A Couple of Links to Share

I wanted to share a couple of links with you all that someone out there might like to learn about. The first is a link to a terrific book adoption journey journal, "Your Sacred Adoption" by Kevin Quirk. You can find it at www.memoirsforlife.com. This is really a unique tool for those of you who want to share your feelings about your adoption journey, and yet have a difficult time knowing where and how to begin. This journal guides you through the entire process with very specific statements for you to address, prompting you to do far more than record the facts of your child's adoption but through probing statements and open ended starters it encourages you to share your feelings about the deeper meaning of the process. Starter statements such as "What most captured your attention in your new surroundings was..." and "If my child's caregivers or others were there, I tried to communicate my feelings toward them by..." really get you to think about the little details and to commit them to paper. Those are the things your child might very well treasure when they are older. For those of you who are not techies or bloggers, this can be a wonderful memento for you child. It is appropriate for either domestic or international adoption and is not a short pamphlet but a 73 page book in which you can record every single thought and emotion. After reading it myself, I thought it would be something most parents would love to do and would be very helpful to those who need a push to get started or who don't have confidence in their own writing abilities. Kevin is an adoptive father himself, with a son from Matthew's orphanage in Aktobe, Kazakhstan. He has written a memoir himself of his adoption journey titled "Hello Aibek!".

Another web site I wanted to share with you was one that one of my readers was surprised to find Josh on, and I had actually totally forgotten about. When we came home with Josh, friends of ours...a family who traveled to adopt with us as we brought Matthew home, treated us to a gift certificate to get adoption announcements printed. These were no ordinary announcements, these were works of art as you will see from the web site. Check them out at www.photoinnovations.com/adoption.htm . The talented artist has a real knack for taking your photos and turning them into something really unique and special. If you scroll down the page you will find Josh's announcement, which is actually one of the simpler designs but perfect with the photo I provided. The term "photo innovation" really fits her work, and I think you'll agree when you see them.

And no, I am not getting a "kick back" from either of the above parties...just enjoyed their product, thought it was unique and wanted to share it with you all.