Adoption Awareness Month

November is Adoption Awareness Month. It's a great opportunity to raise awareness about the miracle of adoption and the hundreds of thousands of kids all over the world in foster care and/or orphanages who are waiting for their forever homes.  Here is a link to a great Cheerio's commercial about adoption.  How many of us didn't use food to bond with our children during those first few days?!
http://videosostav.ru/video/f52ff5d2b8228c0484e5871361ab94c5/

Here is some NOT so good news...and a call to action! Sony is using anti-adoption advertising in their new commercial for the Playstation Move.   In the commercial, a man spouts out "You're adopted!" as an insult to the person playing against him just to throw them off their game?!!  If you can spare a minute, email Playstation’s PR division and let them know what you think of it. Here is the link to the You Tube commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YkPtWUohaA&feature=player_embedded.

Finally it is November, and I have SO MANY wonderful things to be Thankful For this year.  I have started a gratitude journal, and each night I post a few things I am grateful/thankful for.  Here is a snapshot of what it looks like so far...

It is November 1st, and I am thankful for my dog.  Even on the toughest days, there is no psychologist in the world like a puppy licking your face.  

It is November 2nd, and I am thankful for the first Christmas decorations going up.  I love them all, from the lights to the yard ornaments.  They really do put me in the holiday spirit. After all, nothing says the Birth of Jesus like a 12 foot tall fiber optic spinning snowman. 

It is November 3rd, and I am thankful for my friends.  I have AMAZING friends.  Friends who drop everything to travel to an underdeveloped country for 5 weeks with me while I adopt a child.  Friends who treat my daughter like she is their own.  Friends who know everything about me, and like me anyway.  It's true what they say, the best friends you will ever have are the first ones you ever made.

It's November 4th, and I am thankful for Summer.  Summer is my season, the one I wait for all year long.  I heard it said once that you can live a lifetime in the summer, especially when you are young.

It's November 5th, and I am thankful for my hometown of Hamilton!  It's really small, but we have an awesome ice cream stand, a sculpture park, and the distinction of being the only city in the US with an exclamation point after it's name.   With this embarrassment of riches, I am shocked more of you haven't relocated here.

Of course, I am most thankful this year for my beautiful daughter.


This tiny, demanding person who came into my life and somehow inexplicably moved my soul to dance.

Not only my daughter, but the country of Kazakhstan and the birth mother who gave me her most precious gift.  I may never know what her circumstances were, but one thing I  know for sure is that there are NO accidental children in the world.  Every child who is born is planned for and created by God. And for that, I am truly, deeply thankful.       

 

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