Author Archives: Shoshanna Grey

Coming Soon: Weekly Features

As part of my blogging each week I want to have several regular features that I’ll write about on certain days. These are things that I think are relevant to many in the adoption world and are hopefully things that my readers want to see. Adoption in the News – On Mondays (starting next Monday) I will share with you some of the recent news “buzz” related to adoption. I will try to cover a good mix of information and events from all perspectives of the triad. If you see an article or a story that you think should be … Continue reading →

An Intro and An Update

I am so excited to finally be back and writing for Families.com. It has been almost a year since I took a leave of absence in order to work to get my children’s adoptions completed and get them home. I was so grateful to the Families.com management team for understanding and for their offer that I could come back when I was ready. Well, I’m finally ready and boy do I have an adoption story for you! I will start sharing that tomorrow so make sure you check back. In the meantime, let me introduce myself again partly because I … Continue reading →

Networking in the Adoption World

There seem to be two types of adoptive parents. There are those who pretty much keep to themselves throughout their adoption journey and then there are those who jump into cyberspace and start making connections. Which “type” you are depends somewhat on your personality, but I also think that a great deal of the people who keep to themselves do it because they are unaware of the resources that are available and the help that they can be before, during and after your adoption. Why Network: There are so many reasons to network with other adoptive parents and also with … Continue reading →

Hateing the Carseat and Other Cultural Differences

If you think about it, here in the United States we love to strap kids into things. We buckle them into strollers, high chairs, swings and especially the carseat. Most of these things are required to keep our children safe and so often we don’t even realize that not all of the world uses them. It scared me to death when we were in Guatemala. They don’t use carseats. Nobody does. Instead, the baby rides on the lap of an adult. They don’t exactly drive the way we’re familiar with in Guatemala either. They cut in and out of traffic, … Continue reading →

The Day I Met You

For the last year and a half I had pictured it over and over in my mind. What would it be like to finally meet you, Jayden? To hold you for the first time? To actually be the recipient of one of your huge grins instead of looking at pictures where you smiled for someone else. I knew I would be thrilled to meet you, Jayden, but I didn’t expect to feel shy. We walked into the hotel lobby and there you were – playing with your foster brother and totally unaware that your life was about to change forever. … Continue reading →

Instant Parenthood

It is the strangest experience to instantly be the parent of a toddler. Sure, I had over a year to prepare, then all in an instant, the moment was here and I was a mom. Overnight there was this little boy with me all the time. He is so precious and I love every minute, but it has also been an adjustment. I know that parenthood is a big change for anyone, but I think that bringing home a toddler into a formerly childless house is probably in a category all its’ own. Jayden came home mobile, opinionated and curious. … Continue reading →

Trip to Guatemala

Everything else in our journey to adopt Jayden came slowly and took forever – with the exception of our travel call. Only a week and a half after we received “the call” that our case was done, we received an email giving us the dates to go to Guatemala to meet and bring home our precious bundle of joy. I just sat there for several minutes and stared at the computer. It was Wednesday and we would meet our son on Sunday. In four days I would be a mother. Was I ready for this? Before I knew it, those … Continue reading →

Much Ado About a Passport

Thousands of miles away I have a daughter waiting for me. Her name is Laney. She is legally my daughter; she even has my last name. However, I can’t bring her home, at least not yet. The reason seems really simple to an American – all we need is a passport. However, in Liberia, Laney’s country, nothing is simple. Everyone is focused on getting through each day. “Unimportant” things like paperwork often fall to the wayside when people are focused on the basics. Food, water, shelter, safety – these things take precedence. One day, probably in a few months, someone … Continue reading →

The Call

“Rachel, it’s happened. Your case is out of PGN!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing on the other end of the line. Our facilitator was finally saying the words I had hoped to hear for so long. Our adoption from Guatemala was complete and Jayden would be coming home! In an instant I was crying and laughing and kept saying “Oh my gosh!” over and over. I kept asking our facilitator if she was SURE that the adoption was done. I was shaking and couldn’t think. I quickly realized that I should have made a list of people to … Continue reading →

I Had No Idea

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been around for a while. There is a very simple and wonderful reason for that – my dream finally came true! Finally Jayden is in our home and not just in our hearts. Now that I am rested up and beginning to figure out this “mommy thing” I can’t wait to get started writing again. I have so much to share with you and look forward to jumping back into the world of the Families.com Adoption blog. To hold you over until I can post about our first days with Jayden, … Continue reading →