Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child's Lifestory [Paperback]

Tebos and Woodwyk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 2007

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 lifestory.

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: FaithWalk Publishing (June 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932902694
• ISBN-13: 978-1932902693
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #958,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AT LAST! A Biblical Perspective for your Child, November 1, 2007

By 

Sherrie Eldridge (Fishers, IN) (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child's Lifestory (Paperback)

As an adopted person, I can find no peace or answers to the haunting questions we adoptees struggle with apart from God and His Word, the Bible. Why am I in the family I'm in? Why did my birth mother give me up? Was my life a mistake? What do I do with all my unanswered questions, like missing history? How do I develop a healthy identity with no history? I have found that God has an answer for every question. What a wonderful contribution to adoption literature this book is! I can't recommend it highly enough!!
Sherrie Eldridge
Adoption author and speaker

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!, October 11, 2007

By 

An Adoptive Mom (Grand Rapids, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child's Lifestory (Paperback)

Before You Were Mine is a "must read" for any adoptive parent! I've put off creating a lifebook for my daughter because I just didn't know how to go about it. After reading this book, I realize that a lifebook is essential for any adopted child, and it is so much more than a "scrapbook of my child's adoption story." It is my child's story before she was mine! It is vital for an adoptive child to know and understand his/her complete life story. Before You Were Mine offers step by step advice on how to work through and incorporate a child's history into a lifebook - even the difficult components. The book includes practical guidelines for putting together a lifebook and addresses both international and domestic adoptions.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very special find..., February 6, 2008

By 

HappyReader "HappyReader" (Raleigh, NC, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Before You Were Mine: Discovering Your Adopted Child's Lifestory (Paperback)

This is a very special "find" for those adopting families for whom spirituality is central. The presented information is both spiritually sound AND psychologically sound. I was both very pleased and very touched to find such a thoughtfully conceived and well-written book. It is accessible to even the busiest parent, but it is not a "cookie cutter" approach to the life book. It goes one step further, and it inspires. Thank you so very much.