Wednesday, December 8, 2010

To Family Day or Not to Family Day.....

I've had a year and half to think about this.  I've had at least that long to make a decision, but I'm still not completely confident with it.

We have a special day that we celebrate for the day we brought Miles home with us.  We've decided to call it "Family Day." Don't ask me why, there are a million different names for it out there - Gotcha Day, Adoption Day, etc.  For some reason early-on we decided to call it Family Day.  This last year we decided to celebrate by making the day all about Miles.  We went to a Korea restaurant, went to a special store to pick out a few trucks, and even went and sat in a few tractors for fun.
But for the last year and half I've been trying to decide whether to do the same for my other son....the son that wasn't adopted.
Technically this "holiday" was introduced to us by our adoption agency so I always thought of it as a celebration only for adopted children.  I mean, I did tear him away from his foster mother, culture, and native language, wouldn't a special day for just him make up for that? Okay, I guess not.  But wouldn't it make sense that he would have one special holiday over our other son?  The one that wasn't adopted?

This is what I struggle with.  This is why I have waited to make this decision.

Here are my thoughts.  First of all - it's not an OFFICIAL holiday.  It's OUR holiday.  We made it up for our family, so it can mean whatever we want it to.  To me it means the growth of our family.  Secondly - both of my sons came to us in different and incredibly fantastic ways.  They both have such different stories.  They both deserve to be celebrated.
So this is the day that we brought Liam home with us.  This is his family day.  I mean, can a family really have too many days in the year to celebrate how they came to be a family?  I don't think so.
Now I just have to decide how we're going to celebrate Liam's culture.....Shoofly Pie and Borscht anyone?

6 comments:

Cori said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

Rock on for Liam's Family Day!

sue said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

i think it's wonderful to celebrate liam's family day!!!

IP Journey said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

Great idea! I havn't thought about how the older kids are going to think about not having their own family days when they grow up....hmmm...I like your idea but honostly after 6 and 4 years I don't remember which day we brought the older ones home from the hospital! =) Maybe we'll call Joel's arrival day, Children's Day or something?

stuckeyfisher said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

How about hot dogs and apple pie?

Nicole said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

We call the day we finalized our daughter's adoption our "Famiversary." It's the day we officially all became a family. My son isn't adopted either, and that's why we decided to make that day all about family. Not so much just about Sophie. Whatever you decide to do, the boys will love it!

Kristen said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

I think its awesome that to celebrate Liam's family day. To me, "family day" is all about celebrating what it means to be a family and how each person in the family is special. Plus, you can never have too many celebrations!