Thoughts on Family Day

  There's a lot of talk on adoption boards and blogs about what to call the day a child is adopted and whether or not to celebrate it.  Some families call it "Gotcha Day" and some call it "Family Day".  Some make a big deal with presents, some keep it low key with a special dinner and some families choose not to recognize the day in any special way.
  After a lot of thought and discussion, D and I have decided to call it Family Day and not to make a big deal out of it.  While we were ridiculously happy the day we adopted Sky, she wasn't.  She cried for days after she came to live with us (D even had a special shirt that he would wear, called "The Shirt of a Thousand Tears").  Also, it seems callous to celebrate the misfortunes and difficulties in her birth family that led them to make a heart-rending decision. 
  We're going feed Sky her favorite food for dinner tonight (hot dogs, noodles and edamame) and take time to look at her Special Book, a scrap book I made to tell her adoption story.  That will probably be the heart of most of our Family Days.  We want to make sure that Sky knows she can ask about her adoption any time, not just on one day a year, so we've been making a point to talk about it when it seems natural and we'll keep doing that.
  If your family has grown by adoption, what do you do to commemorate your child's adoption day?

Comments

  1. I'm adopted from Ebeye. I have no real birthday. My first birth certificate stated that my adopted parents were my birth parents. My dad didn't want to lie (mom had no problem with it LOL) and had it changed. They changed it and had my date of birth wrong. My dad then got the adoption papers done and that too had the wrong date of birth. My parents "forgot" when I was actually born. They vaguely remember the date that I came from Ebeye to Kwaj (which was days after I was born). In short, the first 2 weeks of May is open to any day to celebrate my birthday. Legally, it was decided to go with my birthday on my adoption papers.

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