America used to be an unexplored paradise. A place where Buffalo and Native Americans roamed the land freely. Then the World changed. New people arrived on the block, so to speak.

Sometimes as an Adoptive Family I still feel like a Settler Family....exploring the wilderness as the new family on the block.

It seems in no time once someone knows that your child is adopted or children in my case. You are treated as different. Well yes we are different. So what. The children are still children. They have feelings and emotions.... more

This is the final post in a series of foster and foster-adopt acronyms.

If you aren't familiar with these, it'll make your head spin the first time you read a report or sit in a family services plan meeting. (FSP)

Do you need to know all of these? Probably not, but I've come around most of these acronyms in the last five years, and I know some of them intimately!

Soon you'll be speaking in alphabet soup as well!

MAF: Medical Assistance to Families

MAS:... more

There's a really wonderful, sad, and insightful article on Salon.com today: "A Mother's Love," by Sallie Tisdale, about the her son, his wife, and their children. Tisdale's son was adopted at age 9 from Guatemala, he's profoundly deaf (when he came to his adoptive family he could communicate only through signs he'd made up himself), and now, as a young adult, he works only sporadically and lives mostly off the disability checks he and his partner (also hearing impaired) draws from the government. The two of them have several children together, all unplanned (it appears) and they lead a rather shiftless, pointless, unproductive... more

Gosh, where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday - I waited in the baby house director's office to meet the little girl whose face I fell in love with. Yesterday, I scurried around town from craft shop to paper shop - seeking out the perfect paper and ribbon to make her wedding invitations! I know my mom always said the older you get - the faster time goes -but my goodness - can I pause it just a bit?

I know many of you don't know me -- but I'm not the best public speaker - so I've even written my "toast" in hopes to tweak and practice it in the months to come - so I can stand and say it without passing out or crying.

Dear family & friends,

I’d... more

Talk about stepping up in a way that really helps ... stepping up, pulling out a boob, and giving from the deepest parts of yourself ... the International Breast Milk Project sent another 23 gallons of the breast milk of human kindness to the iThemba Lethu Orphanage. In oh-so-appropriate timing, it arrived at the Durban, South Africa facility on Thanksgiving Day.

The Project was started by ... Jill Youse, who discovered she was overproducing breast milk after... more

Continued from previous post...

I have written a bit about my mother-in-law who is sixty-eight and always on the go. When we last visited with her during the Thanksgiving holiday, my husband and I both noticed ever so subtle signs that she is aging. Nothing alarming, just simple things that are heralding the aging process for her particular body. Arthritis. Stiffness. Decreased flexibility and balance. Other little things. I think we were both caught a little off guard because I don't know a woman walking who is more health conscious than my mother-in-law.... more

I am one of those women who believes I will never grow old. Never, ever, ever. Mind you, there is absolutely nothing in my personal life experience that should lead me to this delusional conclusion. My mother died when she was only fifty-five years old. My father died when he was only sixty-seven years old.

Well,now that I think about it, perhaps that has something to do with my twisted thinking. Still, there is a qualitative difference. It is not that I think I will die young. It is just that I don't think I will ever grow old. And I should think that I... more

Christian Homes And Special Kids (CHASK) is a non-profit organization that serves as a contact point for those pregnant with a child with medical challenges, for (birth) mothers with special needs, or for families whose baby is born with a challenge that prevents the birth family from parenting the child.

A friend of a friend alerted me that the CHASK process works as follows:

Someone contacts CHASK and asks for help. CHASK broadcasts the need in the geographical area first in hopes... more

I found this article today which reports some new statistics on adoption.

The study was released a week ago by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institue. I am not familiar with this particular organization so I am unable to address what their adoption philosophy is, or if they have a particular agenda regarding adoption. However,... more

In my room I have a tree about three and a half feet tall. I look forward to decorating my tree each Christmas. I love to personalize my Christmas tree to reflect my personality. Here are some more suggestions on how you and your sibling may want to personalize your own tree.

Bring Your Own Ornament Christmas Tree: My church did this tree at a get together and it ended up being really cool. Each person was asked to bring their favorite ornament and as we all would arrive at the party we would then hang our ornament on the tree that... more