National Adoption Awareness Month

(photo taken March 16, 2008)

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. When I think back to where we were last year at this time, we were digging for any scrap of information we could find on our daughter (obtaining her finding ad, joining her orphanage listserv, connecting with other families at our adoption agency, picking the brains of families who had already been through the adoption process and getting to know other families who were traveling near our timeline).
Josie's newspaper finding ad July 2007

Eight months later, I’m still in awe of how much our family has changed as a result of our adoption experience.

(photo taken May 2008)

Josie is definitely an emotional journey of extremes. It's a place where utter joy is paired with sheer exhaustion on a daily basis. How much of the exhaustion is because I’m forty? I’m not using age as an excuse, but I don’t remember being this tired when Emma was a two year old (smile). Emma also didn’t have ongoing sleep issues and her sensory development wasn’t one that required constant exploration/movement either. Chris and I were reflecting the other night on how much we miss sleeping a full 6-7 hours and dinners that don’t require an immediate hose-down afterwards.

(photo taken October 2008)

On the other hand, I can’t imagine life without two daughters. Josie makes our family so complete and I continue to feel blessed on a daily basis to be able to share our lives with our two special girls.

(photo taken August 2008)

One of my favorite publications (Adoptive Families Magazine) has a calendar for the month of November that suggests 30 Ways to celebrate National Adoption Awareness Month. I'm hoping to make time this month to complete a few of their wonderful suggestions.

(photo taken September 2008)

One of my favorite sentences in China Ghosts: My Daughter’s Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood by Jeff Gammage is from the epilogue, “Adopting a child from China puts you through a transformation, gathering you up from one place, spinning you around, then setting you down somewhere else, facing backward. It changes your life in ways you never could have foreseen.” What a beautifully written sentence. I couldn’t agree more.

(Photo taken October 2008)

Cheers to all those families who have opened up their hearts to adoption. It's an amazing gift. A special thanks to all my adoptive blogging friends. You've been a wonderful support to me over the last year. I've enjoyed connecting with each of you.

Angela
Barb
Buffi
Caroline
Erin
Gwen
Jeanne
Kimberely
Nicole
Nikki
Robbi
Robin
Shanna
SteffiTammy
Terri