As many of you know, we have been trying to adopt our daughter for three and a half years now. You can read about the start of our journey here, the middle of our journey here and the place we find ourselves now in the this post below.
After many years of trying for an international adoption we have finally reconciled with the fact that we likely will never succeed. Sadly for us, and so many other families, the adoption system in Ethiopia has slowed to a near stop. We made the decision this year that rather than switch to another country we are going to adopt domestically. The process of domestic adoption is so much different than what we’ve experienced so far. For one thing, Los Angeles county requires that you become qualified as foster parents to enter the adoption system. So that means we have a lot of classes ahead of us, and in-home visits and surprisingly, that means that we have to get ready now.
When we went to our first orientation the social worker said “you need to prepare your home as if the baby is going to be dropped off tomorrow” and all could think was I finally get to decorate a pink nursery!! I know there’s no way of knowing exactly when our daughter will come, but for three and a half years I haven’t let myself buy one single thing for her because I thought that might make the waiting harder. There was something about that social worker’s announcement that gave me permission to get excited about our someday. I can’t tell you how nice that feels after years of trying not to be sad about the fact that our international adoption had no end in sight. So a few weeks ago I let myself pick out some crib bedding (don’t worry, when I finally decorate that nursery I’ll post all about it, because it’s going to be epic!) but I haven’t done anything else. And then Pinhole Press reached out to us about working on another post and I saw this idea for a book of names and faces and it was adorable! The first thing I thought was how precious it would be as an adoption gift for our little girl. A year ago, even six months ago I would have talked myself out of the idea but just like that social worker said, I’ve got to prepare my home for this baby. That means I’m going to allow myself to get excited no matter when she’ll get here.
PS – If you’re interested in making your own adoption gift, or just a sweet book for your kiddo, Pinhole is offering $10 off for our Chic readers. Just click HERE and then type in the code CHIC at checkout.
I basically just took cute pictures from my phone and turned them into a little board book for baby girl. I thought it was a precious way to introduce her to our whole family. Not just her new big brothers or me and Dave but her grandparents, aunts and uncles that she might not see all the time.
I thought it would be neat to have the boys write notes to her to keep with the book so that when she’s older she can see them.
I’m excited to start celebrating what’s coming. I think one of the things I’ve learned most in this journey is that not allowing myself to embrace it or get excited about it didn’t make it any less painful when it didn’t come to fruition. Someday, I will hold my daughter in my arms and it’s ok to start planning for that now.
