Photo Shoots

We tease my mom mercilessly over her poses as a photographer, but she is hands down the best person I know when it comes to archiving memories as pictures.  She not only remembers (more often than not) to take pictures at events and occasions, she faithfully prints them, writes the location, date, and participants on the back and then organizes them in photo albums or photo boxes.  You would think with such a great role model I would be so good at this, but frankly I am the worst!

I almost never take my camera any where, and even though my phone has a camera, I hate asking people (even if it's just J.T.) to break away from the action to get a picture.  There is also the fact that I do not like getting my own picture taken that gets in the way.  In regard to printing, writing on the back and organizing, I was decent at this in high school and college, but since graduating forget it.

This weakness would not be terribly problematic if it wasn't for the fact that we have to create a profile book and webpage that highlights in words and pictures our life together.  It is also strongly recommended that most of these pictures be action rather than posed shots-yikes!

As a result, we spent all day yesterday having a "photo shoot" with my brother and mother-in-law.  With careful planning, we were able to recreate all of the things we like to do--playing games, playing with the puppies, cooking, etc. and have them look like they were authentically happening (we hope!).

I hope it doesn't sound like we are trying to be misleading, as we actually do or have done everything we had photographed, but due to our lousy photography skills (and the fact that they recommend no sunglasses or booze in any of the pictures) we had to improvise.

Thanks to my mother-in-law's skills, we ended up with a lot of usable shots and had fun in the process.  All in all it was a win, but also a firm kick in the pants to do a better job of taking pictures in the future!

Fire Drill

So even though our home study is not complete we have gotten a taste at what it is like to get "the call".  A colleague who is aware that we are adopting (he and his wife have adopted themselves) called on Thursday to see where we were at in the process and whether we might be open to a situation of which he was aware through his church.

My heart stopped as he began to explain the details and I got super excited!  I immediately called J.T. and gave him the information we had.  We became a bit concerned when a quick google search led to a pretty strong suspicion that there was exposure of which we were uncomfortable, but decided we would continue to just play things by ear.

On Friday I left to meet some girlfriends out of state (prepared to turn around at any moment if necessary).  On the way I got a call from my colleague explaining that the new mom was not clear on what open adoption truly was, her expectations were not going to realistically translate to a placement, and that her family had agreed (and preferred) to help her raise the baby.

So our excitement was short lived, but it was interesting to get a glimpse into the whirlwind of emotion we will get to experience when the real time comes (sooner rather than later-fingers crossed!).  We decided it was like our fire drill and believe we passed with flying colors:).

Adoption Books

I love to read!  The first book I remember reading myself was Cinderella .  I would read books, newspapers, magazines, comic books, the TV guide, cereal boxes...anything with words and provided anything that told a story, shared an opinion, or provided information.

When we decided to adopt, the internet was a bit too intimidating with its millions of resources from a zillion sources both research based and purely anecdotal.  As a result, I ended up looking for the most comprehensive best selling books to download to my Nook and then, gasp, did something I haven't done in years--went to the public library and checked out their supply.

I selected books written by adoptive parents, birth parents, adoption attornies, and social workers just to be able to see my new found world through the eyes of its many representatives.  Some books were written to provide information for those just starting, in the process and with an adopted child in the home.  Others were narratives or short stories that gave an insider's perspective of one family's experience/

Below you will find my top ten books (in no particular order) on adoption: