and fifth Life Books.. that letter is NO WHERE to be found.  {so much for my wonderful Google skills}

There are websites that you can order Life Books from and even suggestions on what to do (personally, I prefer Shutterfly hard cover books -- sometimes there are Groupons for them for only $10 plus shipping -- I have a fear that pictures/pages can get removed from a binder and then the child has nothing).

• Foster Care Life Books by Beth O'Malley
• Casey Family Services "How to Guide for Life Books" (with links)
• IFAPA Life Book Pages
• Adoption World's Life Book