Anyone whose life has been touched by adoption understands the importance of learning about and then sharing an adoptive child's birth heritage.
This comprehensive resource helps adoptive parents prepare for their roles as storytellers, a privilege unique to the adoption experience. It helps parents embark on a sacred journey of discovery as they learn how important it is to know and honor an adopted child's life story.
In this book, parents are invited to bring their child's story to life by making a Lifebook to provide a message of hope in the midst of fragmented experiences of the past.
While there have been several books written about Lifebooks in the past, Before You Were Mine is the first resource that includes a faith perspective.
Adopted children eventually want and need to know their birth story and their parents want and need to tell it in a healthy way.
In this book parents are shown important lessons on timing, shaping, affirming, embracing, imagining, honoring and praying. Encouragement is provided through practical advice and easy-to-use forms to freely express their thoughts and feelings; capture facts, events, and moments; and imagine where information is missing all to create a Lifebook of their own.
Key Highlights:
- This comprehensive resource helps adoptive parents prepare for their roles as storytellers
- Important lessons on timing, shaping, affirming, embracing, imagining, honouring and praying
- Practical advice and easy-to-use forms to freely express their thoughts and feelings
- The first resource that includes a faith perspective
- Value for money
Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child's Lifestory, PB
Editorial Reviews
Additional Information
Review
Before You Were Mine is not only worth reading but worth referring back to time and again. It walks the reader through not only how to create a Lifebook but why it matters in the life of the child. --Kris Faasse, Director of Adoption Services for Bethany Christian Services
Before You Were Mine is another way in which adoptive parents can help their child feel an extra measure of love and care. A great resource for adoptive families! --Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman
"Truly loving the hearts of relinquished and adopted children means respecting their birth parents, honoring their birth stories, and tracing the movement of God's hand in their pre-adoption lives." --Psychologist and author Ron Nydam
About the Author
Susan TeBos is the mother of three internationally-adopted children. She has an M.A. in communication and is a frequent speaker on adoption, and a Lifebook coach.
Carissa Woodwyk is a Korean born adoptee. She has an M.A. in counseling psychology and works as a licensed professional counselor and a marriage and family therapist in private practice.
