Before I get to the posts about our vacation, I thought it was time to return to the original reason for this blog. Adopting our Olive. Since we are still not officially in the midst of the adoption, I continue to discuss things we’re concerned about in the future or topics that I’m looking for your opinions and advice about.
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Why the title? Because this post is about making the big announcement… did you do anything special to officially announce your adoption? How did you tell your family and friends and at what point in the adoption process did you make the annoucement?
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coming soon - pictures and stories of our European vacation
For my MIL I cross stitched an Ephesians verse about adoption in Russian (with the translation on the back). We gave it to her for her 60th birthday. For my mom, I cross stitched St. Basil’s Cathedral with the word Babushka (in Russian) and gave it to her for her 50th birthday. Can you tell I was in to cross stitch that year? Either way, I just gave them small gifts to tell them of our plans. They loved it. The rest of the family we just phoned.
Comment by elle — September 17, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
Once we got started with the home study, we needed three references from non-relatives, so I had to tell 3 of my friends to get their letters. Once I told them, I felt obliged to tell the family too, but we just told everyone over the phone. We thought we were telling them way early in the process, but we were in Russia on trip #1 3 monts after getting started. It was pretty whirlwind.
Comment by Rachael — September 17, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
months.
oops, sorry.
Comment by Rachael — September 17, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
We told our family at Thanksgiving and then our friends at Christmas right after we were accepted by our agency. I sort of wish we had waited till later on to tell them because we have been giving progress reports for so long now. We were joking the other day that we need a sticker that says “Don’t ask us about our adoption” on our vehicle.
Comment by Dede — September 17, 2007 @ 11:33 pm
Hmmm, well, I think we discussed it mildly with a few close friends last fall. Then we attended a seminar with an adoption agency in December. I think we told his parents and mine in January, basically because we lied to them about the seminar, saying we were going to something else, and we didn’t want them to hear from someone else. We told them over dinner that we were seriously praying and considering it. At that point, we would get questions often. We didn’t sign with the agency until May, and just told people when they asked us about our process. Not sure that helps you at all, but that’s kind of what we did.
Comment by JennStar — September 18, 2007 @ 2:26 am
We were going to wait but shortly after we decided Dave’s family all got together for his Grannie’s 85th birthday and as we were walking in he said ‘Let’s tell them.’ So we did. Had I to do it over again I would wait until our dossier is in Russia. Then I wouldn’t be getting constant questions.
Comment by Debbie — September 18, 2007 @ 10:59 am
After we moved on from IF to adoption, most of our family already knew that was our next step. When we were trying to get pregnant, I wanted to come up with a great way to tell our families, but that never happened. But like the other posters, be prepared for CONSTANT questions about the status of your adoption. At least one person asks every other day if we’ve heard anything yet. It can drive you crazy!!
Comment by Marie — September 18, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
We didn’t make any formal announcement but we did tell our parents and siblings. Everything else was pretty much word of mouth. People always asked the status of the adoption and I always told them what was going on. As annoying as the questions can be, it helped them realize that this is an intense process. By listening to me explain what was going on for 11 months, they earned respect for the process, which I thought was awesome.
Comment by annmarie — September 19, 2007 @ 2:06 pm