Politics are interesting all over the world, and paying attention from inside a country gives a different perspective than watching news reports in the comfort of your living room. Often, as a tourist you'll be offered a view you'd never get outside the borders, and one residents forget to notice due to familiarity.

Saturday morning as we tried to head out of Nairobi for Tsavo and points south, our progress was impeded by a sudden and solid traffic jam. Liz had a few theories: accident, plane crash (as we were near a small airport), or the President. The more we looked around... more

For any birth parent I may have offended with my comments in my blog on "Abandonment," please except my full apologies.

I would never refer to all birth parents in any harmful way. I actually to this point in life have felt blessed to be honored to have my children. I know it was an adoption that came about through difficulties on the level of the birth parents.

However, I feel strongly about children and their rights. I have always put my kids first in my life. This is one time with my daughter that I think the family unit should come first. Not the needs of my bipolar daughter.

I still have Angela and her needs to think about. As well as knowing what I need... more

Well, eventually, you knew it had to happen. One of the three of us older mom bloggers would get around to mentioning AARP. Today is the day. Here is an article from AARP on older parenting under varying circumstances, from in vitro, to surrogacy, to adoption. It was published last year, but everything covered is still timely.

After my last post I was really hoping we could have the opportunity to learn how adoptees who were adopted by older parents feel, but no comments of that type were generated. One of the reasons... more

I am trying to remember at what age kids usually go through their nudist phase.

In our circles, it is generally encouraged and accepted that people will try to dress "modestly" which means different things to different people. To some, it's dressing modestly only during synagogue services. To others, it is at all times in public, and to others still it is at all times, even in one's own home.

Obviously, there is a great deal of leeway given to young children, but there comes a time when you want your kid to start growing up a bit. Anna is now potty trained (yeeee haaaah!) and a few months past her third birthday. Although I grew up in a less traditional environment and dressed... more

We were working most of the day getting things ready for our "Memorial Day Yard Sale." By the late afternoon we were all cranky and tired. We were pricing boxes and my daughter was helping me.

She went to pick up a box and she spilled half of the stuff we had put in the box out. Before I could stop myself I called her stupid. I am not one for doing that. I guess from the stress of the day I was just ready to relax. I wanted everything done and done fast.

Mean while my daughter quit helping me and I do not blame her. She was... more

Adoption agencies certainly hold the upper hand when it comes to power in adoption. Think about it. Their clients, potential adoptive parents, have sought their assistance because they want to adopt a child. They want to start a family, or add to a family. Adoption agencies know that they hold the dreams of these families in their hands.

Potential adoptive parents certainly want their adoption agencies to like them. They certainly don't want to do anything to make their agency mad. Parents worry they call the agency too much, that they bother their Social Worker with silly questions, that they are being impatient about the wait. They worry that if they don't please their agency,... more

Continuing from part 1 and part 2.... Here is an old journal entry. I was looking back at the first 4 months home with Natasha.

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We practiced emotions in front of the mirror. OK, the reality is that we made faces at each other in the mirror and giggled. It was very educational and a fun way to develop Natasha's emotional palette.

I modeled behavior. I talked... more

All right. Now I'm really bummed. I knew that I would be. Surfing the internet I came across several sites purporting to discuss Adopted Child Syndrome. Why did I even bother? Me, with my can't we focus on the positive attitude. What was I thinking? I guess it was like the proverbial train wreck on the side of the road that I simply could not force myself to look away from. Too bad for me. And now, too bad for you too. I sat there fuming while I read the information on a couple of these sites...sorry, but you'll have to self-inject your poison and ferret out these sites by searching... more

Stephanie sang a duet with her boyfriend, Sean. While I have often heard Stephanie belting out a worship song or something from her favorite musical, Wicked, I have not heard her perform in a ceremony as she did Sunday afternoon at the wedding. She and Sean blew us all away. The song was beautiful, their delivery was beautiful, and countless people made a point of telling us how moved they were by the whole performance. I can’t wait to see the wedding video. (Considering that every time I looked up from the dance floor at... more

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting a 3rd grade class at my son's school to talk about adoption from Russia as well as my book, When I Met You. Actually, most of the talk was about When I Met You, as the point of the talk was for me to speak about "the writing process," since that's a big part of the 3rd grade curriculum (and in North Carolina, the BIG writing test is in the... more