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Monday, June 30, 2008

1st JULY (TOMORROW!), AN EXPLANATION

Tomorrow we will celebrate a year together.

For those of you who haven't been through the amazing process of adoption, 'Gotcha Day', 'Metcha Day', 'Family Day' or for us 'Alice Day' is the day that families celebrate a new child joining their family. I chose to call 1st July 'Alice Day' as when Little Sis comes along there will be another 'Family Day' for her too - with her name, if I used 'Family Day' we'd have 2 with the same name to celebrate different events.

Why celebrate? Alice's birthday is a special day - significant to both of us but it's not a day about us. For a family created biologically a birthday encompasses 'Family Day' too. For me, Alice Day is about the day our family was born - it is about both of us.

Tomorrow we will celebrate - with presents from me and a special tea with some of the special people in our lives because tomorrow is the emotionally significant day for us as a family ( and if I can find it we'll probably watch the DVD of An Hao Ming being placed in my arms). Alice doesn't yet understand what tomorrow is about, but I have told her the story and shown her the pictures, one day she will understand it's significance and then she will also know that it's always been special to our family, a ritual not a flippancy, an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate adoption.

2 comments:

Jeff and Amy said...

I cannot believe our group is coming up on the 1yr mark!!!! Hasn't it been amazing, I too plan on doing something a little special for that day, ours is July 29th!!!

Ellen said...

Happy 'Alice Day'! Oooooh! How excited you must be! And that RH!!!! Fantastic! Our 'A' will definitely want a go on that when we visit!

We just celebrated our special day 26th June (2 years). We SO understand and appreciate the significance of such a precious time.

We'll be thinking of you and sending lots and lots of love!

Ellen xxx