Updating My Adoption Book

So after the whole Facebook fiasco, I realized that I haven’t updated my adoption book since February 5th.  I’ve learned a lot since then, so I decided to go back and update.  Plus, my computer’s been randomly blue screening for the past week, so I think it’s on its last leg.  I’m a total computer geek, so this means I’ve been backing up my computer and making sure I have all the information I need before I buy a new laptop.  And naturally I’m combing through the stores looking for the best new laptop I can get.  Hehe!  Oh, plus my cell phone is dying as well so it looks like I’m about to invest heavily in new technology over the next few weeks.  Oh boy…

Back to the point.  Updating my adoption book means several things.  First of all, SinginInTheRain and I email each other about once a week.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  So in a month, there are about eight emails.  I’m learning now that it’s more like ten emails a month.  So in seven months, I have about seventy emails to go through.  I copy all of the emails over into a word file, and then from the word file, I print it out.  I don’t have to print out the first 40 or so pages, but I’m probably close to 100 pages when finished at this point, so I will have to print out the rest.  So it’s a lot of copy and pasting.  I also have a few emails (not a lot) from NeverTooLate that I have to go through.  That’s a lot less time consuming.

For each email that is copy and pasted, I have to rough edit (I remove typos if I can) and change the font.  I have different fonts for different people, which makes it easier to read.  I’m a weirdo I know.  Then I make sure the spacing is correct.  If there are pictures (and I do have some pictures) I send them to CVS to be printed.  I print normal 4X6 prints, and I also get a 8X10 collage.  The collages go in the back of my book and make it easy to see a bunch of pictures at once.  It also gives me a way of knowing which envelope the pictures are in!

Finally, I have another file that keeps a rough story in in about how I came to be.  I have some things to add to that.  I’ve since learned about my first parents first date, more about how they met, and fun stuff like that.  So I update that file and make sure that it reads like a story.  I have this because I’ve read about reunions failing after a year.  I’m hoping and praying that won’t happen, but I have to be realistic.  Part of the reason I searched is because if I ever have kids, I want them to be able to know my story.  I want them to know where I came from because that’s half of their story too.  If something were to happen to my first parents (or we weren’t speaking) or to me, I’d want them to have the story to read.  Plus I can’t remember a lot of stuff (my memory is horrible!) so it helps me remember too.

All together it’s a lot of work.  It’s going to probably take me days.  But that’s alright.  I enjoy it.  It reminds me of how far we’ve come.  And seeing as I’m coming up to the year mark of first getting in touch with SinginInTheRain, it’s a nice exercise.  It makes me happy.

Now it’s back to my copy and pasting!