Baby Bump Book–Adoption Style

A pro and con about adoption is that I don’t have a giant baby belly leading the way everywhere I go.  So while it’s kind awesome that I don’t have to struggle with body image issues right now, it’s also so not awesome that I don’t get to carry my baby with me at all times.  It’s also sort of weird to be in this same waiting stage as a pregnant mother, and yet no one knows.  My pregnant friend and I will walk through the store and she gets stopped all the time with questions about when she’s due, how’s she handling it, is she excited, but no one knows to ask me about my baby because, well, they can’t see it.

The other thing missing from not having a baby bump is the nonexistent baby bump pictures.  First off, too many people post baby bump pics on social media too many times.  I don’t want to see your weekly progress preggo ladies.  But I know I’d take them for myself to remember, and I’d do it in front of a cute wall with the same outfit each week so that I can see the progression.

The second we decided to adopt, I knew I wanted to do a baby bump book in an adoption style.  Meaning, instead of pics of the actual baby belly, I’m taking pictures of major moments in the adoption process–the day we mailed our adoption application, the business card of our social worker, the postcard we received saying our application had been accepted, a picture of the day of our first training class, our adoption announcement pics and card, etc.   And I knew I wanted this little book to withstand the test of time, because hopefully future child(ren) will want to look at it over and over.

I’ve been really inspired by Project Life and bloggers who use the system, so I wanted to do something like that.  But I didn’t want to spend the money that it costs and I didn’t want to do a giant binder.  So I took my Michael’s coupons and went with SN@P! and Smash–but I think SN@P! is way cuter and more my style.  I bought one of their small book plastic pages in a variety pack and some of their paper.

I collected some scrapbook-y things around the house and put them all into a little tub so that cleanup is easy and all my supplies are where I need them to be. (I stole that idea from Elsie’s December Daily project.)

It’s mostly sticker letters, some paint chips that I might use, ribbon, pics, note cards, and stamps.  It’s not a lot, but I’m not really a scrapbook type person, I like me a good old fashioned photo album–simple and to the point.  But like I said with my tree skirt, my creativity is manifesting itself in so many different ways, so I wanted to try something out of my comfort zone.

I haven’t had the chance to work on this much, and I only just got some pictures printed, but I’ll be sure to update how it looks.