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| The end |
| Wednesday, January 16, 2008 |
Well in the words of Jim Morrison, this is the end. Of course Jim sang it much better than I could. On the other hand he died of an overdose at 27, so I feel like I've done a bit better than the Doors great.
The point of this blog was my (a man's) view of our journey through international adoption to get our first child. And to that end we successfully achieved our goal. It took longer than expected (nearly 19 months) but exceeded our expectations. As we are now the parents of the cutest kid in the world (yea, as always I'm biased). But just take a look at this face.
And so the main issue I have with maintaining this blog is that it really changes that stated purpose and that's not something I want to do. Being the wannabe writer I am, I have a desire to stick, at least somewhat, to my objective. And as a result this blog ends here.
But the blogging experience has been a great one for me. It allowed me to put down my feelings, both good and bad, and as the readers have perhaps regrettably found out, allowed me to express some pretty strong personal opinions. I do feel or at least hope that this blog has been both enjoyable for the reader as well as informative and hopefully that excuses my rants which I seem to go on every now and then.
For those who are new or relatively new to this blog and are going through the process of an adoption, you may wish to look back at some of the posts in order to get a feel for what you have in store for yourself. Upon reflection nearly everyone who has undertook the adoption journey and been successful (i.e., gotten the kid, and that's like 99.999999% of the stories) are tra-la-la happy. And why not? We've gotten our son(s)/daughter(s) and our living the life of the family we wanted.
However dear reader it is important to remember that nothing in life is easy. And the adoption process (both domestically and internationally) is extremely difficult emotionally and taxing on ones mental health. My advice to anyone getting into the process is simple:
1. Do massive amounts of research on anything and everything to do with adoption
2. Be level headed (if that's not your norm, learn how to be that way)
3. Really really really try to have other things going on in your life to divert your attention away from the adoption
4. Remember that nothing is ever as bad (or as good) as it seems
I'm a Mac guy and just like Steve Jobs in every speech he gives on Apple always says "just one more thing..." I did a video while we were waiting for our referral that sort of summed up the adoption process at the time for us. Ironically, the day after I posted this video we got "the call". Anyway, I'm working on a final video that will cram the 19 month journey into a 3 min. display. Because of course Andrei keeps me pretty busy, this video won't be done for at least a week. But I will post it along with a url to a new blog that I've decided to start showing the day to day experiences of being a stay-at-home-dad. It's mainly going to be for friends and family to see how Andrei is doing and will as such have a much different tone than this one had. |
posted by Steveg @ 3:11 PM  |
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| 15 Comments: |
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I am so glad you are going to keep us posted as he grows and show us more pictures. He really is adorable, and I am prejudiced too!
Love, Mother & Granmama
P.S. Happy Birthday.
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Thanks for the great blog! It was fun to read along your journey to parenthood!
Take care,
Erica
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I have been a long time lurker to your blog and I have enjoyed it immensely. I will miss reading your silly way. Loved the "loser" pic, that was so cute. Thanks for the final vids. Have a great life with your son.
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Thanks for the blog Steve! It was very informative and humorous to read. I would love to keep up with Andrei in the future. Best of luck with your transition to stay at home dad!
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Your hilarous "tapping fingers" video is a classic in our house. We must've watched that about a dozen times!
We're eager to see what comes next...
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Thanks for sharing your story with us Steve and Stef! It was greatly appreciated, and I'm sure future adoptive parents will appreciate the knowledge you have collected and blogged.
Best wishes!
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sniff, it's like the end of an era! let's stay in touch!
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Thanks for sharing your journey with us. And congratulations on your adorable son!
You might not remember me but we corresponded via email last summer when my husband and I were choosing an int'l agency. We're almost ready to submit Dossier 1 (just need the apostilles) and are kind of going crazy right now, so your blog is very helpful for sanity purposes!
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As a longtime blog lurker, I've learned a lot from you guys. Please leave the blog up so we can reference it when our time to travel finally arrives :)
Sarah
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This blog has been a great read for nearly 19 months now. Thanks for writing it, and thanks for all your support over the waiting time.
It's been a thrill to watch you both change from excited newbie PAP's to parents. Very cool.
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Thanks for the memories! Keep in touch!
Ryan
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Just popped in from somewhere - but YES! He is absolutely adorable. One of the cutest little boys I've seen.
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I just wanted to let Stef know that Soul of Adoption forum has moved. She should have an email about it - but it may be in your spam folder.
Enjoy your time with Andrei! my dh stayed at home part time and it was great for both of them.
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I didn't get to read it all, but I have enjoyed all that I have read. I hope you keep you new blog public. :)
BTW, your right. Your little guy is one adorable young man.
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Have enjoyed following your blog! Thanks for sharing your journey. Your little guy is so precious:)
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I'm Steve and this is my wife Stefanie. This is our story, mostly seen through my eyes, of the journey to create our family by adopting a child from Russia.
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"The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it."
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I am so glad you are going to keep us posted as he grows and show us more pictures. He really is adorable, and I am prejudiced too!
Love, Mother & Granmama
P.S. Happy Birthday.