I posted yesterday about certain unwelcome comments from members of my community on when we are planning to further expand our family, given the fact that it's so easy for us to just adopt. I don't think that it's ever a fair, polite or appropriate to ask of anyone - adoptive or biological families - when they are planning to add another baby to the family.

That being said, I think its a fair question that couples amongst themselves should talk about. It's a subject that we have been discussing on and off over the past few months. A few months after Anna came to us, we had a foster baby placed with... more

There has been no official word on when the SDA would start processing adoption appointments again. In my Rumors and Transdniester post I mentioned the rumors that SDA would open on May 1 or May 3 or May 9.

I heard a new date recently, May 17. And one family is claiming to have a May 8 appointment.

A FRUA poster pointed out the holiday schedule. So I went to United States Embassy in Ukraine site... more

Of all adoptions, my personal opinion is that Kinship Adoption is one of the hardest ones to find a balance of parenting your child.

As an article at the Child Welfare League states:

"Kinship adoptive families are different from non-related adoptive families because different familial relationships exist that is different from a non-related adoptive family. These different familial relationships need to be addressed and validated in order to have a healthy self-sufficient kinship adoptive family."

How... more

I can not remember the face of the woman who carried me inside her body for nine months and then relinquished me to adoption in 1970 in Pittsburgh almost 36 years ago. I know her name, but don’t know the sound of her voice, or the person she was.

Since I have found my birth family, I've often felt blessed that I have a few items that were something tangible of hers -- a letter, a charm, photographs and an article of clothing – these material items reconnect me to the few minutes that I was in her care. I have no conscious recollection of the first four days... more

Well I am learning the hard way to keep healthy this year. I began dieting and cut back on a lot of the foods that I usually eat. The decrease in calories must have thrown off my system. It seems like I've been sick for at least a month now.

With any drastic change in your body and its daily habits, you can put your health in a tail spin. I went from 2000 calories a day down to 800 calories a day. That must have been just to much for my body to handle.

So when the kids came home with the symptoms of a cold. Of course I got it too. I increased my vitamins and my calorie intake to 1200... more

Whether you are in the research stage of your adoption or your child is already forever home in your arms, a wonderful way to learn about adoption is reading other families’ adoption stories.

The internet not only serves as a wonderful research tool when looking into adoption, but it allows people with similar interests to connect and share their stories in ways that would not be possible otherwise.

I know many people who have been inspired to adopt after reading another family’s adoption story online. In fact, way back when Josh and I were just talking and praying about the idea of adopting (and I was researching behind his back…LOL), it was after I read a family’s story... more

So, what happens when family doesn’t approve of your choice to adopt from Korea?

I was lucky enough not to experience this issue. My family is well indoctrinated in Korean adoption and my husband’s family didn’t even blink. In fact, my brother-in-law says that he had a dream we were going to adopt from Korea about a week before we announced it.

When my parents decided to adopt me, my grandparents were not in favor of the process. For them, it was actually a mixture of all three. There are some things that you can change and there are some things that you can’t. Once I got here, they were fine with me. However, when it was time for my sister to come home, my grandmother... more

I've spent all morning getting ready for my very first author visit! Luckily, I have a familiar audience: Big J's 1st grade classroom where I volunteer every week. I'm counting on them to be forgiving but also to give me honest feedback. What was boring? What took too long? What was confusing?

I'm hoping to eventually earn money doing these visits. Next fall I will have a second book out, Mishka: An Adoption Tale, and it would be great if I could go around to schools talking about adoption and writing books and Russia.

So I've sat here, scanning and Powerpointing and freaking... more

Part 3 of 3, Continued from the previous posts about adopting special needs children from Haiti

Location and Population Haiti is located 500+ miles south of Miami, Florida. It shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. With more than 7 million people living within its 10,000 square miles, Haiti is the most densely-populated and most poverty-stricken nation in the Western Hemisphere.

History About 95 percent of Haitians are of African origin. The remaining 5 percent are mulatto... more

One of the most exciting parts of the upcoming ADN conference for me is the chance to meet many cyberspace friends I have never laid eyes on before. The world of adoption and the special needs of internationally adopted children has brought me squarely into cyberspace. In fact, I probably know many more people by their screen names than I know people by their faces.

It was 1996 (a whole decade ago) - the summer that the Olympics were here in Atlanta, that we began pursuing international adoption. The final spark that ignited the pursuit for me (I had always been drawn... more