What did you do after you celebration hearing?

[Gertruude]

Hi all

We finally have our day in court next month and I'm not sure how we could best celebrate. I had imagined doing a family get together but our parents on both sides happen to be on holiday (separately) so it'll just be us and the kids. I think this will actually be far nicer in the end, I'm just not sure what to do! We have three LOs 4, 3 and 18 months. I'd love to hear what other ppl have done either that day or on anniversaries to mark the occasion.

TIA x

We went to Wahaca, which is DD’s favourite restaurant! And then in the evening, we treated close friends to a sort of pub dinner and made it into a little party. DD was very little, though, and there was only one of her.

Oh and congratulations!

For a number of reasons beyond all our control, there was only me and him, my best friend and my SW at our hearing. It was actually quite nice but it became very much about me and him.
Our hearing was at 10, straight afterwards we went home. I'd had a special cake made, we had balloons and party poppers. My parents did manage to get to us by 12.30 so we had lunch at our favourite local cafe and then played garden games. In the evening we went out for pizza with some friends. My son was older though and it was June and a lovely warm day.
Yours a bit too young to understand really and its only 20 minutes or so in court. I think I'd probably just use it as an excuse to get dressed up and have nice photos for their life story books, do something that you already do as family, do you have a favourite day out ? You can have a family party when everyone is back.
My son does like to mark the day, and first day of intros and the day he moved in. So we do something special at some convenient point around all three dates - usually something involving cake, pizza and fizzy drinks !
Congratulations - hope you have a lovely day.

We didn’t bother going to the court event so I can’t help there, but congrats! We did go for a nice meal and take lots of photos on the anniversary of DC moving in and we do the same each year.

We hired a bouncy castle for the day (in our garden) and bought a special picnic lunch with a chocolate ‘adoption’ cake. We sang happy adoption day to the tune of happy birthday. I have two AC and we did the same for both. Lovely days and memories

Congratulations!

As we were all in our Sunday best, I used up a family portrait voucher i’d got for a birthday a few months earlier...we went to the park for photos.

Then we headed to a pub were we had hired a room and had invited close friends and family for a buffet tea. We were only there for a few hours, but it was a nice celebration.

Ours was at 9am so we went for breakfast afterwards at Wetherspoons then soft play later in the afternoon for little one to tire himself out

Both sets of grandparents cane to court with us and we went out for lunch after. We'd already decided that they weren't going to be christened so threw a party for extended family and friends. We hired a hall with a bar and room for a bouncy castle. Also we had a cake (M&S, blooming lovely and couldn't have been made any cheaper by someone else) with their name on. LO loves bouncy castles and cake so it was perfect for them and it gave us a chance to thank everyone for their support.

We did nothing with the children. There was a long delay getting the adoption order ( outside our control ) and the children already felt we were a family , so getting legal papers meant nothing to them.

We celebrated the day they came home rather than the hearing date, but after about 5 years the children wanted to stop this too, they found it an unhelpful reminder. They just wanted to be “normal “ ( their words ).

Doesn’t mean the adults can’t celebrate of course .

Hello Kristina! Feels like you’ve not been here for ages.

Thanks Rain.

No I’ve not been around much, I gave myself a break from the adoption boards for various reasons. Have decided I will just occasionally post on the less controversial topics .

TBH I don’t have the energy anymore to debate with the people who are total experts because they once knew someone at work who adopted / their auntie is a SW/ they watched something on YouTube so they KNOW that any contrary view is nonsense and everyone else should just STFU.

Or the ones who forbid anyone to say anything less than glowingly positive about anything because “ you will put people off adopting and children will die and it will be YOUR FAULT “ .

I don’t need that angry shouting in my life anymore.

Adopted children are now older teens / adults so although I have very long experience, I’m totally out of date on the process , which is what many posts are about.

Hope you and yours are well. I often think of some of the long term posters like Lilka , Devora and Pheasants and wonder how they are.

I hear from a few people by text / email/ Pm, which is nice.

Thanks everyone for your responses and well wishes. @Ted27 I definitely like the idea of multiple celebrations! The kids don't know what it means really when we celebrate the day they came home) nor will they understand the court date but we just say it's a very special date for our family. I'm very envious to all of you whose hearing fell in the summer months! I'd always imagined doing a blessing event much like you say @ifchocolatewerecelery but with our parents being away and at this time of year it makes it more tricky I think. @Weatherforducks I love the idea of having photos done, not something I'd usually do but does seem appropriate for the occasion and will be nice for life story books.

I'm very much looking forward to the day but have to admit I'm anxious at the idea of no longer having any support from the kids social workers - I never would've thought I'd feel that way!

We thought about what DS would want to do, so we went to a small soft play near us. There was me, DH, my DM, PIL, DB, DSIL and DSis plus two little DN. Softplay then tea in the pub next door.