[Part 13] The Day I Learned About Picture Books, Parenting Journals, and the Shape of a Family

With the placement of a newborn decided,
our daily lives entered a busy yet blissful 'preparation period'.

Days spent gathering baby goods.
Nights spent poring over parenting magazines.
Adjusting schedules with our workplaces.
Every bit of it was a precious time.

The word 'welcome' began to take on a sense of reality,
settling deep within my heart little by little.

🤝 Meeting a fellow foster parent

Then, one day.
Through a certain connection,a couple who had recently received a newborn placementagreed to meet with us.

We were welcomed by a couple who carried a very calm and warm atmosphere.
Their way of speaking was gentle, and I felt a quiet strength in them.

📔 Two things that left an impression

The stories they shared that day covered a wide range, from the moment they received the call about the placement to the realities of childcare and the procedures for special adoption.
I will refrain from sharing details out of respect for their privacy, but there weretwo things that were particularly impressiveamong them.

① The importance of childcare records

They taught us that one of the things they value most in pursuing special adoption is 'childcare records'.

In their household,they kept a handwritten record of one page in a notebook every day using their own formatwithout fail.

From the day they got the call from the child consultation center,
to what they talked about and how they felt,
to how the baby drank milk, slept, and laughed.

Everything was written down there as 'proof of being a family'.

Honestly, I was moved by their diligence.
And hope began to well up in me, thinking, 'Maybe there is something we can do, too'.

② Truth disclosure and 'picture books'

Another thing I cannot forget is their ingenuity regarding 'truth disclosure'.

To help their child understand their own roots, the couple
made a handmade picture book.

The cover and the contents were all handwritten,
and along with bright, warm illustrations,
the background of the birth and the existence of important people
were depicted gently and honestly.

It was a single form of love, for a single child.

Every time I turned a page, my heart grew warm,
and thinking, 'So this is how it can be conveyed,'
I felt like I had found hope in the term 'truth disclosure' for the first time.

🧡 A chance to think about the family that is right for us

Seeing that senior couple on this day made us think about
the kind of family that is right for us.

A family connected not by blood, but by feelings.
At the root of that is spending our days together,
and facing each other directly and believing.

Having experienced fertility treatment and miscarriage,
I had never felt confident about pregnancy or childbirth.
But on this day, for the first time, I thought:

From the bottom of my heart, I was able to think that.

📞 And then—the next day, the phone rang

On the way home after the conversation,
my husband and I smiled at each other and said, "I'm glad we prepared after all."

My heart was starting to be firmly prepared,
and I felt like I could say,
"Please come whenever you are ready."

But, I never imagined.

That the next day, that phone would ring.

That those words,
would quietly slip past,
everything we had been waiting for.

—Next time, I will write about what happened then.