In my March 22, 2006 post I said that I would "try and blog about adoption economics on another day." It is another day........

I decided to adopt independently (without an adoption agency). I thought it would let me understand and control my money better. Boy was I delusional. I knew where my money went, but I didn't have as much control as I thought. The numbers below are from my 2000 adoption.

Starting with the home study... I searched for a reasonable... more

You know it is funny, because this is not what I was planning on writing today, but this just sort of fell in my lap, so to speak, so I thought that I would just go with it. My husband and I have been thinking about trading my mini van in. Now there isn’t anything terribly wrong with the van, it has never given me any trouble, always worked just fine; it just needs a little bit of work at the moment. And for some reason, my husband and I seem to just trade our cars in, when it comes time for maintenance!

We certainly aren’t wasteful, by any means. When... more

For earlier posts see below

Early November of 2003 was a very exciting and yet anxious time in our house as we prepared ourselves for the trip to Guatemala. Our main purpose for visiting Guatemala was for me to speak at the Word of Life Camp to the south of Guatemala City. However, that would occupy only a small portion of our time while we were in the country. The director of Word of Life Guatemala, Marcelo Diez, was a dear friend of ours. He and his wife had become foster parents to a young girl from an orphanage they worked with in Antigua. Through that process,... more

I loooooove the zeitgeist of this group. I have been turning an idea about a blog friendship over and over in my head, and then I see two great posts on friends: "Speaking of Friends," from Sandra, the International Adoption blogger and "Friends," by Mo the Korean Adoption blogger.

My post is on how I am still learning to be a friend, but, thank God, my friends have a huge tolerance for my mistakes.

My parents have always been... more

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In part 1, I discussed some of the various factors that affect what a birth mom might be like at the time of reunion. In my case, I believe that I paid for all those years of bottling up feelings. When reunion occurred, it was no longer to contain all those buried feelings.

First, I had not told anyone about my son's existence or adoption. I was too fearful of how people would judge me, not so much neighbors, etc., but my family and friends.

Second, I also discovered that I had not fully acknowledged his loss, much less grieved or dealt with it. Therefore, when... more

Stephanie headed back to school yesterday. Before she left, I made some of her favorite banana cake with the cherries and butter and brown sugar on the top. I decided to get fancy and make them in this mini-bundt pan I have, making it easier for her to share her goodies at school. (The friend who accompanied us to TCBY the other night is estranged from her parents and is essentially “without family.”) Problem was, the pan was downstairs in a box somewhere… sigh. So I bargained with Amy that if she would find the pan, I would make sure she... more

I was up late last night wrestling with glossy photo paper and HP imaging software trying to print up photos for an album. It occurred to me about halfway through the project that I should be doing this for myself someday, and for my progeny, who might appreciate having an actual book with pages in it as opposed to an imaginary folder inside a virtual directory contained in a laptop that will no doubt be considered a quaint antique by the time the aforementioned progeny are old enough to be curious about such things.

I remember leafing through photo albums with... more

We’re moving right along with the dependency process, and we’re now up to the preliminary protective hearing. The preliminary protective hearing is held within 5-7 days of the removal of the child. As the name implies, this is the first time that the court is actually involved in the case. They have received the petition, and know that a child has been removed based on the CPS investigation of a report... more

Restaurant Name: Casa Escobar Location: 6ª avenida norte, Antigua, Guatemala Cost: $8.00 - $15.00/person Moose's Delight: Now I've only eaten there once but their steak was unbelievable. We couldn't even eat all of the sides we were given! Website: Haven't found one yet!

Drive down 6ª avenida norte in the afternoon and you will eventually come across a man in a very traditional elegant Spanish outfit handing out flyers to passersby. He is fun to look at as his outfit is... more

In a recent article, I wrote about the importance of sharing the discipline of the child or children in the home, equally among the parents. Here is a link for those who missed Part One. Before we go ahead and dive right into the second half of the article, I thought I would recap, with the last paragraph of Part One of Sharing the Discipline Equally

But simply getting both parents to take an active role when it comes to the disciplining of the child,... more