Adoptive Parenting, Child Parenting - Celebrating Family Day

03/15/07

Celebrating Family Day

Posted by : Lauri in Adoptive Parenting Blog at 05:06 am , 398 words, 223 views
Categories: Gotcha Day

Family Day/Gotcha Day is the day adoptive families officially become a family. We have three days to choose from - March 14th- court day and when were officially declared Livi’s parents. March 21st the day we were able to pick her up from the orphanage and March 30th the day we came home. All three days are equally special but I tend to focus on the day we came home for some reason. Maybe its because John would say that he would breathe easy once our plane landed in the good ole USA and that we were all safely home. To me March 30th is the beginning of our life as a family.

That’s a great thing to celebrate. March 14th should be a day of celebration but our court date was filled with uncertainty and fear. We had some scary moments when we thought we would be denied, we were unprepared for the 10 days, we ran out of money and we not sure if someone would step forward during this time and threaten our adoption. While March 21st was a happy day indeed, they allowed us to have Livi during the rest of our stay , they let us know they were taking a huge risk in letting us have our daughter early lest anything happen to her and we felt constantly watched with unexpected visits to our hotel room.

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So we will celebrate March 30th… but how? How do we celebrate becoming a family? I have a few ideas below and would love to learn how other families celebrate. I am looking for ways to incorporate Russian culture into our celebration.

Ideas for Celebrating Family Day

Have a Russian themed potluck party with close family & friends

Raise funds , gather donations and make a care package for the orphanage and send it on Family Day.

Give your child a small gift from their birth country on each Family day anniversary( matrushka dolls, books, keychains,)You can find these on ebay or specialty online stores.

Have a nice dinner at a restaurant that serves traditional cuisine from your child’s birth country.

Cook a traditional Russian meal as a Family

Take a picture every Family day and frame it

If money were no object- visit the country you adopted from ( I would love to do this one day)

any ideas? How do you celebrate?

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4 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Coley S. [Member]

· http://open.adoptionblogs.com

I really like how you are calling it Family Day instead of Gotcha day. Never heard it called Family Day before but I like it! :)

Permalink 03/15/07 @ 05:26

Comment from: bethhyatt [Member]

For our "Family Day", I let Dalton decide what he wants to do. He really loves being "prince for a day" and making all the plans. Last year it was a weekend camping trip that was really great because we got to spend lots of quality time together. Two years ago it was a trip in a hot air balloon. The year before that it was a helicopter ride. He will be seven this year and I can't wait to see what he comes up with. He's leaning towards another camping trip and I would love to see that become a yearly tradition. Perhaps someday his birthmom and her family could join us. I'm leaning towards inviting her this year, but I'm not sure how she'll feel about celebrating the day we finalized the adoption. I'm sure it isn't as happy a thought for her as it is for me.

Permalink 03/15/07 @ 11:00

Comment from: Pinkie [Member]

We celebrated our first family day on December 8th 2006. We celebrated by going out for pizza and garlic bread and then the cine to see Happy Feet! I can't really give you any ideas as it seems you have a good list and have infact given me some tips!

I also made the day we celebrate as the day we landed HOME! I'm a single Mum so didn't really discuss it with anyone and thought I'd just play it by ear. The actual Court Day (which I found very stressful and would rather forget) was 30th November. This year my daughter and I stayed home and we had a candlelight dinner. It was a bit non-plus if I'm honest. Apart from court the next big event for us was the 8th December, the actual day we left Moscow and flew home to Spain. As the 8th drew nearer, I started to get really excited and we planned together the pizza and cine afternoon. I can honestly say as we sat eating pizza I was a blabbering mess. I just kept stroking my daughters hair and telling her how much I loved her and how pleased I was about our arrival on Spanish soil one year previously etc etc. I hardly held back the tears.

So, for me our celebration day will always be the day we arrived Home together.

Permalink 03/16/07 @ 08:00

Comment from: Lori [Member]

We don`t celebrate. A couple of reasons.

Joey was our first and gotcha day is 2 days after birth, we met him shortly after birth and brought him home two days later. His bday and our family day are kind of one in the same.

Also because both of our kids were relinquished to us from their bio parents the day we became a family is the day the bio family was forever altered. Our joy is their anguish. Bottom line this IS a loss for our kids and I have never felt comfortable making a huge deal out of celebrating the day.

Long story sort celebrating family days just does not feel right for OUR situation. I think everyone has to go with their gut on this.

L

Permalink 03/16/07 @ 21:12

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