(At the end of this post is a little blog announcement.)
Tomorrow is a special day. It will be the 8th adopt-iversary of our son! He was three when we adopted him, and each year we have a little family celebration with just the five (now four) of us. Nothing over-the-top, just a special meal, maybe an activity, and a gift. Celebrating his adoption into our family is a special occasion each year!
We also celebrate another kind of adoption around here: the adoption of our children into God’s family! My oldest daughter made her most important decision ever 14 years ago this month when she became a Christian!
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” John 1:12
For this adoption anniversary, we like to give a small commemorative gift to remember their important decision–something with a spiritual aspect to it, like a piece of jewelry, a devotional book they’ve been wanting, piece of artwork, etc.
So, here’s what we did last year for each of them. While my husband was working during the day, I took the kids to our Peach Park for ice cream, playing around, and bringing home the best summer peaches!
At the time, my daughter and I were both on special detox diets, so we had the fruit bowls. Still very good but we were definitely missing the cantaloupe ice cream we usually get!
They have a great play area! Of course, my girls didn’t play but my son did and as always, he made friends with some other kids and played with them.
I love these cute produce baskets almost as much as the peaches in them. Almost.
After my son’s taekwondo lesson that evening, we went to dinner and walked around downtown, stopping for a photo at the courthouse where his adoption was made final. Then home for the two “adoptees” to open their gifts. We gave my daughter a new Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Bible Concordance which she was excited to have for her senior year as a Bible minor. Our son got a comic book style Bible that he’d been wanting. He’s read it several times over in the last year.
This year is a little different since our daughter is 10+ hours away so we mailed her a gift this week to let her know how proud we are of her and her daily walk with Christ. My son got his new cat (Floyd) earlier this month for his gift, but we still have a special meal and a little surprise he doesn’t yet know about (shhhh…my sister’s kiddos will be staying at my mom’s this weekend so they’re coming over for a water day Friday!)
So, here’s a little announcement of something new coming to my blog: A few years ago, my husband encouraged me to start writing more about adoption. I’d made a couple of small speeches for our agency, and he encouraged me to keep going and use that passion to help more couples by writing on the topic. At the time I told him I just wasn’t ready. Not only had it been a difficult season of helping our little guy adjust to being in a family, but we’d also surprisingly experienced a lot of painful comments from others, not only toward my husband and me, but towards our girls as well. But now, on this side of it, rather than glossing over the topic when it comes up, I know I need to help families by acknowledging that yes, it’s hard, but with God’s help, the right resources, and a LOT of love, our Father can bring redemption, beauty, and healing for all adoption situations. So, with much prayer (and humility because I’ve made all the mistakes), I’ll be posting some encouragement and information here and there.