Grateful for people surrounding me

I have a coworker who is having a baby about a month before kidlet will be born. She knew we were adopting before she got pregnant. It's been great to watch her grow and go through milestones because I had a feeling that our babies would be born around the same time. We traded registry and furniture tips and talked about the interminable wait. She was one of the first people I told at work when we were matched. And now that we know our babies will be so close in age, we have automatic new mommy friends.

Our work had a shower for her about a week ago and she left a thank you note on my desk this morning saying how great it has been to have someone to go through the process with and how we should get together when we are both on leave to share some new mommy experiences. I didn't know how people would see me since we are adopting, and I was more than a little worried that I wouldn't be seen as a real mommy-to-be but everyone has been great. And I've really appreciated it because it makes it all the more real.

1 down, 3 to go

It's been almost a month since we were matched, and we have about 3 months until the baby is born! We're down into double digit days now.

Open Adoption

I feel really lucky that 99% of the people in our lives have been open minded about our adoption experience even when open adoption is a new concept for them. In our current situation, we are laying the foundation for a completely open adoption. This means our child's firstmom will have all our information, we will have hers, and we will all have ongoing contact including in-person visits. Hopefully we will become a family together.

I found this article in Adoptive Families that illustrates an open adoption pretty nicely: Open Adoption Works for Us. It's a first glance at a complex subject but it's worth a read.