Real Stories

Last Thursday eve we attended our 1st Support Group meeting. The purpose of the group is to have a place for both waiting families and those who have placed to exchange stories and hear where others are at. We were one of 3 other waiting families in attendance and there were 5 that had placed over the last year and a half and they all had their new additions in tow! So cute! SO many little ones with such inspiring stories about how they got there. The amazing part to me was that each and every story was SO different from the next. So families had just been placed like 3 weeks ago and some were still waiting after   15 months for finalization! There truly is no norm and that is actually comforting for me because it leaves lots of mysteries and keeps my expectations in tact. We will have our own unique story to share as will our child.  Just as in a pregnancy , you really don't know what you are gonna get! 

Juno

What can I say? It probably sounds so cliche to brag about this amazing film but I am going to anyways. Even without the personal connection to the story , this film was so well crafted , clever and beautifully performed. Ironically , I went to high school with one of the executive producers and would love to be able to tell him what a gem of a project this film is! I really wasn't prepared however to sit and take in a story that could hit so close to home. A subject that I am so close to right now and probably will be for the rest of my life! It was very intense to try to inhale and exhale without feeling a little numb, sad, nervous, excited , and so damn curious as to how our story will unfold. I can only pray for a "Juno" like woman  to find us and in that moment of meeting, feel so clear that we are meant to be the parents of her baby and that she will find peace and comfort with that decision . 

PS- What a great soundtrack too! 

The triad

Part of our process in preparing for adoption and completing our homestudy is reading! Lots of reading! We both have many books that we own about various topics ranging from dance, theater and lighting to vegetarianism to religion and politics to the poetry of Shel Silverstein! W would love to spend more time enjoying these books but always seem to lack the time to do so. Then along comes this adoption process with all of this required reading and we are nose to the books! A lot of the materials speak about the process of open adoption vs. other types of adoption, the relationship of the birthparents with adoptive family and of course, the benefits of the child having knowledge about their biological identity and their adopted family identity. The books share millions of stories about the beautiful ways that families merge. Instead of reading about the typical things that perhaps families read while preparing for a  baby to be born like "what to expect... blah blah blah" we are trying to learn the language and responses as to how we will bring a baby into our lives as well as her/his biological mother and possibly father. I can only imagine that this powerful  triad will create all the more love and possibility in this child's life and I will continue to put the positive energy into the universe of what our expanded family may look like and pray that love will truly be at the heart of it!