Attachment and Bonding Class

On Saturday I attended a workshop at UCLA sponsored by my home study agency. The focus was on the adjustments our children may go through in this process. One activity that was very helpful was taken from this book: Eyes Wide Open. We were asked to close our eyes and visualize going home for the evening. We walk into our familiar home with all it's landmarks, sites, sounds and smells. We make a favorite snack, put on our jammies, and go to the coziest spot in the house to relax. We will sleep peacefully tonight in our own beds. This will be the last night that will ever happen. Tomorrow we will be given over to the custody of strangers we have never met. We will understand nothing of their language. Their smell, appearance, and ways of communicating will be completely foreign. We will be put on a 26 hour flight, our first time flying ever. We will be taken somewhere we have never seen and nothing will be familiar, all our landmarks will be gone. We will be held and talked to constantly by those we do not know. We will be given food and clothing totally different than what we have ever known. We will be touched and kissed repeatedly by these new caretakers and then placed alone in a dark room.
It was really helpful to put ourselves in our child's place and think of things from their perspective. A friend of mine recently gave me a great tip. She kept the outfit her daughter came from the orphange in and did not wash it. She placed it in the crib for her daughter to sleep with and smell. I thought that was a great idea!