Adoption Days are amazing! If you’ve never experienced an adoption day, you might wonder what it’s like to celebrate a child coming into your family through adoption. There’s no question that it’s totally different from adding a child by birth, but it’s just as exciting. When we were planning our children’s adoption days, we wanted to be sure to include their older siblings in the celebration. Listed below are 3 ideas to include the whole family on adoption day.
Our family has 5 children. Our older 3 children came into our family by birth, and our younger two children were adopted. I will remember each of their days — their birth days and their adoption days, as an absolute miracle.
Sometimes we hear adopted children told that they were “chosen” children, but the truth is that God chose each of my children for our family. He designed and put together our family exactly as He ordained it to be.
3 Ways to Include the Whole Family on Adoption Day
1. Adoption Day is Forever Family Day.
Our childrens’ adoption days were long-awaited days, and we were so excited to celebrate! We included our older children in the celebrations and stressed that this was our Forever Family Day as a family. This wasn’t just about the child who was being adopted. Our whole family changed, and this was a celebration for all of us.
Judges and courthouse workers love adoption days, because it’s one of the more fun and rewarding activities they get to do. They are usually great about taking photos, and sometimes they will let the kids come up and try out pounding the gavel.
Celebrate together! Throw a party, go out to eat, or enjoy a day off together. Find a way to make the day special however is meaningful for your family.
2. Adoption Day Gifts
We wanted to purchase a special matching gift for our children to commemorate this Forever Family day. Nothing seemed quite right until we came upon the idea of going together to let them each create a Build a Bear. What’s really cool is that Build a Bear offers these T-shirts that can be embroidered with up to 3 lines for a very reasonable price.
We created matching stuffed animals for both Paul and Zack’s adoption days, and on the t-shirts for each child we put “Forever Family”, the date of the adoption, and each child’s name.
3. Matching Outfits
Many families enjoy dressing up in matching or coordinating outfits on adoption day to show their family togetherness. I love it! Couldn’t you just look at photos of these beautiful families forever? These make my heart happy.
What are some other ideas you have to include the whole family on adoption day?
Jill Robbins says
I think it’s great that you include your older children. My bio daughter is WAY older than our two adopted sons and she surprised me when she grumbled about the little boys’ “extra days.”
We haven’t really got into a comfortable place with our adoption day celebrations yet but I love seeing what other people do to observe.
Glad you linked up!
Erin says
Great list!! My kids are super in to matching clothes, and I wish we had done something a little more matchy matchy. We had an adoption party with lots of friends which was tons of fun!
Sara says
Erin, it sounds like you had a party and created special memories celebrating the day. That’s the main thing. I guess you’ll just have to adopt again so you can do matching outfits. Haha!!