We are thinking of making or buying a necklace that has our daughter's birthstone, and her birthmom's birthstone on it. We thought about a locket, but her birthmom is really private and might not want to have a locket, which everyone might ask about all the time. We thought the birthstones were more subtle.

I love the portrait session idea, Dawn. Hopefully down the road that is something we could consider, once we have a little more contact and connection with her birthmom.

It just so happens that we are baptizing our new daughter on Mother's Day.  It also happens that I have recently been hired to write liturgies for adoption occasions for my church.  It will be a great joy for us to inaugurate one of these liturgies of adoption before the baptism with my daughter, her godparents, her mother and her adoptive family all involved!

This year (budget allowing) we're going to buy Pennie a portrait session with a photographer friend of ours to catch some nice shots of her with Madison. We've done this before at studios but it hasn't gone all that well because Madison is too shy with a stranger behind the camera. But Madison plays with this woman's son so we're hoping that'll make it more positive.

Something we did for xmas the year before last was make one of those shutterfly books. I borrowed a friend's really nice camera and followed Madison around the backyard for about an hour. Then we interviewed her and typed her answers up. It's a nice time capsule of who she was at that time.