Gift ideas for children on finalization?

I would think getting something like a family portrait or one of those personalized plaques for your house would be good... one that has the names of everyone in the family on it. So they SEE, everytime they pass it, that they belong forever.

We've adopted 3 this last year.....all from seperate birth families...and all a couple months apart. Immediately after court we made it a tradition that we would go to Walmart and let that child pick out a special stuffed animal (4 year old son picked out a big spiderman doll that lights up and talks, our 6 month old we bought a Dora doll and our 3 year old that we just adopted picked out a big Tigger that matched the big winnie the Pooh her birth family gave her). Then we have our family pictures taken...sibling pictures, invididuals and even one with their special gift. Then we go out to eat at a place of their choosing and then just spend the rest of the day together. In our religion...."The Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter Day Saints"...once we have the finalization papers we can bring our children into one of our Temples and have them sealed to us forever....Kinda like a man and wife getting married....except it is making a commitment to your children that you will be together...not till death do you part but remain a family unit forever....in heaven as well. This is a very special day for us....and we are inviting our family members that can come...and my mother in law is making each of them a white dress/suit and I am making each of them a hand decorated white scrapbook to keep notes from family members and pictures from that day. We will also have our pictures taken that day...as well as pictures with extended family. I will also be getting each of them a Locket with an inscription on the back ...and we will put our family photo in of that day in it on one side and an individual picture of that child on the other side. The inscriptions will read..."My Forever Family & the date." The finalization day is just a first step for us...we live far away from family so no one was able to come to the adoption hearings.....our big exciting day.....the one we will celebrate as a family each year will be our sealing day. We are kinda waiting to see what happens with our last foster boy...to see if we can adopt him....we really wanted to have it all done in one day...when everyone could come together.....but we may just go ahead and do it soon because you never know how long these cases can take.

My son received a small pendant with a star and moon when he graduated from high school. My husband got one (in a slightly different shape) for our recent wedding anniversary. We're in the process of adopting a teen. When its finalized, the child will get one as well (again, slightly different shape) so the whole family will have a little pendant to wear abour their necks.

I have also heard of giving rings -- sort of like a wedding ring to the child as a symbol of the unity of the family. Kids rings arent very expensive (but you might want to buy two in case it inevitably goes missing). Jen

one of the nicest things someone gave my son for his adoption was that they "adopted" an animal at the zoo for him. i pay the yearly fee that goes with, it, but they paid the initial fee and it came with a stuffed giraffe (which is the animal he is a "parent" to). it is really nice. i have also heard of "buying" stars, ect. that might be fun for them to have two stars right next to each other in the sky

Where online did you see the adoption stuff?

Thanks for all the suggestions. 5starday - I didn't really see "adoption" gifts...although I looked. What I saw were "Big Sister" T-shirts, "Me and my sister" frames, etc. So far, I ordered them each a personalized storybook (the kind where they put in the child's name, town, friends/relatives names). I will probably get rings or recklaces as well. We just did portraits of the two girls together, for Father's Day. They came out so beautifully, that of course I had to buy the deluxe package with a bunch of poses. We did them at the Picture People, and had such a wonderful experience! The photographer actually did about 8 poses. We got some cute, playful poses in coordinating outfits, and then some soft, feminine looking ones in their ballet outfits, holding roses. Also some artsy looking black and white ones doing ballet poses. I just could not be happier with them...can you tell :p ? Can't believe we're finalizing already. We've had her only six months!

When I was adopted I was given a pendent, which looked like the profile of a little girl. On ethe one side it had my first initial and my new last name, and on the other, it had the date of my adoption on it. I still have it. I always thought it was special.

Weve had our son since birth through the foster care system. We finalize this wednesday and our son is almost 15 months old. We purchased Teagan a gold chain and pendant with his dob on the back and his new Initials on the front. (we added a new first name but he will be known by the name his bmom gave him) I also secretly bought dh the same chain and pendant with Fathers Days date on the back and DADDY on the front, for his 1st Fathers day. shhh. Oh man he's gonna cry. LOL Warm wishes....Barbie