Adoption Support at Forever Parents

Our Favorite Family Vacation

This week I am participating in A Slice Of Life Sunday and I’ve chosen to write about my favorite family vacation.

My own childhood holds happy memories of several family vacations. Growing up in New York City, we vacationed in places like Ellenville, in upstate NY, where we visited Ice Caves Mountains, and Dutch Wonderland (PA). But this post is about a family vacation that I took with my children and husband…a vacation where we celebrated our one year adoption anniversary.

We adopted our three children in October of 2003. They were siblings that had been in the foster care system for four years and the biological family had their rights terminated years before we ever came into their lives. If you’d like to read more about our adoption journey, click “Our Adoption Story” in the tags or categories.

In October of 2004, we decided to celebrate our one year adoption anniversary with a week long vacation. My two oldest children attended physical and occupational therapy early on (neither go any longer) and their therapist, Kathleen, pulled a few strings and got us free passes for Universal Studios. At the same time, a friend of our let us use their timeshare for the week. It made our week much more of a special time because we felt really blessed by the goodness of other people.

We had such a great week and we met some cool people. One family that we met was from England and we ended up hanging out with them quite a bit. They even let us use their passes to Wet & Wild (there’s that feeling of being thankful again). During our stay, it was my son’s 12th birthday, and they celebrated with us at a nearby McDonalds. But not just any McDonalds…this was the world’s largest McDonald’s playplace. Of course the kids had a ball…and by that I mean my husband also. lol

We got a taste of cultural differences when the mother (from England) & I were talking about adoption and  she asked about us adopting  my son and youngest daughter, who are both biracial and brown skinned (my husband & I are both white). She said that her daughter (who was about 4) asked her why my two children were colored.  I was taken back by her choice of words but judging by the way she said it, she meant no harm in it. I told her that “colored” was a term that isn’t really used anymore. She was surprised and said that where she was from that was the word they used to describe brown skinned people. They had just moved to Spain before their vacation so I don’t know if she meant there or England.

It was a vacation we’ll always remember and treasure. We celebrate our adoption anniversary every year.  It’s a special day for us and we want to honor it. 

Related Posts:

1. 13 Ideas For Celebrating An Adoption Anniversary
2. Adoption Article Featuring Our Family
3. What Extended Family Can Mean To A Child That Was Adopted
4. Four Year Adoption Anniversary
5. Teleflora’s America’s Favorite Mom Contest