Welcome bags: bringing kids into your world

A couple years ago an adoptive family that I know came up with a really fun way to help their waiting child imagine herself in her new life and her new family. They chose a good picture of the child they were expecting to come home, and with the help of a copy store, they blew the photo up to life-size.

They cut out the photo of their child and mounted it on heavy cardboard. Then they posed the life-sized photo of their child in various places in the house: in the child’s new bedroom, at the table, in a group shot with her new family, and in other places that the child would be once she was home.

These photos went into the child’s album and were sent to Ethiopia in the welcome bag. These unusual pictures were received with delight by the child. The album was passed around to friends and shown to workers in the orphanage. In fact, it made the rounds so often that when the adoptive family finally came to pick up their child, most of the children at the orphanage recognized them.

In preparing our welcome bag photos, I remembered what this family did, and decided to try it myself. I used a good-quality .bmp file that my sister took when she met our girls in Ethiopia last month. I didn’t have a full-length photo, so I just used one that I had that was taken of both girls from the waist up.

I opened the file in Microsoft Paint, selected high quality printing, and printed it out poster-style on multiple sheets of paper. It took 12 sheets of paper, and it turned out to be very close to life size. Once I had all the pages printed, I trimmed the pieces and taped them all together with a piece of stiff paper as a backer, and cut the picture out around the outline of the girls.

Then the fun began. My younger kids took the ‘girls’ for a wagon ride. They climbed the treehouse with them. We posed them in their bedroom. We sat at the dinner table with them. We set them in the circle of kids that congregate around Dad every evening at story time.

I wish I could be there when our girls get their bags. I imagine they’ll like being able to see themselves in their new life ahead of time. I love the idea of them already knowing their place at the dinner table when they arrive, and already looking forward to roaring around on the wagon with their lively brothers or climbing the fort in person.

The project turned out to be wonderful for our younger kids too. They scooted over to make room at story time. They tried out their ‘new’ rearranged places at the table. They were able to imagine how their new sisters would fit in our lives. It made the coming change more real for everyone.

Maybe the idea is a little goofy, but it has given us all a little preview into life with two more. And no, we aren’t expecting the real girls to be nearly as quiet and well-behaved as the pair that are currently sitting on the counter!

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