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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.

Don't feel overwhelming 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.

Consider if you'd like to do an album on your own, purchase a pre-made adoption book from your favorite bookstore, or even hire a freelance scrapbooker. They will do a pre-designed book for you. One of the best options is the Adoption Scrapbook Album. It's twenty pages of transparency overlays, and you get to choose five that specifically fits your child's experience. They make scrapbooking stylish and fast.

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.

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.

Be creative, but not obsessively so. You don't have to go to "cropping parties." Invest in a nice paper cutter, don't bother cutting photos into circles, matte them using solid-color card stock and buy patterned paper in bulk.

Write it down. While it's nice to finish your adoption album soon so your child can enjoy it even as he or she is a toddler, at least start writing notes as you go to use for journaling later. You may use some in places other than the adoption album, but you'll have lots to choose from. Purchase a small notepad to put in the diaper bag so you can easily write things down as you think of them

My son turns five-years-old this month. I remember the first year of his life when I got so tired of strangers approaching me to say, "It goes so fast." But now I am one of those people, smiling at little babies and telling new moms, "Cherish this time. It goes so fast." Adoption is such an incredible experience. It's easy to believe that you will remember every emotion you beheld when you looked into your sweet one's eyes. But let's get real! Our brains can only hold so much. And our children do grow up so quickly. Record those treasured memories now before you forget.