Registering for baby gifts when you are adopting

When I was struggling with infertility and trying to get pregnant, I avoided the baby section of stores as much as possible. The last place I wanted to go was a baby store! Now that we are adopting and will have a baby, I actually like going.
I've mentioned before how much I have looked forward to a baby shower. Now that we are adopting, when do we have it? Before the baby is born, after the baby is born, after we are "matched", etc. Some adoptive parents have one after they become "paper pregnant", some never have one, some have one after they or matched, or after the baby is born. We haven't decided when we are going to have a baby shower yet. While we were getting some things ready in our baby's room, we also completed our baby registries.
We haven't picked out a theme, and we tried to stay gender neutral.  I didn't think that registering for gender neutral stuff was fun because boy and girl specific items were cuter. I don't know how people don't find out the gender of the baby. I would want to know just for the purpose of registering for fun, gender specific stuff! I have a new respect for those that wait to find out the baby's gender.
I started the baby registry process online, and it didn't take long for me to be stumped by the process. question number four or five… When are you due? How do I answer that? I'm not pregnant, so I'm not due. We don't know when our baby will be born. I decided on 12/31/14 because I feel like it will happen for us in 2014, and it actually let me say that I was due in 10 months! Ha. I left the baby shower details blank. We registered for several things online, but I really wanted to go to a baby store and scan things with the gun! That just sounded like a ton of fun to me, and it was. After we got past the awkward moment at the registry desk when they ask when you are due while looking at your obviously not pregnant belly. They all seemed to handle it well when we told them we were adopting.
Babies R Us was the only place that had an option to select that you are adopting. There is even an adoption registry checklist! Target was the only one that had adoption related children's book available (online only) to register for. Buy Buy Baby and Walmart didn't have anything related to adoption on their choices. We got the sample bag from every place but Walmart, and they all had nursing supplies, lotion for your growing belly, and other pregnancy related items. I donated them to someone that could use it and kept the free pacifier, diaper rash ointment, diaper, etc.
Now that we are registered we just have to decide when we feel it will be right for us to have some baby showers! We can't wait to get together with friends and family to celebrate this next stage of our lives. We will have coed baby showers without the traditional baby shower games. It will be more about hanging out and enjoying our friends and family.

Update:

Since writing this post, I learned that you can register on Amazon. How did I not know this?!? I love Amazon! You don't have to pick a due date, or provide any details about your shower. Also, there are many more items available to register for. They have a helpful adoption registry checklist, too. People can take things off of your registry when purchased even if they didn't purchase the item through Amazon which helps cut down on duplicates. 

My dad will never get to see me be a mom

I was a daddy's girl! Where he went, I went whether he liked it or not. If he was mowing, I was mowing,  if he was fishing, I was fishing, if he was cutting down a tree, I was, well, I'd run and hide (no telling where that thing would land), then I'd be right there with him piling up the wood. That was until my parents divorced when we were 12, and things changed. My dad wasn't perfect, nobody is. 

He was diagnosed with Huntington's chorea 10 years ago. He handled it very bravely. It is a horrible disease that I wouldn't wish on anyone! 

Our 1st snowman! Don't laugh, we lived in Louisiana. We didn't know what we were doing. haha

My dad loved to tell stories, and he was good at it. He had a way of telling the story that recreated it for you. It was like he was seeing it play out in his mind while he was telling it. The problem was he liked to tell the same stories over and over and over! One of his favorites was about the time I caught a cat with a catfish! Yep, you read that right, I caught a cat with a catfish, and I wasn't happy about it. I was about 5 years old fishing in our pond, I got a bite and was a little excited when I was reeling it in. The little catfish I had on my line went flying into the air, and our cat happened to be near by and grabbed it! She took off with it while I'm standing there in shock wondering what to do. I quickly decided to reel it back in which caused the cat to tumble down the hill she was running up! It was very funny and we have shared many laughs about that story. We certainly did some crazy things together! He also liked to tell the story about knee boarding behind a horse in a creek in Missouri. That was a whole lot of fun! He would leave out the part about me stepping on a broken beer bottle. I was about 13 years old my foot was bleeding profusely and I was probably crying. He picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and carried me up an embankment and out of the creek to take care of my bleeding foot. 

I have my daddy's green eyes

Wendi and Dad skiing together

He was a kind hearted man, but he could have one heck of a temper. Not that we ever did anything to bring that out in him when we were young! Our bus driver never called him to tell him that his three were the worst three on the bus. That definitely never happened. He was an amazing water skier, and he taught us to ski very early. My twin, Wendi was able to get up on her own when we were five! I didn't get the hang of it until we were about seven. I don't have many pictures of my dad because they were lost during hurricane Katrina along with everything else of his. The picture of me shooting the gun with my dad was taken just before the hurricane. He decided to bring me the guns he would want to hand down to me after he was diagnosed with Huntington's and PTSD. I'm so glad he did that, because they would've been lost as well. 

My dad served our country in the US Navy during Vietnam. I don't know much about that time, because he didn't talk about it. He did share some stories with me after I got home from Iraq. He has friends from that time in the Navy that just simply tell me that they owe my dad their life. That they were young, and he saved them.

Since he donated his body to science in the hopes of furthering the research of Huntington's disease, there was not casket or funeral home involved. I wanted my dad to have the military honors he earned. So we held a memorial service for him at Chalmette Battlefield where a Navy honor guard provided him with those honors. I now have his folded flag as a tribute to him and his selfless service. I am thankful for the Navy for providing him with those honors. They did not do the gun salute at my request. That would've been too much for me, and the battlefield wouldn't allow it. They did provide a bugler to play Taps, and folded the flag which was primarily what I wanted for my dad. There is an interesting story to the history of Taps click here to read it. 

I've known my father was dying for years now, but I still can't believe he's gone. He suffered tremendously, especially at the end. I know he is in a better place now. He was able to build a strong relationship with God and believed in the grace provided to us through Jesus Christ when he died on the cross for our sins. I take comfort in this knowledge. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

We Love St. Patrick's Day

At the St. Pat's Parade on the day of our wedding!

Our wedding anniversary is St. Patrick's Day. We haven't been particularly big fans of the day, but when we were choosing a date to get married, It was on a Saturday, and one of our first dates was to the St. Louis St. Patrick's Day parade. It sounded like a fun day to get married, so that's what we did! When I decided to start a blog about us, I wanted a name that fit us, and would work for any situation. I didn't want it to be just about our adoption journey, so that's how I came up with the name We Love St. Patrick's Day!

I am glad I chose that name for several reasons. I didn't realize at the time that there are all kinds of haters out there including people that hate adoption for different personal reasons. These people will seek out adoption blogs for the purpose of harassing the author. Our blog is more difficult to find because of the name. One unexpected, but very welcome outcome of the name we chose has been how St. Patrick's Day and the color green have become our "thing". I love it when someone tells me about a really cute St. Patrick's day thing they saw and thought of me when they did. Also, people have given us St. Patrick's Day themed gifts. Which is incredibly thoughtful, and we absolutely love!

Clover earrings from hubby

Chevron clover from sis-in-law, it looks great in the baby's room!

sweater crocheted by our very talented friend with a clover button

Clover bandanas for the whole family from my good friend that wears them a lot! Very sweet and thoughtful!

        

clover dress from mom-in-law

adorable St. Pat's onesie!

  

A running headband from my running friend!