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Feb
February 7, 2013
Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14th each year across the world, mostly by Westernized nations. Originally St. Valentine’s Day began as a celebration of the Christian saint named Valentinus. Later, it assumed its current day of devotion to romantic love in the circles of Geoffrey Chaucer during the middle ages.Originally, a day to celebrate and show someone romantic love, today it is also used as a day to express your love to anyone you up hold close to your heart. Valentine’s Day is the third most popular day to purchase flowers for your loved one, only behind Christmas and Mother’s Day. It has become a day to purchase flowers, cards and candies for not only the romantic in your life but also to express to others in your life how much you love and care about them.
As an international adoption agency, MLJ Adoptions is always looking for ways to make suggestions on how to make every day a special day with your child. Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to share with your adopted child how much he or she is loved. While love should be expressed daily, Valentine’s Day can be a special day to express your feelings and allow your adopted child to express their feelings of love as well. Whether you have adopted from Nicaragua or are adopting from Samoa, each adopted child will rejoice in your expressions of love to them and will be happy to express their feelings as well.
Below are some suggested activities to make Valentine’s Day fun and a special time for you, your family and your adopted child:
- Bake yummy Valentine’s Day cookies and candies
- Prepare a Valentine’s Day meal that incorporates ethnic food from your adopted child’s country of origin
- Make Valentine’s Days cards that include an Image of your adopted child’s birth country within a heart
- Help your child write a Valentine’s Day poem
- Make Valentine’s Day paper or tissue paper flowers of a flower specific to your adopted child’s country
- Make a Valentine wreath, alternating hearts and your adopted child’s birth country
- Watch a Valentine’s Day movie together
- Talk about the history of Valentine’s Day and if and how it is celebrated in your adopted child’s birth country
- Most importantly – express to your child how much they are loved, not only on this special day but every day!
Feeling loved is important to all of us and for an adopted child showing this love through words and gestures is even more important. Share Valentine’s Day activities as a way to express your love. Our hope is that one day all children waiting to be adopted will be able to experience the same expressed love on a future Valentine’s Day.
Photo Credit: Seyed Mostafa Zamani
For more information about MLJ Adoptions’ international adoption programs, please click here.
Sonja Brown
Sonja Brown works as the International Program Director for MLJ Adoptions’ programs in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Samoa. Sonja is also proud to work directly with our Individualized Country Program families who are adopting from countries where no adoption service providers currently operate.
Sonja Brown
Sonja Brown works as the International Program Director for MLJ Adoptions’ programs in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Samoa. Sonja is also proud to work directly with our Individualized Country Program families who are adopting from countries where no adoption service providers currently operate.