I designed our adoption announcements somewhere around the beginning of the year – long before the children arrived. Of course, they weren’t truly finished because I needed the finalization date to plug into the cards! So, here it is, two months post-adoption and I’m just getting around to it – and not in the way I had planned.

Yes, life with three has derailed me a bit, and I’m still slightly off balance keeping up with homeschooling, outside classes and medical appointments. It hasn’t left me with a lot of time to be as creative as I would like!

That said, I’ve had to compromise my original idea somewhat and (pardon me, Emily Post!) collaborate with my programmer hubby to replicate my initial design online in the form of an announcement with pictures and video.

Though I am a huge believer in handwritten correspondence, time has gotten away from me (as it did with the birth of my oldest son nine years ago, and I abandoned the announcements!). I can ditch the announcements once again, or modify as I have done. When my oldest son was born, online greetings and cards were frowned upon. But, as times have changed, and our society increasingly depends on technology, so has its acceptance.

Here are some ideas for announcements:

Handcrafted announcements: If you are a scrapbooker, or deal with paper crafts, you could consider making your own announcements. Each one would be a one-of-a-kind original! This, of course, would be the most time consuming of the options presented here, but also one of the most charming, and deeply appreciated by its recipients.

Computer generated announcements: Royalty-free clip art abounds these days, as do creative and pretty little fonts. Using a combination of these, along with your own pictures, you can make custom announcements. Office supply stores have micro-perforated cards in a variety of styles and sizes (and price points). The only drawbacks to this option are insuring that your address book is up-to-date, so that you can either print labels or investing the time to hand address each one. Additionally, you will need to have lots and lots of stamps (either from the post office or online postage). Because our list is really, really large, the potential cost as well as the margin of error (even though I had updated my address book at the beginning of the year in anticipation) made this option not as appealing, in addition to the time constraints already mentioned.

Purchased announcements: You can go to any brick and mortar stationery store or an online one, and create an announcement. The ones I’ve looked at online are thin on adoption announcements that are for older children and/or children of color.

Online announcements: Rather than e-mailing an announcement (which is another option), hubby and I dedicated a section of our website to the announcement. It’s a private URL, and is in a multi-page, multi-media format with pictures, videos, and I think it is very tastefully done (but you’re getting my bias here!).

Whatever you do, make sure it’s in line with your personality, budget and reflects your joy at this new turn in your parenting path.

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