Adoption Shower and Celebration

September 26, 2012 | by Jocie (email) |

One of my best friends also happens to be my cousin, Naomi. She’s four years older than me and most of our years growing up together were spent on opposite sides of the world. I grew up in Maryland while she grew up in Kwajalein, part of the Marshall Islands. We only saw each other maybe every other summer but were great friends and pen pals. If I ever want a good laugh, I sometimes read our old letters and reminisce about whatever boy I had a crush on at the time or the weird fads that I was in to (like button collecting).

Almost a year ago, Naomi moved to Maryland and began the paperwork process of fostering to adopt. For the first time EVER, we were living in the same city! YAY! Many months later, she got the call that all the paperwork had gone through and she would had the arrival of an amazing 11-year-old boy within the week.

We were all super excited and wanted to share in the celebration of his arrival along with her, so the shower planning began! My mom was excited to host at her house, since hers is much larger and a central location. Here is Mom, Naomi, and me at the party. No joke, Naomi looks more like Mom’s daughter than I do!

It was a little different from planning a baby shower because there was no registry, obviously no diaper cake, and more typical shower themes do not apply. As we planned, we tried to think of ways to make it really special and memorable for Naomi.

I chose royal blue and kelly green for the color theme since her little boy isn’t a baby, and because I just love those colors together.

Decorations

I made most of the decorations, which was time-consuming but really pretty.

Using scrapbook paper, I made bunting to bring color onto the walls.

Then, for the centerpiece, hanging about the table, I made poms using tissue paper. I made these earlier in the year for Izzie’s Rapunzel Party and while cheap to make, they take a little time.

Also for the centerpiece, I saw a picture of hanging flowers recently and attempted to duplicate it for this party. This was sooo easy and quick and ended up being my favorite decoration.

I cut out large triangular leaf petals, folded in half towards the center. Then hot glued the bottom edges all together in a circular fashion. Finally, gluing the front and back in the center of the flower to keep it held together.

Activities and Food

Naomi’s little one has a hard time eating his veggies (like most kids), so we thought it would be fun to help her try out some recipes that have veggies hidden.

We asked each shower guest to bring a dish to share that had some hidden ingredients. Along with the dish, they brought a recipe to contribute to a cook book for Naomi. We also provided recipe cards in case guests wanted to take a recipe home with them.

At the party, Naomi tasted each dish and attempted to guess what the hidden ingredients were. I made this cute ModPodge frame using scrapbook paper and homemade ModPodge. I even came up with this cute poem. I’m a genius, right?! heehee To make your own $2 frame, check out my tutorial on making scrapbook paper frames.

I’m not sure she guessed any correctly but we had some great laughs and ate some good food.

“Hmmmmm, what is this?”

“I don’t know. Maybe….?”

“Nope, try again…”

I made coordinating little signs for the food, indicating the hidden veggie, which we turned over and revealed to Naomi once she guessed.

In addition to yummy food, like my mom’s pumpkin cake and my cucumber blueberry muffins, we also had wine. I know, not normal for a baby shower. But this was an evening adoption celebration for adults only, so we had wine. I made my special recipe for Sangria and put little ribbons on all the plastic wine cups to class it up a bit. I know, wine glasses would have been classy, but I didn’t want to do the dishes and my mom didn’t have enough wine glasses.

Presents

Shower guests brought gifts for Naomi and her soon to arrive little boy. Most were Spiderman or Star Wars themed – an instant win for an 11-year-old. Naomi opened them so we could all see and then repackaged them so her little boy could open them again. 🙂

And what little boy doesn’t love fart puddy?

One of my gifts to Naomi was a painted canvas I made for her. I painted a tree with the saying “Love Makes A Family.” Then as shower guests arrived, they placed their thumb prints on the tree, signifying our support and love in raising of this little boy.

I thought it was pretty special and meaningful, hopefully Naomi does too!

Here was another small gift I gave her, and wrapped to match the decorations.

Finally, we prayed. This was probably the best past of the whole shower – surrounding Naomi with love and prayer, that she would have strength, love, patience, and trust in God as she goes on this beautiful journey.

What do you think? Have you ever had an adoption shower? How did you make it special?

As Always, thanks for reading!

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