Celebrating adoption days

[gabsdot]

Today is the anniversary of my son's adoption. This day 13 years ago we went to court in Russia and the judge granted the adoption order and we became his parents.

I have a DD now too and they love
celebrating their adoption days. We usually do something just as a family and they get a present.

What do other families do to celebrate?

[luckylucky24]

This is nice. I thought about this but we have a bc so I don't want to be unfair that dd gets an extra celebration day, especially as she moved in 3 days before her birthday and our final court hearing is set only a month before her next.

[Iamthestorm]

We've just had our first one...we went out for the day, had a cake and a new teddy.

[tictoc76]

We have a BC too and I don't like to differentiate. We celebrated the initial adoption day but now we just celebrate birthdays as with BC.

I do like the idea though and we regularly talk about how amazing the first day of meeting each of them were and the day they officially became 'ours'

[jingscrivenshelpmaboab]

We call it family celebration day, and usually have a special day out and lots of 'do you remember when' conversations. DS got to choose between the date he was placed with us, the date of the adoption order and the date of the celebration hearing, and chose the latter (obv - it has 'celebration' in the name!).

[Ted27]

If he could my son would celebrate moving in day, court hearing and celebration day! He likes a party. A couple of years we have been on holiday because Easter has fallen on some of those dates so we have designated the holiday as our celebration. Other years we go out for dinner or have a trip out. He is 13 now, there is just the two of us so we can be flexible about it. I don't give him a present, but I always give him a card and we always mark it in some way

[bostonkremekrazy]

We go out for dinner on each of days our ac moved in...our bc equally loves the celebration and so we embrace the chance to talk about what makes our family special 😊

[UnderTheNameOfSanders]

We do certificates on moving in day, saying what they have achieved in the last year.
Then on 'court day' we try to have a family day out (as it is in summer holidays).
We may also have a meal out on one / both of those days.

[tldr]

Oh that's a nice idea Sanders.

We do day out on (or around) placement anniversary. It clashes with some other stuff though - so far we've been able to jiggle it to fit in, but I don't know how much longer we'll get away with that for.

[Rainatnight]

Lovely ideas here. We're pre-AO, so don't know yet what that anniversary will be. But DD came home on Valentine's Day and I feel that's very special, so plan to celebrate that. ❤️

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

We celebrate them like mini birthdays. The DC get a gift and we go out for a meal at a restaurant of their choice.

[PoppyStellar]

Like everyone else we celebrate with a meal or day out (depending on whether it's a school day or not). We don't do formal gift wrapped presents but I give DD a little handmade or token gift (some little trinket to hang in her bedroom or a cuddly toy key ring or something like a special rock or shell we've found) and these always seem to go down well.

I always tell DD when the day is coming up and ask if she wants to celebrate it. At the moment it's always a firm yes as she's very into celebrating adoption - not sure how long this will last! Definitely conscious that as she gets older she may change her mind but very encouraged to see that lots of older kids still seem to enjoy the celebration.

[CheeseAtFourpence]

We have a cake and candles on the anniversary of the day DD came home.

[DuncanDonut]

The day our DD came home is the day before my DH's birthday, and two days before our wedding anniversary, AND generally tends to be in half term, so we try to go away for a week if possible, or have a week with lots of cakes and nice treats. No presents for it really, but we generally read through the introduction book and life story book, and she might get down her memory box of crap.