I have made photo albums before.
I used to be a Creative Memories consultant for cryin' out loud.
I have made the fancy schmancy ones through Snapfish and Walgreens.
So then, with all of this photo-album-making experience, WHY is it that I can't seem to put together three albums to send to my kids in Ethiopia???
I am not happy with my selection of photos.
How do you say "Hello! We are strangers who look strange and do strange things... and these are the photos we have chosen to represent our lives... and soon we are coming to pick you up and bring you to this strange place with the strange stuff and more strange people." in an album??
It's intimidating.
I would be less nervous making a photo book detailing our family to send to the President or Mother Theresa or some other famous person than I am at making one for my kids!
This is the first time they will "see" us!!
I hate most photos of myself and I have realized in the past day or so that almost ALL of the photos I have of our family have either food or gifts in the background. READ: I mostly take photos on holidays and birthdays.
So, then it snowed. I have sledding pictures, our house covered in snow pictures, and kids bundled up in snow paraphernalia photos. It snows here like once a year... am I setting them up for disappointment if I include snow pictures and they come home to summer in middle Tennessee where it's like a gazillion degrees and 200% humidity? Will they feel we have falsely represented our lives?
Yes... they are toddlers.
They may not actually put the connection together between the colorful photos in the book and who we actually are as a family... maybe that's a higher-order thinking skill they will not actually acquire until they are 6 or 7 years old. BUT, STILL!!!
Why is this so HARD??!???!?!!!??!!????!!??
It's just hard because we love them so much. We have expectations that they never will! If it makes you feel better I got my hair cut after I sent the album and I'm terrified that she's not going to recognize me...like that's the biggest issue I have to think about rigt now...
ReplyDeleteAlso considering how thin that sucker has to be!!! Yeow. If we have an infant referral I don't plan on doing one.
ReplyDeleteI obsessed over ours too...it took FOREVER to pick just the right pictures. I think it's completely normal to feel this way...it's basically the first introduction of ourselves to our new children...and there's nothing wrong with wanting it to be just right. I made mine through Shutterfly...it turned out great and was really thin (we had like 20 or more pics in it too).
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you. Maybe Jen or Jamey or someone else would be willing to share theirs.
ReplyDeleteAre you doing shutterfly or fabric? OUr little guys turns 2 this week and I know that at my age, my daughter would look at pics in our shutterfly books.
Chrissy, I'm trying to figure out this "follower" thing and I don't know what I did to your blog but somehow my picture is showing up right on top of your "follower" list and it's showing up twice. SORRY! I don't know what I did. Plus I tried to comment on your post and it's disappeared. Anyway, I thought it was very sweet. Apparently I need to buy "Blogging for Dummies."
ReplyDeleteTamara,
ReplyDeleteWe are doing Shutterfly paperback books so they are thin.
Michelle - You didn't mess anything up! It must just be on your end! Have a WONDERFUL trip!!
Cant wait to hear all about it!!