2 Girls, 2 Boys and 4 Journals

Last year I got a call from my husband's cousin, Aneska.

She had heard about my journaling and bookmaking adventures and had a wonderful idea.

She wanted to know if I could make a personalised journal for each of their children.

I'm a bit of a rogue bookmaker, you see - not an artisan at all.

I just love making them.

And I guess passion precedes (and compensates for) skill - it fuels our learning until we have learnt and practised enough, right?!

So of course I said yes!

She sent me a folder with images, anecdotes and documents related to their births, their names, their interests, her and Claude's hopes and dreams for them.
That way I got to know each one a little better.
And the pictures and stories culminated into ideas.

Aneska is incredibly busy - no rest for a mommy of 4 littles.

Yet she remains mindful of how fleeting these early childhood years are.

So she holds these journals close by so that she can take a few random seconds every now and then to paste down little hand drawn pictures, cards or write a short one liner or anecdote in their journals as life unfolds.

Ultimately over a period of 18 years, those tiny threads of scribbled words and one liners will become a detailed tapestry of story that would have been lost otherwise.

Last weekend I got to photograph them, each one beaming with pride as they held and paged through the books that are being written about them.

The youngest one is 18 months old - but even she seems to get it!

I left there feeling so inspired.  I felt that if she can journal her childrens' stories in the few random seconds in-between - so can I with my sweet little One.

And the looks on those little faces told me that those seconds are so worth it - for it tells them that their stories matter, that what they do and say matter enough to be cherished, that they are noticed and listened to, that they are loved, that they belong.

                                                                     

       

To make a positive impact in the world as an adult, you have to believe that your contribution is good enough, that it carries weight, that your presence here does make a difference.

Those seeds are planted (or not) during early childhood development.

I believe that journaling children's stories with them is a way to nurture this aspect of self esteem.

So thrilled to have had the opportunity to create these precious, precious containers for each child's story.  It will mean the world to them and their parents 30 years from now.