Naming Ceremony

[TulipsfromAmsterdam]

We finally got our adoption order last week so thinking about having a naming ceremony or blessing for LO and wondered if others have or would do this and where it was held etc.

[Italiangreyhound]

We are Christians and felt we wanted to have our DD (birth child) dedicated. Actually, it is more complicated because I wanted to have DD dedicated and DH wanted to have her baptised, we read a book on the subject 'The water that divides'....

www.christianfocus.com/item/show/1133/-

... and in the end I changed my mind and wanted to have her baptised and DH changed his mind and wanted to have her dedicated! So we decided to go for the dedication and she can choose for herself when she is older about baptism.

When our new little one comes I was thinking we would have him dedicated too, but DH has pointed out he will be old enough to have a say! Really for me dedication is more about dedicating myself to be the best mum and to bring my little ones to know about the Christian faith and to know Jesus (knowing it will be their choice what they believe, of course). I really hope our new one will like this special ceremony.

[excitedmamma]

We had our celebration hearing today.. it was really lovely

Sort of feel that it gave us some 'closure' on the whole messy painful process and that we can now move forward as a lovely, happy family

We had opportunity to take photos inside the court room and the court assistant took & printed out some photos for us to take away

Judge was lovely & gave LO some smarties so she was well impressed...

[TulipsfromAmsterdam]

Thanks for all the replies. All sound lovely ways of celebrating :)

Our LO was baptised at birth as he was very premature so I would love a church thanksgiving/blessing service as we have so much to be thankful for. I had hoped to look into having it on the same day as the celebration hearing but it would be quite a lot to organise in a short time.

excitedmamma your day sounds perfect and it is lovely to renew wedding vows at the same time :)

Bbery our application took quite a while due to SW's not able to send reports in time, staff changes etc. Formally matched in May (we were foster carers to LO), application went in in November and 1st hearing was adjourned so it has been a bit longer than expected.

[trampstamp]

Hi I am just staring to think about this to sent our application off two days ago



I was thinking a cake a room with a buffet and a inter faith minster who would do some sort of blessing however husband did point out that court day thing will be during the week so we will have to have to party on the weekend

[excitedmamma]

Bberry... we submitted our application in November and had directions hearing in December with final hearing and Order being made in Feb so really very fast.... celebrations hearing March.... x

[LastingLight]

TulipsfromAmsterdam it's a lovely idea. We just had a party to thank everybody who supported us through the adoption.

Excitedmamma that sounds fantastic!

Bberry we are also atheists. Maybe remind your DH that christenings (at least the ones I've been to) usually involve promising that you will bring your child up to believe in god and be active in the church.

[Moomoomie]

We haven't had the girls christened or named. On our adoption days (we have had two!) we had our photographs taken at a studio then had a small tea party for family at home.

[bberry]

Excitedmamma, that sounds like an amazing day, I love the sound of it!

OP, how long did your adoption order take from application to order? Or anyone else's experience too? I sent off our application about 2/3 weeks ago so hoping to hear about the date for the hearing soon

I am an atheist so would love a naming day but hubby wants a christening, god knows why (hmm... Not really an appropriate saying fir me really!) in the 15 years I have known him he has never expressed and religious leanings or ever gone to church.... He just sees it as "traditional" - I think i will have to maybe put my foot down I think I have said I will go with the flow but when I think about it it seems rater hypocritical to stand there and renounce the devil etc....


Fabulous news btw

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

Congratulations!

We treated our adoption celebration hearing as if it were a christening.

We are atheists but may have had a naming ceremony if we hadn't had the celebration hearing instead.

We invited family and friends to the court and then had photos at the judges desk before going on to a restaurant for a formal meal , toasts , celebration cake and speeches ( mainly thanking everyone for their support during the adoption process)

We were so happy to finally be able to celebrate becoming a family after 10 long years.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

Congrats Tulips. We had DD christened as she hadn't been, and - even more than usual - we thought it appropriate to formally "present" her to our family and friends, iyswim.

[excitedmamma]

CONGRATS Tulips.. we got there in the end!! YEY YEY YEY

As you know, we are having a naming ceremony in June for our LO.. we got our adoption order in Feb and are having the ceremony in June on our 10th wedding anniversary so we are having a joint 'do' and renewing our wedding vows at the same time .. he might say obey this time

We have the private use of an eatery overlooking a lovely reservoir.. the whole 'do' will last around 4 hours..

We have hired a humanist celebrant who together with us, is writing and conducting the ceremony... we have selected some 'mentors' and these will be asked to make some informal commitments to LO..

We are going to hire a childrens entertainer to keep the LO's quiet and have a small afternoon tea type of buffet..

The celebrant mentioned a really nice thing which we are going to do - thats a 'wishing tree'... a couple of different types as far as I can see... either a picture of a tree and people leave their fingerprints as leaves - we are doing the other version (less messy) and I've had some leaf shape cards cut and people write on their wish for LO and hang it on a tree... be nice to keep..

Busy listening to soppy music for songs... we are going to 'make an entrance' to John Lennons 'Love is Real' song... I'm going to order LO a small basket of flowers to hold and a little girl who is special in her life is going to present a yellow flower to her as part of the ceremony which symbolises friendship.

LO also has a full sibling that we are in full contact with and he is going to be a part of the ceremony too...

There.. spilled all but am so so excited about it all... just need to loose a couple of stone before then... sadly no chance of getting into original wedding dress tho

I'm so happy for you... for us its goodbye to SW's.. how about you?

x x

[Happiestinwellybobs]

I think it's a lovely idea. We had DD christened, as she hadn't been, but friends of ours had a blessing for their DS who had been christened already by his birth parents.

We hadn't done a big celebration at the adoption ceremony, so had a large family christening, which was lovely :)