Gotcha Day! 1 Year Anniversary


This week marks the one year anniversary (March 26) of the arrival (Gotcha Day) of our little Emme. This week we will celebrate Emme! We also acknowledge and celebrate the two beautiful little girls and their families who we met in Korea and share Emme's Gotcha Day. SP and MM this week is in your honor too!

What I have planned:
  • Gotcha Day or Fly Day Craft
  • Gotcha Day Traditions & Ideas
  • Photos from our Journey
  • Adoption Links
  • Personal Essay
If you have adopted and / or are an adoptee and you have traditions, ideas and stories you'd like to contribute and share please email me at: hello4crazykings@yahoo.com
The first post will be Monday. Even if adoption hasn't touched your lives I hope you will check in anyway! Enjoy the weekend, Mama King

10 comments:

Just Lisa said...

Happy Gotcha day! I hope I can post my own Gotcha story someday!

I came by to Welcome you to SITS!

Ann On and On... said...

What a wonderful thing to celebrate! I hope to adopt some day.

Welcome to the SITS-ahood! We are happy to have you! Jump over to my blog, click the GIVEAWAY tab....I have 2 going on right now.

Mamarazzi said...

darling!!

I am here to welcome you to SITS. You are going to love being part of this amazing community of women. So welcome to the SITStahood!!

blackbelt said...

Hello! Found you through ThirdMom.

We have never celebrated Gotcha day. It was my stubborn refusal to admit that he was mine. Only. That his "other" mom wasn't going to run our lives.

Do you know, that every winter when the weather first turns really cold, that this sweet, happy child would turn into an angry, defiant child?? I didn't notice the first couple of years and then I heard some APs talk about an anniversary syndrome.

He is 6-1/2 and this is the first year we have made it through a winter without pulling our hair out. I think now, had we celebrated Gotcha and instilled happy memories and more overtly recognized his coming with us, he might have fared better.

Anonymous said...

Aw, Happy Gotcha Day! That rocks! I am stopping by to give you a big welcome to the SITSahood! It's a great community and we love having new members! Look forward to seeing you around!

Anonymous said...

Congrats!

Good morning everybody! Have a wonderful fun Sunday from a fellow sitsa.

Checking in from Zen Cupcake

Katie said...

Hi There, I saw this post but was waiting to think of something brilliant and insightful to say. Well that never happened so here I am anyway:)

I think it's such a lovely idea to have a gotcha day. To be honest we didn't celebrate anything along these lines. I don't even know off the top of my head when I touched down at the airport, will have to check my baby book the next time I am at my parents'. Is gotcha day the day Emme arrived or the day her adoption was finalized?

I kind of wish we did do something to mark the day. I think since I was adopted so young - 2 years - and have no memory of coming or of being anywhere else this never came up. Guess my parents weren't cool enough to think of it.

Two things and these may be cliched but they're what my mom used to tell us. First, that even though she didn't carry us or give birth to us the traditional way, we were born in her heart and that made us her kids from the day we were born. It just took us a little longer to get together.

The other thing she told us to explain adoption was a story about tree grafting. How there was this beautiful tree, but it was missing a few branches. It felt sad, it knew it was missing something. Then the farmer (who represents God in this story) came along and grafted a new branch were the tree was missing one. The branch and the tree grew together into one. The tree felt complete and eventually you couldn't even tell where the branch had been added. It was like it had always been there. This story probably made a lot of sense to me and my brother because we just happened to have a blooming tree in our front yard that had two branches grafted on.

Anyway, that's a super cheesy story but for some reason me and my brother really liked it. Mom told it better with a lot of extra detail added and it was a common bedtime story.

I will think on your question and think of anything else I can add. To be honest me and my brother were among the few kids in our adoptive family group who didn't end up with issues about being adopted. Several kids I knew ended up in counseling etc. We didn't have any trouble be accepted by our families and were treated the same as all the other cousins etc.

In fact my cousin Danny was in grade school before he even knew we were adopted. He was doing some kind of family project and the teacher was explaining adoption. He was confused about it, and asked my Aunt what it meant. She told him and added, you know like Katie and David. "WHAT?!"' was the response, "THEY'RE ADOPTED?!" He seriously was shocked and had no clue, and it's not like we don't stick out being Korean and Indian and all! To him we were just his cousins that he'd known his whole life.

I really didn't think about being adopted unless a stranger would ask my parents questions which seemed to happen a lot when we were on summer vacation. They always seemed to think my parents were saints, how could they do that, oh they could never do it themselves but weren't my parents so nice. This usually left my mom fuming!

Aubrey said...

I LOVE the name Lulu! So cute!

Coming over from SITS! Welcome to the club!

Rhea said...

Gottcha Day is ADORABLE! I love it. What a wonderful thing to celebrate. Your children are just adorable. Cute photos.

I'm here as part of the SITS Welcome Wagon! I've been with SITS for quite a while now.

I've read so many fun blogs, met so many amazing women, and really enjoyed the blogger support system they have set up.

Tiffany and Heather, the founders, are really great. Welcome to the group, SITSta!

Abbie said...

You are so right about assimulation. When I was adopted in the 1970's that was what the agency told my adoptive parents. So, eventhough I always knew I was adopted it wasn't a celebrated, super-special day. It was just every-day reality, and I guess that is how I live it as an adult too. Nevertheless, I think this is a great celebration, and thanks for sharing your experiences!
Abbie

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