National Adoption Awareness Month Part 4 (MUST have adoption books)

While we were waiting to travel to China, I purchased a zillion books on adoption. I poured over them and thought I was well prepared for everything that came my way. The former librarian in me, couldn't stop researching and reading. Since returning home, I've found myself going back through them for a second time. I have certain chapters dog-eared...night terrors, eating issues and attachment.



As Christmas approaches and my family starts asking for gift ideas, I'd love to know what are some of YOUR favorite adoption books.

National Adoption Awareness Month Part 3

"Somehow destiny comes into play. These children end up with you and you end up with them. It's something quite magical." Nicole Kidman

10 Suggestions for Celebrating National Adoption Awareness Month (taken from Adoptive Families Magazine)

1. Start a tradition of taking a family photo each year on the same day so you can see how everyone’s changed. We desperately need to get a photo of all 4 of us in the same picture. I tend to be the one behind the camera lens. We’re due for a new family portrait for our upcoming holiday Christmas cards.

2. Make an effort to help someone who is considering adoption. If you’re a parent, tell them about the highs, the lows, the unforgettable moments. Tell them why you’d do it all over again! I’m the first to say that if we would have started this process five years earlier, I’d do it all over again. I’d especially consider ANOTHER special needs heart adoption.

3. Spend some time celebrating your child’s heritage. For recipes, activities, and other ideas, visit http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/heritage

4. Create a scrapbook with your child. Talk about significant events as you record them together. Get started with tips and tools at http://www.adoptivefamilies. com/scrapbooks Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, I'm excited about the idea of using Blurb to turn our blog into a hard bound book. Thanks for the tip, Buffi.

5. Join an adoptive parent support group. I’m so happy to have found Chinese Culture Group of Greater Grand Rapids and look forward to their upcoming gatherings.

6. Talk to your employer about offering an adoption assistance plan. Thank you GVSU for offering such a program. Every little bit helped towards our adoption expenses and my FMLA time away without pay.

7. Develop a family ritual to show thanks for your family and the special way you’ve found one another. See http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/rituals for ideas.

8. Make holiday crafts that incorporate designs from your child’s heritage. Just wait to you see our Chinese Christmas tree. Emma and I had a grand time making decorations for it last year and can’t wait to include Josie in our decorating festivities this year.

9. Write a thank-you letter to the judge, social worker, or other professional who made your adoption happen. Sarah Z. – We can’t thank you enough for everything you did to help our adoption journey. Your personal touch far exceeded anything we ever expected. You're the best!!

10. Together, light a candle in honor of your child’s birthparents. Turn off the lights and hold hands as you watch the flames.


PS. We got our first measurable snow on Sunday. As we get closer to Josie's hand surgery (12/18), I'd love any tips for dressing a toddler who will be sporting a hand-to-shoulder cast for five weeks. I'm guessing I need to buy a bigger coat and bigger size tops??? I'm open to any and all advice from Mom's who have had a child with a limb in a cast.

National Adoption Awareness Month Part 2

Our family is sponsoring a little girl in China to remain in the Bamboo Babies Foster Care Program. I would have never known about this program unless Kay Bratt (author of Silent Tears) would have written about it on her blog.

Emma has already decided that we need adopt this little girl (she's a heart baby too). We're not adopting again, but we're happy to provide an orphan with an opportunity to live in a foster setting until she is adopted by a family.

For as little as $35 a month,
you can make a difference in the life of a child--

Pearl River Outreach has three foster care programs in China:
1) Zhanjiang, Guangdong,
2) Changsha, Hunan, and
3) Hengshan, Hunan.
If you choose to sponsor a child, you will receive quarterly updates containing a picture and brief update as to how your child is doing. Pearl River Outreach Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Therefore your donation is tax deductible and 100% of your sponsorship goes directly to the care of the child you are sponsoring.

Your donation provides a child with:
a safe place to live
a loving family environment
nutrition, such as vitamins, formula,
food supplements & clothing

To Learn More:
http://pearlriveroutreach.org/sponsor.php

Next year, we've decided that our Halloween party is going to be a fundraiser for Pearl River Outreach. Party attendees can give as little, or as much as they want. Shanna Brown inspired me with her Haunt with a Heart Halloween party in which they raised funds for Love without Boundaries and we'd like to do the same thing next year for this worthy organization. It's amazing how the experience of going through an adoption can open your heart and your mind.

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

Sweet Peas and Jelly Beans

Over the next few weeks, Josie is graduating from the sweet pea room to the jelly bean room at daycare. We recently received a cd full of pictures taken at daycare since she started in August. It warms my heart to see how well she has adapted to her new routine. I'm hopeful that the transition to a new room, with new kids and new caregivers goes just as well. Enjoy the pictures below!

Boat time


Playing with shaving cream at the sensory table


Painting time (notice how she doesn't have a paint smock on in this picture. No wonder her clothes were full of paint that day!!)


Checking out the pond


Step fun


Bike time