God Bless the Broken Road

So the past few weeks Brandon and I have been working on our autobiographies for the home-study.  The autobiography basically covers your life story, what it was like growing up as a kid, what your parents were like, etc.  Sounds easy enough until you start writing it.  You are forced to analyze your childhood, your parent's marriage, feelings and all the hard emotional stuff you've buried deep inside over the years.  Now to be honest, I had a great childhood, no crazy emotional or physical abuse. But I still found the exercise emotionally draining and difficult.  I can only imagine how much harder it would be for those who had a difficult childhood.
That being said, I think it should be mandatory that every parent (or soon to be parent) should have to write their own autobiography before having a child.  I think the process of analyzing, reflecting and remembering your past, how you were raised, the mistakes your parents made, the things you want to do the same/different; all helps you think about how you want to raise your own kids.
There are probably hundreds of questions that I have never thought of.  These are questions that will directly affect my child's life, development and ultimately what kind of adult they will turn out to be.
Here are a few of the three pages of questions we answered.

• Discuss values taught, realtionships, communication, and roles of each family member, Also discuss Joys, as well as difficulties within your family of origin.
• Describe your family's lifestyle while you were growing up.  Be specific (economic class, rural/urban setting, leisure time activities, vacations, involvement in church/community activities).
• Describe your marriage.  What do you admire most about your spouse? In what area would you like to see personal growth for your spouse?
• Discuss what you believe you can offer a child in the way of a home and what your goals as a parent will be.
• Describe the kind of child you hope to adopt and characteristics that you absolutely could not accept in a child.

List of the 30 worst Celebrity Autobiography

A very rare occasion of quiet time for me! Finding sanctuary in Barnes and Noble while the boys were at preschool!

What I am currently reading as part of our adoption education.