In the previous two posts, I reviewed several parenting blogs I found in the book, Blogosphere: Best of Blogs, by Peter Kuhns and Adrienne Crew. Here are more blogs:

Momma Said - http://www.mommasaid.net/mommablog.aspx If you need a laugh, you’ll love this blog by author Jen... more

When we adopted our first daughter from Ethiopia in 2004, I had no idea how much that venture would impact my own sisters. Since then, my youngest sister (center, pink top), who is 14 years younger than me, has gone on two short-term mission trips to Ethiopia, each time volunteeering in our agency's baby house.

The first time she stayed all summer, and the second time she stayed about 3 weeks. Her second trip coincided with my trip to Ethiopia to pick up my second Ethiopian daughter. I had the fun... more

For our long Memorial Day weekend I took a long mental break. We had two goals for the weekend -- first to finish poor LuLu's room (a project we started over spring break) and the second was to buy a new car (Barney our noble purple mini-van was biting the dust). Because parting with money is faster than painting, we got the new car purchased, but the room still has a bit of touch-up left to be done.

In between all that, KayKay and I took a break and headed to the Fox Theatre with friends to see Wicked, a musical that is... more

To say the least, my family has been at wits' end on several occasions. Dealing with April, our bipolar daughter, is not an easy thing.

Bipolar Disorder is a very abusive disease to the person who has it and to the loved ones around them. When the patient takes all their medications and begin to feel normal and in control, they begin to think they do not need the medication any more.

This is one of the hard parts of dealing with the bipolar person. When they are older like my daughter, you can not force them to take their medication... more

On December 23rd the mail man arrived and as I was going through the mail saw a card that I didn’t know who it was from. It was addressed to me with my maiden name and then in parenthesis my married name with another set of parenthesis that contained “sorry”. There was no return address on the card so of course the way the envelope was addressed peaked my curiosity and I opened it immediately. I was in a state of dismay when I saw that it was from my natural sister.

She addressed the inside of the card to my husband and me. The contents of the note was mostly... more

I started out to blog about an article sent on a listserv I read about a study of international adoptees. The study showed a higher level of psychiatric disorders in adoptees than the general population - or at least the summary of the study pointed toward that as being their conclusion. But in trolling around the Internet looking for other research that would support or refute the premise that internationally adopted children have psychiatric problems more often than other children, I ran across something much more interesting.

Here... more

I think that I over think. Huh! Yes, there is a logical twist to that statement. How many times do we contemplate what other people are thinking when, in actuality, they aren’t thinking about us at all. It’s that egocentric part of us that forgets every once in awhile that we aren’t the only family in the universe.

We all went out to lunch on Sunday – myself, my parents, my husband, my son, my sister and her boyfriend. My husband and my sister’s boyfriend don’t really look that much alike (except they do have similar builds) and they look nothing like my parents, but I was thinking…everyone... more

This is cross-posted from the International Adoption Blog.

A quick catch-up (ketchup?) on the past few days would have to start with the short walk to Karen Blixen's house on our first day here. What an emotional visit that was for me, and even Mark had some twinges of spine chill that come with momentous moments in history touching. I've walked that house so often in my mind that putting my feet on the floor, sitting at the stone table, felt strange and familiar. Strangely familiar. The approach to the house is exactly as it should be, and only the absence of... more

A quick catch-up (ketchup?) on the past few days would have to start with the short walk to Karen Blixen's house on our first day here. What an emotional visit that was for me, and even Mark had some twinges of spine chill that come with momentous moments in history touching. I've walked that house so often in my mind that putting my feet on the floor, sitting at the stone table, felt strange and familiar. Strangely familiar. The approach to the house is exactly as it should be, and only the absence of veranda furniture seemed odd.

I didn't have nearly enough of the place... more

I like old pictures.

I like China.

I really like this blog, which is all old pictures of China.

It hasn't been updated recently, but still. Gorgeous stuff. Taken by the blogger's grandparents between 1910 and 1937.

More of his pictures are here, part of this archive of old images of China.

For those of you simply sick and tired of China (or who enjoy nightmare scenarios of what-to-expect-while-traveling), check... more