I have been told… more than once… that I’m a very intentional person. And I’d never really thought about it, but that is true. If you were to walk into my home, you’ll see a painting I made that has two birds and a fiery sunset… to me it symbolizes the strength of our love even in the midst of the fire that took our home. You will see a sign that says, “I believe there is Beauty in Brokenness.” This is our family motto and a gift from a mystery friend during our infertility journey. My home is decorated in shades of brown, green, yellow, and cream… earth tones and the color of sunshine. Things that reminder me of the calm of nature, that symbolize growth, that keep me grounded. Every little thing in my house has a significance or a meaning and I tend to live my life that way too.

So it’s no surprise that when it came time to share with our parents that we were pursuing adoption that we wanted to do something special. Initially we had planned on waiting until Christmas, and use our parents’ Christmas gifts as the way to share the news. But things started moving faster than expected so we realized we were going to need to let them know sooner. Now I’m not into the whole “Pinterest” thing. I want the stuff I do to be meaningful and specific to us. I don’t like the idea of just mimicking someone else. And honestly, we’re not adopting from overseas and we’re not far enough into the process to know the gender or anything like that so it limited us a little in what we could do.

But there were a few things we knew. We knew we wanted them to feel invited to be a part of the process with us. We wanted them to be the advocates to the rest of the family… cause we assume everyone has a lot of questions and we probably won’t be able to answer them for everyone. And we wanted to set them up with an easy way to keep track of where we were at in the process.

So… we already had this…

I’m a big fan of books to begin with. There have been years I’ve done all my Christmas shopping at the book store… I just love books!  But this particular book was recommended by my beautiful friend, Jessa, as an excellent book to give to family. So we already had that part of the purchase made and waiting… we just pulled it out of the Christmas trunk a little early.

The second part was simply a card. On the front… our motto – We Believe there is Beauty in Brokenness.”

And inside our message…

We signed the cards, wrapped the books, and then waited for the weekend to arrive. Ryan’s parents came out to our house on Saturday, October 10th to help us do a little work on our barn. So before the work began we gave them the present. It was cute because Maranda hadn’t brought her reading glasses so Dave had to read it to her. There were tears and hugs and lots of questions and we explained as much as we could. It was really nice.

The next day, Sunday the 11th, we met up with my parents for lunch after church. We got there a little before them so we ordered our food and waited. My brothers, Jeremy and Richard, got there and sat down. Mom and dad arrived, placed their order and sat down. We all talked for a good long while and then I handed the present and card to Ryan who passed it to my mom. She opened it and read the first line quietly to herself and then tears started flowing. My dad was just looking at her patiently waiting for her to explain. I realized that might take a while, so I got up and went to hug her and told dad and the boys, who were all trying to figure out what was happening that we had begun the process of adopting. Mom was just so happy for us that we are adopting and growing our family that she was beside herself. At one point I even asked her, “Are you okay?” And between the tears she managed to let out a “no.” She’ll probably hate that I’m sharing this private moment, but you have to understand – this was an incredibly important moment for me and the genuine joy she felt for us is something I will never forget.

My grandma happened to be in town that day too to see her sister (my great aunt). So we swung by the nursing home and had her come meet us in the lobby so we could share the news with her. I didn’t know we’d be getting to tell her that day so I didn’t have a card for her. So instead I pulled up the website on my phone and asked her if she could read what it said on there for me. She read it and looked at me and said, “okay.” So I decided to elaborate a little and tell her we started back in July and August and we’re going to be looking to adopt a baby here in the U.S. Another “okay” from Grandma. And then mom showed her the little card with the checklist. Next thing I know, mom’s crying and grandma’s crying. I’m hugging grandma and Ryan’s hugging my mom. Haha – needless to say I think everyone was really happy.

So yeah. No hidden cameras. No over the top cutesy pinterest announcement. Just sweet and simple and probably overly informative. But that’s how we shared the news with our parents that we are moving forward into becoming parents ourselves. These are moments I will cherish forever and I will certainly be telling our future little one about all the love that was felt on the day our families’ found out he/she was in our future.

Tomorrow Ryan and I will be meeting with our social worker to begin the home study process. We’re really excited to continue moving forward and getting closer to growing our family. Also tomorrow is the last day to order t-shirts to help raise money for our adoption. We have 4 different shirt styles and various colors. If you’re interested in a shirt follow the link to get yours before they’re gone! https://teespring.com/gagnon-adoption-beauty-8152