Telling Family & Friends

On Easter weekend the Soares' family got together on Saturday for the traditional ham dinner. We choose this day to tell the family of our adoption plans. BUT, we couldn't just make an announcement. Ooh No...We plan on doing something Fun and Memorable! So we got plastic Easter eggs, put the names of each family member on them and hid them for each person to find their own, kinda traditional so far right?
Of course, we couldn't resist putting a little surprise in each person's egg. There were people that knew about the adoption and others didn't. The ones that were in the know we printed out Russian words for them (not Kazakhstani but close). The words we choose were special to each person...Grandmother (BAA boosh ka), Grandfather (DYE doosh ka), Aunt (TYAWT ya), and Thank you (spaa SEE ba) which went to Ernestine for agreeing to be a reference for us.
Then there were the ones that didn't know...they all received blue eggs with a special message that they needed to UNSCRAMBLE, clever huh? The message was divided into 5 parts, like so, KAZ-AKH-STAN ADOP-TION. As the "Blue Team" huddled to figure out the words, Mark, (John's brother) blurted out..."John and Susan are adopting a child from Kazakhstan?!?"
Then there was chaos! Lots of OMG, screaming and tears of joy. It was a wonderful and fun way of telling them our happy news.

We would like to say a special Thank You to our friends that were willing to stand up for us and provide a good character reference. To EVERYONE that have been supportive by offering kind, encouraging words, we really appreciate the support.

Thank you to our NEW friends that we've made through blogging and have been gracious enough to share their adoption experience with us so we may be better prepared.

And of course, our love and appreciation to our parents that are not only supportive but also as anxious as we are to welcome home our "bundle of joy".

In The Beginning...

there was John and Susan...after 15 years there still was just John and Susan. We've always wanted children and after a few years without "results" we went to see a fertility specialist. That was as far as it went, obviously! Susan did not want to go through the hormone treatments and possible multiple births (octomom would be years later)! So we just waited. After the years passed we settled for a comfortable, carefree, quiet life together but something just didn't feel right!?!
We looked into adoption about 7 years ago but for whatever reason we never pursued it.
There is alittle sadness in accepting the loss of not having biological children. It was hard not to let our thoughts go to the "maybe we weren't meant to be parents" logic. While we wallowed in that for awhile, Susan decided to go back to work part-time for a tutoring center. Being surrounded by children and nurturing women everyday, it didn't take long for the adoption question to appear again. Of course we weren't too old to adopt children, right?
This time when we searched for answers, we found a local agency, met with them, attended an orientation class and signed up! Obviously this wasn't dance lessons we were giving a go at! We are going to be parents to a little boy or girl or both, only God knows! It was scary, exciting, and amazing. Our heads were swirling, it was like finding out we were pregnant.
We were surprised at how quickly things were going. In 2 weeks time we completed the home study paperwork and finished our Parenting classes in March.
Now it was time to tell family & friends....