During our first adoption attempt, our social worker kept telling us the importance of creating family traditions; I heard what she said but filed it away under 'things not vital to sanity at the moment.' Now that the object of that first attempt is approaching his third anniversary of being legally our son, that bit of advice seems far more important. We grabbed lunch with my in-laws at a pizza place after the court hearing finalizing our adoption and have not really celebrated Finalization Day since, mostly because life was crazy and up until this point, our son really didn't care one way or the other whether a certain day was 'special' or not. Now that he's old enough to appreciate that fact, it is time to party, or so me thinks.
My family didn't really celebrate anything growing up, not because it was proscribed religiously or for anything half so interesting, but tragically because family, and we kids in particular, really weren't all that important. It was certainly weird when I married a man whose family celebrates everything, except maybe Groundhog's day. Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Anniversaries, Mother/Father's day, you name it, it all mattered. Comparing my childhood to that of my husband, there is no question that celebration and joy are far better than anything I experienced growing up and I definitely want that to be a part of our family tradition.
But how do you celebrate an adoption finalization? Baby showers and weddings are all pretty straight forward, as are graduations, birthdays, and various holidays. I'll just have to make it up as I go along. First we are going to put on coordinating clothes and take a bunch of silly family pictures; green shirts anyone? Then we'll spend the day exploring a scenic natural area (in said green shirts) and then stop for lunch at the same restaurant (same restaurant, different town) wherein we celebrated the original finalization. Sounds like a dream come true for a three year old boy! Viva la tradition!
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