Adoption Ambassador

I have recently joined a facebook page "Domestic Adoption Support Group" because I was starting to feel pretty lonely in this adoption experience.  I miss having a friends house to just go sit on their couch and "do life" with even though our houses are kid-messy and we are both in yoga pants.  The facebook group has both helped me and sometimes made me very sad as such various groups of individuals deal with their journey of adoption in various ways.  There are communities that surround an individual with love and outpouring when they decide on this journey.  Thee are others who are the first to step out on this journey an everyone stands around and stares at...like a new species is being released into the wild, will it survive?  They will call the new species "Adoptus Parentus" and view from afar as it navigates the wild and if it survives they will welcome all others into their fold.

There was a lady on the support page who is clearly frustrated with her community and she was asking others for advice about what they did during this journey.  I started to think about what was different this time around and it came to me in all of its gloriousness.

An Adoption Ambassador.  Now even those in the adoption community are looking at that phrase saying "WHAT"?  Yes...I am coining the term...copyright...patent pending...because typing it on the internet makes stuff official.  Right?  Sure, why not.  An Adoption Ambassador is an important person in the life of any adoptive family.  For me...that person is my sissy, Tracy!

It's only appropriate you end up on my blog too Tracy...so tag you are it!  She is my Adoption Ambassador.  She has a very important job.  And like any job Tracy does, it has very few boundaries, she gets to look on Pinterest and make pretty things, be excited in an awkward situation and force her feelings on others, and help ease my crazy ideas into the real world.  It doesn't hurt that she is my BFF and our relationship is so close that my husband is creeped out by us.

Adoption Ambassador is not a hard job.  Tracy has been my ambassador for tons of life situations.  When I got engaged I was so nervous...seriously guys, I got engaged before facebook!  GASPS OF HORROR!

I had to call family members (like all day)...and my engagement ring will never be immortalized in the delves of the internet to be found forever in my news feed.  When I walked into church I wanted to let people know, but I didn't want to look like I was an A-hole (for reals I was crazy shy growing up...mostly).  ENTER THE AMBASSADOR TRACY!  She knew I was nervous...I had told her.  So she grabbed me by my wrist and led me around the room.  Since there was no facebook I have included an artistic rendering of the event.

She would walk up to people, shove my ring in their face and exclaim "LAUREN GOT ENGAGED!"  They could be excited, I could be shy, and fun was had by all.  This same experience was had when Reid and I decided to adopt.  We told our family and Tracy was just like this...

She then followed her statement by saying she was surprised that me, the straight laced kid in the family, was the one doing this first.  I am definitely the white picket fence, small yappy dog, suburb kind of girl.  So when I started to share our dream of a family who looked so diverse and different, from all over the world...every ones head exploded.

Enter the Adoption Ambassador.  When we were in a group of people, Tracy would be quick to announce that "Reid and Lauren are adopting" in her Buddy the Elf level of excitement.  When someone responds like that, the excitement is palpable.  You can't help but to respond the same way.  She made it OK for people to be happy for us.  Now I understand that people don't respond poorly out of being mean, but that the word "adoption" doesn't have a mental experiences bank to pull from like the phrase "we're pregnant" does.  Tracy overwhelmed that lack of experience bank and taught people the correct way to respond.  With this face!

I was really afraid of getting the call that we had been matched and not having anything for the baby...because ya'll ADOPTION IS EXPENSIVE!.  We did yard sales, cashed out our savings, borrowed against 401K, family donated to us, did without a lot of extras, and then we put a lot of that kid on a credit card.  The last thing we could justify was buying a new awesome stroller or the cool Moby wrap thing I wanted when we needed to actually pay off the kid first.  So Tracy and my mom threw us a shower.  They invited our friends over to decorate onesies. eat food, and start preparing nursery items.  The coolest part though was the prayer time for our baby.  The shower was done before Christmas, so Tracy and mommy made star ornaments that said "Pray for Mason" to remind people to pray for us on our adoption journey.  Bathing a family in prayer like this makes such a difference.  I can say that I could feel the prayers during some really difficult times, when I felt peace when there wasn't reason for it.

Tracy could also take care of the sensitive issue of the unknown of adoption by asking people to include a gift receipt because we seriously didn't know what size or age child we would be bringing home.  It allowed us to exchange a few items we got that my giant son didn't fit into, because my boy has always been wonderfully large for his age.

 9 months

 11 months

12 months

All of those pics were before he was 1...my baby was healthy.  Ergo, the need to exchange his 12 months clothing for 18 months and 24 months stuff.  And formula...no way this kid went straight to real food in the US to keep up.  And because of our Adoption Ambassador we had the ability to do that.  Those items we recieved from that shower were crucial pieces to our lives.  The umbrella stroller that our leaders from my days in the youth group bought me is how we got our oh so heavy son around Russia.  The cute Ergo dropped that baby to my knees and win for the stroller.

Now, here is the best part about being a child's Adoption Ambassador.  The bond that you will have with that child after being their Ambassador will be unbreakable.  Tracy and Mason have such a special bond that can not be replaced.

She seriously gave up a job living in Africa working with people because she couldn't bear to leave this little boy for 2 years and miss anything in his life.  She is bonded to him by some invisible line that draws them together.  So if that isn't reason enough to be someone's Adoption Ambassador, I don't know what is.  So if you know someone who is adopting, ask them what they wish for, let them vent their frustrations, what are they too afraid to ask for, what do they dream for their baby.  It will be a journey that you will never forget and a bond with that child that is UNBREAKABLE!

...and now for the real pictures!