As a single, working mom of two, I have a long to-do list of things that don't get done.

But when I was working on a reorganization of the basement the other day, I came across the box of materials I had put aside for my younger son's life book. There was the journal I kept during my two trips to Sakhalin Island in 2005, and copies of all the e-mails I had sent or received while I was away. There were photos, but I am not the world's best with a camera and most of the time during my trips I was playing with my son, not taking his picture. I began to think about ways to get more visuals for the book, and here are three tips I came up with on getting more photos for the life book of a child adopted from Russia.

The first is to buy a souvenir book of the region. Sakhalin Island sees a lot of foreigners now because of the development of its oil and gas resources. Vladivostok, where my older son was born, was a tourist destination even in 1999 because it was the endpoint of the Trans Siberian Railway. The souvenir photo books I picked up from both regions are modest, but they each have views of the area that I saw--and didn't see. You won't need to cut up the books you find: Take them to Staples to make color copies of the images you want in the life book.

Then check the Internet group for your adoption region. There is an interesting thread going on one of the groups I belong to of people looking for photos, inside and out, of a baby home in the region. Some may even have pictures of caregivers that you might have missed.

My final resource is also on the Internet: online photo-sharing sites. There are more than 2,700 photos of Vladivostok on Flickr.com and more than 1,000 photos of Sakhalin, many taken in much better weather than I experienced. Quite a few are marked as "public", so you can download and print them without a guilty conscience.

I'll also pass along one photo tip that was not my own. On their adoption blog "The Road Home", Melissa and Nathan share that they left a disposable camera at their child's orphanage when they went for trip one back in March. Your child's caregivers may not have a lot of free time on their hands, but every picture they can take while you are away is one more for the book. The more adventurous among you might want to try the same thing with a disposable video camera. I have seen them from time to time at the CVS near my house, and they are not that expensive.