When you are waiting to adopt a child, especially your first, it can seem to take forever, regardless of how long or short the wait actually is. One way to pass the time is to start your adoption scrapbook album now. As you begin to record some of your thoughts at the time you'll see why it's so important to still take the time after your child arrives.

[1] Don't feel overwhelmed with the task of creating an adoption scrapbook album. One of the easiest and most natural places to start is with an extensive list of topics about the adoption experience. This can help get you brain focusing on events you may otherwise overlook. These lists can be found on a variety of web sites including my own which has over 150 topics.

[2] Consider purchasing a pre-made adoption album. You can buy a hard-cover book at your favorite bookstore, or even hire a freelance scrapbooker to do a pre-designed book for you. One of the best is the Adoption Scrapbook Album which is twenty pages of overlays, where you get to choose five that specifically fits your child's experience. They make your book look like it was designed by a professional, but with the price tag of doing it yourself.

[3] Go visit your local craft store or scrapbook store to get some stickers and other embellishments. I rarely find more than a couple that specifically mention adoption, but buy some that have sayings about family, baby happenings, love, and other life events. You can use these in your book when you have a little spot to fill. It adds some style.

[4] Have some fun with your digital camera and take a bunch of photos of the day-to-day stuff. Spilled Cheerios all over the living room floor and the huge pile of laundry will give you interesting journaling topics. The more creative photographs you take, the more you'll enjoy journaling. And years later you'll be glad you wrote about and photographed the uneventful stuff as well as the vacations. Your child will have a great time reading about it too.

[5] Be imaginative, but don't get obsessive. Unless you want to make new friends, don't join "cropping parties." Buy a decent paper cutter, only cut your photos with straight edges (avoiding circles will save hours), matte your photos using solid-color card stock, and purchase the patterned paper in bulk (craft stores call them "slabs.").

[6] Write it down now. It's a good idea to get the adoption scrapbook album done sooner rather than later so your toddler can look at it, at least start keeping notes as you go so you will have lots of journaling ideas to choose from. Purchase a small notepad to carry around in the diaper bag so you have it handy when you want to write down something that happened or just record your thoughts.

My son turns five-years-old this month. The first year of his life I grew so tired of strangers telling me, "It goes so fast." Now I find myself smiling at little babies and telling the new mothers, "Cherish it. It goes so fast." Adoption is such an amazing experience and every time you look into your little one's eyes you think you will remember every single moment. But our brains can only hold so much and our children do change quickly. Record those treasured memories now.