How to announce adoption of older child?

We are also in the process of adopting an 11yr old boy from foster care. We are doing visits and he's scheduled to be permenantly with us on 7/27/07. He is supposed to have a lifebook already done...so I don't want to do a scrapbook or anything yet (I don't want him to think Im trying to replace his lifebook with a scrapbook). As for announcements, I haven't even thought about doing them... as this kind of happened so fast. I'll be watching to see what folks post in response...cause Im in the same boat with you. Goodl uck and keep us posted!!

Well if you're into scrapbooking, how about making your own announcements. I did that with both of my girls. At our FAKT training class someone mentioned older children adoption announcements that you could make at shutterfly. I haven't seen them though. HTH

I love finestationary. It is a little pricey but you put your own wording in and the designs are so nice. I have also used VISTA print in the past for announcements. They are less expensive and give you deals on all kinds of products. I always intend to do them at home but then you have to buy the supplies and actually do it and I never seem to have the time so I LOVE ordering them online and having them delivered. I have to save up some money but usually I have some advance notice! Tina

I used shutterfly for mine and they are really cute. At least I think they are.

Thanks for the ideas of where to get them done! I want to do them myself...but it seems like others are in the same boat with having time to do it! Does anyone have any wording ideas or anything that they have used? I am not really a 'touchy-feely' person and a lot of the poems I read are (they are lovely, so I am not criticizing!)...and it is a boy, so I want it to be representative of him. Also, good luck Mkuhlmann06!

Here's how mine read (with all the names changed, of course!):Sara Smith is overjoyed to announcethe adoption of her sonAndrew Thomas Corson SmithBorn 6/15/03Arrived home 7/14/03Adoption final 7/29/05Please join us for the celebration!RSVP 555-1212I did it up in a cool font on my computer, printed it on vellum, and then tied it to a bright red piece of cardstock with our photo on it. It looked great!

When our first foster child moved in with us, as pre-adoptive with TR completed, it was November. so that year we did the picture Christmas cards at Penney's. I wrote one of those form letters, that I sent out to everyone, saying when he had moved in, how old he was and that we hoped the adoption would be finalized within a year. The next year, when we were actually having the finalization I threw a big open house party. I made invitation/announcements myself. I included a great picture of him on the front. I worded it "J(dh), K(me) and J(bio son) would like you to help us celebrate the addition of E to our family, November 18, 2005, at an Open House reception at our home, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The routine with my adopted daughter a year later was handled about the same, except that she moved in with us in February, and we finalized in December, so the Christmas cards announced the entire thing.

On shutterfly, do you just use the greeting card option?

Adoption shop on Adoption.com has great announcements. Hallmark also has announcements that you can now run through your computer and customize with all your own text.Go to Google and type in "Older Child Adoption Announcements" and you will get TONS of ideas.We just printed up an announcement on the computer and added pictures of our new addition and a full family photo.

I did several differnt things for our kids. Winkflash is a great resource and pretty inexpensive. You can upload a picture to a postcard, put a frame around it and wahlah. You also type in what you want the back to say. As for other fun things, we ordered napkins with our kids names and finalization date and ordered personalized candy bars to match the napkins. It has become our tradition as we have dine it with 2 kids and will be doing it for the next 2.

I had to pop in and say...make sure to run it by your soon-to-be-son. Sometimes older kids can get embarassed and don't want to flaunt the news of their adoption. He might be fine with it, but I'd run it by him so he could feel like he had a hand in it.Best of luck to you!