Photo book

[OurMiracle1106]

Due to circumstances at the time and a lack of faith in social services I am aware that my son doesn’t have many photos of him before he was taken into care. He was placed 3.5 years ago and as he’s getting older he may now be asking questions. I couldn’t at the time afford to do a photo book (I know £20 seems a small amount but I was homeless at the time and on benefits)

My next contact is due in the next few weeks so I wanted to ask as adopters would you welcome a photo book even after all this time of photos of your child from before they were in care?

[UnderTheNameOfSanders]

Absolutely. Lovely idea I think.

[Thepinklady77]

My two have virtually no photos. I would cherish it! I would also add whether the adopters ( who I would be surprised if they said no) did not wish it I would do it anyway and place it in his file. I am supporting a birth parent at present who is finding resistance from the adopters to the contact that is in place. I am aware that there may be very good reason for this in terms of the child's needs at present. However I have been advising her to continue the arrangements from her side. Lodge the letters with social services so they are on file. In years to come if the child decides to proceed to find out more and access their file/info they will know she loved them and never gave up her side of the bargain. That book could mean so much in years to come. Lovely idea.

[Cassie9]

I'd be thrilled with it. It's a lovely thought.

[TripleB32]

I would be over the moon with it. My children have no photos prior to being in care. It's a really lovely thought.

[bostonkremekrazy]

I agree. Most adopted children (and parents) i know, wish they had more photos of their infancy, and photos of their birth family.
Its nice you are in a place to do this now miracle 💐

[PoppyStellar]

Agree with the others that it’s a lovely idea. I’d be delighted to have more photos of DD when she was a baby.

[LateToTheParty]

I would love more photos of my DC, one in particular has a large gap where we have nothing.

Please don't feel bad about not being able to afford to create a photobook. I think that before their adoption, your child's social worker should have asked you if you had any photos you were happy to share, and they should have made arrangements to print them out and add them into a scrapbook, or created a photo book, as part of life story work.

I'm sure your son's adoptive parents would welcome any new photos in any format, even just prints, or on a disk or memory stick, or emailed via social worker.

[Goldiehawnoverboard]

Yes. We would love that. Or originals of the photos on a CD or memory stick would be equally as welcome and cheaper. If you give his parents the photos, they can make the decision as to when would be a good time to share with him.

I can’t speak for AD as she is only small but I like to think she would be glad to have photos of her when she was a baby pre adoption.

and it very much depends on the circumstances of the adoption as to how LO will feel about seeing the photos, but hopefully he will treasure them, if not now then when he’s older.

[MonsterChopz]

I would really like that. It's something that makes me sad for daughter. The first photos anyone has of her are aged 3 months when she was discharged from hosp and straight in to foster care.

[bostonkremekrazy]

😢 monster. My children's sw took photo's of baby and bm at birth thank goodness. They also went straight from hospital to fc. Did the sw not do that? Or was it not known baby would become a lac?
If there were plans being made the sw should have been taking pictures for the baby....😢

[JustHappy3]

It's never too late. For my child's sake i wish we had photos after birth etc. And of relatives.

[Italiangreyhound]

100% I would love this.

[MonsterChopz]

It was known pre birth that she would be removed but I think she had a pretty incompetent SW at the time.

[bostonkremekrazy]

@monster - how sad. I bet you are always taking pics now 💐

[Goldiehawnoverboard]

We don’t have any pre foster care, considering she was removed at birth and put in family’s care for the first few days it saddens me that no SW thought to take a photo for her sake and BM’s.

And any photos we have of her first year were at the discretion of foster carers who luckily took quite a few but unfortunately their camera wasn’t great so they’re not brilliant but SO precious to us and LO.

It’s very thoughtful of you Ourmiracle. I hope your contact goes well.

[UnderTheNameOfSanders]

DD1 has precisely 2 photos from before the age of 6.