A friend made a comment this week that was a good reminder for me. He said:
“May God give you the grace to run to the first finish line of adoption and then grace and mercy to finish the great marathon of parenting her.”
So true! For many (including yours truly), so much of the energy spent on the adoption journey is consumed with GETTING the baby home and reaching that finish line. Being pregnant is not much different, all you can think about is holding that baby in your arms. Thankfully our agency does a good job requiring us to do study and research on the next steps after you bring the baby home, but at the end of the day, our eyes are focused on “when do we get to bring her HOME!?”
Having a picture to look at, a face to visualize, and a specific age to prepare for has certainly made preparing to parent Baby Opi a lot more real. I’m a mama to our bio son, Nash, but in a lot of ways I feel like a first time parent all over again as we prepare for Opi!
For those of you who are on this journey (or have completed it!), what have been the most valuable resources (books, articles, videos, etc) that have best prepared you for the “great marathon” of parenting your little ones?
the vogeltanz family 
For me, just emersing myself in as much as I can know about ET culture has been really helpful. I’ve been reading some non-fiction and fiction, too. I think just mentally preparing yourself for the huge cultural differences you’ll encounter while in-country… I know I’ll do better this next trip because everything will be a little less foreign to me. Be ready as ready as you can be to tackle attachment/bonding issues. We had very little issues with R, but I feel like things will be different with E simply because she’s older, etc.