On Wednesday, Ben (our 5 year old son who has now been home from Ethiopia for almost 6 weeks) had his first real day of school. We have been struggling with where the best place for him is next year…Kindergarten or first grade. We are unsure of his exact birthday, but know he is 5 turning 6 sometime this year. He is very smart and can already read, yet some of the “sounds” the letters make in the U.S. are different than how he learned in Ethiopia.

Anyway, my good friend runs our Child Development Center, and I had asked for her opinion on how to decide. She called the next day and said that they had had a child move away and leave an open spot at the preschool, and it was a scholarship... more

Thanks to the global nature of the Internet we have access to two English-language Russian newspapers on-line. Both the Moscow News and The Moscow Times can be accessed easily and registry-free. One of these, I can't remember which, was delivered daily to our hotel room when we stayed at the Marriot Grand in Moscow.

Here are the headlines from today's on-line version of the Moscow News:

"Russia Tells Sweden to Release Russian Scientist Held on Espionage Charges" "Hundreds... more

One of the services that I mentioned that we are going to provide at The Transitional Life Center is mental health services. There have been many studies done that show that foster children need better access to these services. A recent study done by Casey Family Programs, Harvard Medical School, the Washington Office of Children’s Administration Research and the Oregon Department of Human Services shows that rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)... more

Good grief. So much for the "you'll be lucky to even make it through one staffing without a match" that our social worker told us at the start of the February staffing.

Well, we've made it through the February staffing, and 1/2 through the March staffing now...NO kids. :(

For those of you that do not know what a staffing is...this is for foster/adopt families.

Each month, our social worker goes to a meeting with all the other social workers in the state, and learn of the new children that are listed that need a home.

My social worker knows what Tony and... more

This has been, by far, one of the busiest and yet somehow one of the slowest weeks in my life. Maybe it's because I'm a huge West Wing addict and I'm not quite sure how I'll get through until Sunday night. And there are only seven more episodes left! I don't watch anything else on TV except the news, and am seriously contemplating what I'll be doing with my extra hour a week after this amazing show ends in May....so sad... What would you do with an extra hour a week?

Anyway, as I was wandering around the Internet, I stumbled on a really cool site - The National Center for the Hebrew Language: Building... more

In the early 1990’s there was a lot of publicity about Georgia Tann. In fact, there was a TV movie staring Mary Tyler Moore.

Georgia Tann organized the Tennessee Children’s Home society in Memphis to remove children from the slums and put them in the hands of the rich, who would educate them. She took children out of hospitals, homes, parks, anywhere she could find a poorly dressed or dirty child. Her system started doing what it was intended to do but the huge profits blinded her and turned the system into baby trafficking with little regard to what kind of person the purchaser... more

In a previous post, My Favorites I described a few of my favorite books on search and reunion and gave a brief synopsis of some of them.

Here is a more extensive list of search, reunion and adoption healing books. I include books on healing because I believe that there is often a great deal of healing which may occur at reunion. Reunion brings up past issues for many birth moms and they may finally deal with them at reunion. Some adoptees achieve some healing... more

Have you ever taken the time to really examine the events that lead you to the place you are today? I was thinking deeper thoughts last night and it occurred how important each event in your life is. One little change and everything would have been different.

• If my birth mother hadn’t decided she couldn’t take care of me, I wouldn’t have been adopted by my parents. • If I hadn’t been adopted by my parents, I never would have come to the United States. • If I hadn’t grown up in Ohio, I wouldn’t have met my high school teachers. • If I hadn’t met my... more

If you all follow and read some of my blogs and, there seems to be a comment from Sharlene on there at the end, it is just my wonderful husband Gary checking up on me and feeling strong enough to leave his opinion. Which I must say I welcome with open arms.

Gary is much more than a husband to me. He is like my gift from God. When my father was ill and became and invalid, Gary helped me nurse him back to health so that my father could walk me down the aisle. When the doctors said it couldn't happen, Gary made sure with a lot of personal determination that it did happen.

When I had uterine cancer and I found out I could never carry my husband's child - we would never have... more

Following up a previous post on female feticide in India, here is a quote from the Christian Science Monitor:

Infanticide is illegal in India (though never prosecuted), and laws are also in place to stop sex- selective abortions. But in some places, national rules don't hold enough sway to overcome local religious and social customs - which remain biased in favor of sons over daughters ...

... more