Crafting our family: My adoption life book design
This blog kicks off a semi-annual series where our creatives share “The Best Thing They’ve Created” — an annual report, an animated video or maybe even a backyard fort for their kids.
In celebration of National Adoption Month (November), I’m sharing the greatest thing I’ve designed: my family’s Adoption Life Book. Think of it as a P2C marketing tool (parent-to-child) —a warm, visual introduction to your family, home, and lifestyle to help children (and their adoption team) envision life with you.
This story is an aside to my #NotionAt11 gratitude series, celebrating 11 years of Notion with stories of the people who shaped us.
I mentioned in my 6th LinkedIn post that I poured my creative soul into this book. I wrote and designed it during Notion’s first year. I was my own client, with a critical deadline. Adopting kids from foster care takes 9–12 months due to background checks, interviews, trauma-informed parental training, and waiting for the right kids (those meant for us).
Here’s a breakdown of the booklet:
- Introduction to new parents and our families (including our dogs!)
- Our home, neighborhood, and area schools
- Our interests/hobbies, family traditions, and activities we planned for them
- Our friends, support system, and extended family members
Its goal? Focus on the children — framing everything around what life with us offers: love, safety, and fun.
I built my design system around those values. Each page/spread had a “wrapping paper” texture to spark excitement, layered with consistent elements.
To keep kids engaged, I used a Crayola-pack palette of eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, navy, purple, and white. Playful contrast was key.
I love to design layouts with structure, but kids want variety. Centered gift-tag labels anchored each page, with an assortment of layers full of content, imagery, and text blocks for exploration.
In my text design, I used four paragraph styles, including all-caps and playful fonts that I rarely use in my corporate work / world. Every block was succinct, written for the kids and the adoption team picking us as parents.
Each spread included:
- Cutout artwork (dolls, toys, movies, books) and cartoons (e.g., Calvin and Hobbes ^). One “hero” cutout always stood out prominently.
- Candid photos and custom shots, like panoramas or our “hidden Moose” (think Where’s Waldo) for kids to find.
- A 3–5-word adoption message button sharing love, based on insights from our trauma-informed training.
- Speech bubbles to bring photos/characters to life.
- Hand-drawn arrows, curly Qs, and shapes to draw further attention.
In the back, I asked friends and family to write encouragement notes to the kids. I said, “Write it on white paper and snap a photo.” Everyone took it to heart, crafting heartfelt notes and colorful drawings welcoming them to our family.
Our adoption
Ten years ago, that booklet helped my wife and me become a family when we welcomed two young siblings into our home. 😊 Happy National Adoption Month to all the families touched by adoption!
I’m thankful for the gift of adoption and for building a company that supports families with flexibility.
