[beth]

I recently heard this story about an adopted child from my sister. When she recently moved into her new home, she was introduced to her new neighbor's son who was having a birthday that day. Several weeks later, she could hear the noise of a child's party coming from over the fence. She thought the little boy was having a belated birthday but when she asked she was told it was an "anniversary party". Apparently, this 7-year-old boy was adopted at the age of three weeks, and that is when his parents put on a party each year for him. As he stated: "Anyone can have a birthday party, but only an adopted child can have an anniversary party!" I thought this was rather a special way that his parents had chosen to turn a potential negative into a positive.

[shoshanna]

I have heard of this before and I definitely want to do it. A lot of adoptive parents celebrate a "Gotcha Day". I think it's really important to celebrate that day each year to let the child know how much he/she was anticipated and how much the parents celebrated when the child finally arrived.