Continued from Part One...


Two months after our daughter was born, we decided to adopt from Africa. My husband told people in casual conversation. We quickly chose to adopt from Ethiopia and picked our agency. Everyone knew we were adopting well before we received referrals for our new children. With our older son and daughter, we picked them off of a video of waiting children. We showed the video to anyone who would watch it. For our little baby boy, we received photos and a medical report of him in the mail. It just happened to be a day when my husband’s parents, sister, and grandma were visiting us. It was great fun to learn about him with them there.

After we came home with our kids from Ethiopia, we told everyone our family was complete. It wasn’t. One and a half years later, we were agreeing to adopt Georgia from Haiti. My husband wanted to surprise everyone. He wanted to announce her adoption in a little more of an exciting way. We weren’t sure how the news would be received. We would be embarking on the adoption of our seventh child, afterall. I went to the store and purchased little polka-dot bags. Inside I put a flier that had Georgia’s photo and said, “It’s a Girl!” It shared a little info about her (birth date, where she lived, etc.). I rolled it up and tied it with a purple ribbon. I added a bag of candy, and then tied one pink and one purple balloon to the bag. We went around to our family members, and had the kids take the bag to the door. When we came home from running the bags around, we had several phone messages of congratulations. It was so much fun.

When we decided to add on an eighth child, we used our family newsletter to announce the news. We shared a photo and info of our first referral (a little baby girl named Ruth, who passed away a few weeks later), and again with our referral of Talley. No one was expecting us to go for number 8, so we surprised everyone again with our newsletter.

Sharing the news of an impending adoption is special. It is something fun to think about and plan for while you are beginning the journey. How have you shared the news of your adoption(s) with your friends and families?