News from India on the BBC...

A doctor in India and his assistant have been sentenced to two years in prison for revealing the sex of a foetus and then agreeing to abort it.

This is the first time medical professionals have been jailed in such a case.

Under Indian laws, ultrasound tests on a pregnant woman to determine the gender of the foetus are illegal.

It has been estimated that 10 million female foetuses may have been terminated in India in the past 20 years.

Although... more

There are a lot of parents who start pre-verbal toddlers out with sign language, which is a pretty interesting thing.

But if you're really a gung ho* Chinese adoptive parent, you won't be using the typical Ameslan (American Sign Language) to start with -- no, you'll be using Chinese sign language: http://www.shdisabled.gov.cn/disabled_132/sy100j_6002/index.html... more

Do you have an artistic child? Here is a great opportunity for families touched by adoption to participate in a Children’s Art Exhibit, being put on by the Joint Council on International Children’s Services.

The Joint Council on International Children’s Services, or JCICS describes themselves on their website as “the oldest and largest affiliation of licensed, non-profit international adoption organizations in the world. Our membership includes adoption agencies, child welfare organizations, parent support groups and medical specialists... more

what we are up to. They are a concrete expression of our love after all. We send cards for holidays and birthdays. Some of us keep journals about our visits and phone calls for our kids to read one day. Many times we get asked have we written “THE” letter; the letter that explains why we chose adoption for our children.

I’ve done it, sat down and written that letter, I even mailed it to his adoptive parents to read and for them to keep for him. I talked about my pregnancy, the mistakes I felt I made during it, why we chose to retain our parental rights and how I felt about the adoption in general. My letter is certainly not written in age appropriate language for a child. It... more

(Pretend these ice cubes are your teeth floating in Coke...yum....)

I had a high school friend who was inordinately fond (as most high schoolers are) of junk food and soda (which we call "pop" in Minne-SOHta). However, in college, I heard that he'd given up Coke. This was strange enough that I had to inquire why.

He told me that he was now working at a popular barbecue joint in the Twin Cities called Rudy's.

"You know what the grill looks like at the end of the night?"

Actually, I was a vegetarian at the time, so I said, "No."

He went on to tell... more

Have you ever tried to teach a lazy kid how to do chores? Well I can tell you it is not easy. The child can be taught over and over and for some odd reason, they always say, "I don't know how to do that," when you tell them you need something done.

I have made chore chart after chore chart. Posted them everywhere. Complete with a "How To Do ..." list.

After asking several times and going over what needed to be done and, still not getting anywhere, I would usually do it myself.

What I figured out was that not only were the kids lazy but very smart. They caught on to my handicap parenting. After I stopped and looked around at them sitting while I was working,... more

Our son's adjustment to the adoption of our daughters has been very impressive. My husband and I used a lot of strategies and discussion and processing to prepare him for the experience. We included our son in the initial decision to adopt and in every other step along the way. He was a very important part of the entire process and his input was highly valued. He put in a vote for adopting a boy, but I vetoed that request. I really, I mean reeaalllly, wanted a girl. All things considered, I think he's done quite well.

One of the biggest adjustments that I recall being very difficult for him was the initial shock and a sense of invasion of privacy that he experienced when the girls... more

A couple of times I have had the pleasure of hearing Father Tom Brosnan speak at a couple of adoption conferences. The most recent was in July 2005 at the National Conference of the American Adoption Congress (AAC- www.americanadoptioncongress.org) The other was an Adoption Forum conference a few years ago (www.adoptionforum.org) I thought I would share a bit of what he spoke of in one of his keynote addresses.

For those of you who don’t know who Father Tom Brosnan is, he is a roman catholic priest of the Diocese of... more

Angela wrote a great blog a few days ago about the history of attachment theory in the United States. I thought it might be interesting to tell you about some of the “from the horse’s mouth” information I have learned over the years…

One of the many perks of serving on the Board of Directors of ATTACh in the late ‘90s was the opportunity to get to know some of the top attachment therapists in the country... more

...and she was a big help in getting things set up for my class...(continued from part two)

So, when it was time for Brandi to leave that home, the foster mom asked if we would take her for a few days. We reluctantly said yes, even though it wasn’t really our decision to make. For the few days that she was with us, we had a lot of fun with her, and talked a lot about what she wanted, plans for the future, and other things. We took her shopping, and bought her some clothes... more