An Adoption Party

The last post showed a lot of the fun we had celebrating A's first birthday but I also wanted to show how we honored and celebrated her adoption too.

There were five tables and each one had a centerpiece that had two pictures and a date on it. The 10 pictures listed the timeline of big events in A's life over the last year. It was fun to create and see God's hand in her life.

Our "Oh Happy Day" sign went through several rough drafts in my head. I had originally planned on it saying "Happy Gotcha Day" so we could put it up every year to celebrate her adoption day and, one day, our son's adoption day. Then I thought well, maybe I'll just do "Happy Birthday" so that it could be used for all of our kids' birthdays. Finally, I settled on "Oh Happy Day" b/c I wanted something that could be used for any special and fun day in our lives. I want to be able to celebrate all the big moments that will come in our future and I think this sign accomplished this. I can't wait to make it a family tradition!

It was super simple to make. I just cut some small rectangles, sewed right sides together, flipped them and used the iron-on letters from Walmart. The top piece was bias tape. Easy peasy.

The largest project for the party was the "Adoption Station". I wanted a way for A's young friends and family to begin to get a better understanding of what adoption is.

When we started doing foster care Taryn was only 2 and it was really hard to explain to her then what was going on. We've had the opportunity over the last couple years though to begin to help her understand and to develop a heart for orphans and hurting children.

Adoption is a big concept, however. I in no way think this little craft will pull it all together in her mind but, I do hope that it at least gave parents and kids an opening to talk not only about Aven and what it means for her to now be adopted but also to begin to help them get a picture of their adoption into God's kingdom.

The kids seemed to have a great time going through the process of picking a baby and making it theirs. Then, of course, since we were celebrating getting Aven's adoption certificate we had to include that for the kiddos!

Front Side

Back Side

And, congrats to our nieces, nephews and friends who adopted their little buddies!!

Finally, Derek and I really wanted to get Aven some sort of keepsake to remember August 30th. It is a day that will always be special in my heart and I hope that it will be for her too one day. When I saw this necklace on Lisa Leonard's website I knew it was the perfect token.

chosen....to belong. to be loved.

It's now tucked away for her along with other keepsakes and memories throughout her journey to our family.

I loved planning every aspect of this celebration and love how it all came together!