Sometimes I feel like a very large librarian who is hosting a very small professional wrestler. Who was bitten by a radioactive termite and keeps trying to eat all my papers. Everyone's papers. Any last scrap of paper. In the mouth it goes.... Well, that and electric cords. Isn't that a rabbit thing, chewing cables?

Anyway, at least we both love books. For different reasons.

The pediatrician was very impressed with his foreskin. I'm not making that up. Because, I'm told, it moves easily. This foreskin was the subject... more

Oh my Golly Gosh. Without making light of the children who have ADHD, I notice that this quiz also pertains to me!

This ADHD quiz so nicely posted on the Russian Adoption Blog also fits me. This is how I feel to a T as I’m getting older.

Could this also be an, Are you getting older quiz?

1. Yep! Sometimes 2. Yep! Sometimes 3. Yep! Sometimes 4. Yep! Sometimes 5. Yep! Sometimes 6. Yep! Sometimes 7. Yep! Sometimes 8. Yep!... more

I couldn't afford to pay for my darling daughter's occupational therapy for sensory integration disorder (SID). It wasn't covered by insurance, so I had to pay 100% out of my pocket.

Before I made an appointment for my daughter to be screened for SID, I asked to speak to the occupational therapist (OT). I explain my financial situation. I couldn’t pay the 100+ per hour for months. So we came up with a plan together. If... more

My friend Sue came to stay. We are great friends. The sort that you can see once in a while and pick up right where you left off.

The type of friend that you call once a year and ask for help, and she doesn’t need background, but can hone in and give exactly the right advice in perfect dialog without offending.

She was only here for one night, but boy, did we do it right. She drove in from lands far and wide and we ditched the kids, (2½ year old K and 5 year old foster son, Ricky. ok, ok, I didn't really ditch them, just left them with hubby)......... more

Well, Our five year old foster boy, Rick , has today, taught our two year old daughter, K, how to climb on the car, (that is on the top of the car!) get up on the roof, (that is, climb out the window and up onto the roof), go under the crawl space and hide.

Today they’ve gotten into more trouble in one day, that my daughter gets into in a month. He has gotten into more trouble today than he did the whole summer he was here alone.

Together it’s a firestorm of TROUBLE!!! Whew...

My two and a half year old suddenly knows how to be a terrible two. She has gone from a wanting to please... more

I think that those of us who are adoptive parents who in the past tried to have biological children really do understand that adoption is a great way to become parents. We love our children sooo much and have truly gone through so many, many hoops to get to this point. After so much heartache, having a child that is ours is a blessing and really never ceases to amaze me.

There is no "but" here, rather an "and" if you will.

And some things are still hard. And sometimes I still cry. And sometimes I still wonder why it is that our life took this path. I consider myself to have come to a place in my life where I am okay - I can talk about things openly. We have also come to accept... more

In my last post I talked about our trip to visit Ms. K, a Clinical Social Worker with an interest in adopted children. Here’s what Ms. K told us about Little J:

The good news is she didn't think we needed to come back to see her. We really liked her but she was rather pricey and with our crummy insurance the co-pay would be brutal - not to mention her office is an hour from our house.

She also gave us some strategies for dealing with his behaviors. One, the potty-training and oppositional... more

I am admittedly a “mush”. I have been called soft-hearted and a sap. I’m ok with that. I am big on love and happy endings. So in the spirit of my mushy-ness, here are some of my favorite quotes on love. Not so much the love between a man and a woman, but family type love, and love thy neighbor type love.

Here is a quote on “The Essence of Life” that I am very fond of. It is a quote from Gordon B. Hinckley, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Love is the very essence of life. It is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yet it is more... more

My darling daughter, Natasha, was adopted at 3.5 years of age from Kharkiv, Ukraine. And I immediately started telling her adoption story as part of her bedtime. The fact that she still spoke Russian/Ukrainian and didn't understand English didn't stop me. I was telling the story for me really... to practice it.

Natasha was developmentally delayed and I waited until she had been home 6 months before having her language skills evaluated. Families who adopt internationally have 2 options for language skills evaluations. No one seems to have an opinion on which... more

For Earlier Posts, See Below

Could it already be 15 months since our fingerprints cleared the FBI system? Apparently it was. It seemed strange but our I-171H expired in June 2005 but our fingerprint clearance expired in February 2005. We had only looked at the expiration of the I-171H and suddenly for some reason I took notice of the fact. Quickly I called Kristina and we both made arrangements to have our fingerprints redone. I was to be fingerprinted in Charlotte and she would be fingerprinted in the US Embassy in Guatemala City.

While this seemed traumatic for the... more