Have you ever told a story so many times that you know your audience is bored of it? I’m the first to raise my own hand – I’m guilty LOL.
Every year on her birthday, I tell my daughter her birth story and I bet she’s totally over it by now, but I want her to remember it. So…this year, I switched it up! For my daughter’s 18th birthday, instead of just telling her the story of how she was born, I wrote it for her in the form of a poem. Specifically, an iambic pentameter (because I’ve been obsessed with that particular format since high school) and I recorded a video of myself reciting it to her. She loved it!
I’ll share the last stanza:
Directly on my breast she was first laid
This baby girl we had been waiting for
Kaleya Frances, welcome to the world
To join our family forever more!
Telling her birth story is important to me and serves as yet another reminder of how we can document our family history. Think about your own birth – do you know the story? What about the birth of your siblings? The birth of your parents?
We spend a lot of time researching our ancestors’ past and let’s also be sure we are leaving legacies for our future family so they know our own experiences and personal histories too!
Furthermore, what you do with those personal history details is also important. I did the following 3 things in case you find it helpful:
1) I created a scrapbook page to document her birthday and included the poem. This is part of my annual family yearbook that I do!
2) I recorded a video of myself reciting the poem
2) I created a “sharable” project – specifically, a canvas wall design for her to have with a QR code embedded so that she can play the video and hear the poem on demand. I’ll be sending her grandparents and some other family members, a card in the mail that includes her birthday picture and the QR code so they can bring it up anytime they wish as well.
Not only is this a way to document family history, but for sharing and preserving it too. As family historians, it is important that we leave a legacy and for our digital media – even more so.
With my family archive, my daughter will have access to it even beyond my lifetime using the innovative and unique, FOREVER platform. Our family archive is priceless and I’m thrilled that she will now have her birth story poem and video as part of it for years and years to come.
P.S. –> if you want to see the whole poem, I’m happy to share it with you in case you find it inspiring for your own family history work. Just ask!