TEDxNJLibraries
From Russia with Love
I chose to create a scrapbook page for my object and in the end the page I created represents two important communities in my life as well as an important cultural connection for my family.
The first community is the active scrapbooking group that meets monthly at Princeton Public Library. We have been scrapbooking together for 2+ years and it has become much more than a library program. It has become a true community that celebrates life events together and socializes beyond the library as well (both at other scrapbooking events and holiday events).
The second community represents a longer story, so bear with me... In 2002 my husband and I embarked on the journey to complete our family via adoption. It was a long journey with many bumps along the way, but eventually it led us to our son who was in a Baby Home in St. Petersburg, Russia waiting for us to find him.
During the process we found not only our son, but a wonderful community of friends via the various adoption forums and message boards. Whenever we needed support to make it through the next hoop or step, we could lean on this virtual community. Many of our online friends have turned in to real life friends, especially the group of us who live in New Jersey. The photos on this scrapbook page show the babies who came to NJ from Russia 6 years ago and the photo in the middle was taken 2 weeks ago with the same group of children. Our son loves his "Russia Friends" and it is an important cultural link for him to the country of his birth.
-- Janie Hermann
From Russia with Love
I chose to create a scrapbook page for my object and in the end the page I created represents two important communities in my life as well as an important cultural connection for my family.
The first community is the active scrapbooking group that meets monthly at Princeton Public Library. We have been scrapbooking together for 2+ years and it has become much more than a library program. It has become a true community that celebrates life events together and socializes beyond the library as well (both at other scrapbooking events and holiday events).
The second community represents a longer story, so bear with me... In 2002 my husband and I embarked on the journey to complete our family via adoption. It was a long journey with many bumps along the way, but eventually it led us to our son who was in a Baby Home in St. Petersburg, Russia waiting for us to find him.
During the process we found not only our son, but a wonderful community of friends via the various adoption forums and message boards. Whenever we needed support to make it through the next hoop or step, we could lean on this virtual community. Many of our online friends have turned in to real life friends, especially the group of us who live in New Jersey. The photos on this scrapbook page show the babies who came to NJ from Russia 6 years ago and the photo in the middle was taken 2 weeks ago with the same group of children. Our son loves his "Russia Friends" and it is an important cultural link for him to the country of his birth.
-- Janie Hermann