I returned to work yesterday after my long weekend in Texas. I emailed my boss and a couple of co-workers our good news about Sabrina before I left town but yesterday was my first day back. My boss immediately hugged me and wished me congratulations. She asked sotto voce “Are you going to tell everyone?” I said I was. She said “Oh good because I already did!” So I spent some time showing off my photos and telling every one about the phone call and upcoming process.

At lunch I went to the bank to get a cashier’s check to pay my agency fee. Out of curiosity she asked what the check was for so I happily told her. She kept asking questions which prompted me to pull out my photos.

Monday night we went to have our Power of Attorney and a couple of other adoption related documents notarized. I made the man re-do the documents because I explained his signatures needed to be clear and gave him my spiel about the picky people in Guatemala. He asked some questions about the adoption so I whipped out my photos to show Sabrina off.

On my plane home, a nice older woman sitting next to me asked about the photos as I was flipping through them so I was happy to show them off to her too. She said her oldest daughter was adopted and when her daughter was small she said to her “Mom, I don’t think you know I am adopted.” I thought that was sweet.
Friday, during my pedicure, the woman asked me if I had any children. I just happened to have a photo tucked into the book I was reading so I shared it with her.

When we received our referral, I sent pictures via email to everyone we’ve ever met except my 4^th grade teacher (she was a mean old bat).

My point? It’s happening. I’m turning into one of those people that everyone will avoid because they don’t want to look at yet another set of photos. I really don’t force them on anyone. I only show them off when asked but it doesn’t take much prompting. I think that showing off the photos has helped to make it feel a bit more real. Saying “this is my daughter” out loud lends credence to it in my mind. The first few times I showed them off, I said “this will be my daughter” but as I say it more often, I can say with confidence “this is my daughter”. Now if I can just keep suppressing the giddy laugh that wants to follow that statement…