Awhile back at my other blog I was puzzling over whether or not to give various adult family members the gift of a donation to a charitable organization in their honor.

My husband and I talked it over for quite awhile and decided to donate to AHOPE in honor of 8 adults on our family Christmas giving list. To each person who got the AHOPE donation, we also gave a small gift: chocolate or nuts or something along those lines.

For some reason I was more comfortable about doing this with John's side of the family, probably because for years mostly we... more

Along with all the happy and joyous traditions we have at this time of year, it has unfortunately become the norm in many places to take this time to vandalize religious symbols, houses of worship or even cemeteries. My students are often surprised to hear that anti-Semitism is alive and well in this country. It is on the one hand nice to see that there is still innocence in this world and on the other hand sad to see that they - or their parents - have their eyes closed to the realities around us.

I would hope that we as adoptive parents, who hopefully take more time in teaching our children about tolerance and acceptance of differences, can lead the way in changing the moral standards... more

Want to help a waiting child? There are many ways out there, but one website is asking for donations to grant wishes to waiting children.

Before Christmas, they had over eight thousand wishes and now only have a few hundred wishes left to fill.

You can grant a wish to a child, donate money, or do something spectacular, like help remodel a bedroom.

If you have room in your heart, but maybe not room in your home, there is a way you can... more

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I started off my day-after-Christmas morning by visiting the doctor... I have had an infected big toe off and on for a few weeks, but I thought the round of antibiotics I took a couple of weeks ago to treat bronchitis had also cleared up the toe infection. But not so…even after soaking my foot repeatedly throughout the holidays, it still exploded last night, keeping me awake and swelling up my poor little toe. So I’m on yet another round of antibiotics and typing on my laptop with my feet up… (By... more

Happy Boxing Day everyone...

I gave all my 'boxes' before Christmas, but today is still a holiday our family sort of celebrates. It's the day we eat leftovers, see a movie, catch up and breathe after the flurry of Christmas.

This year I've been down with a cold, and then a blizzard, so it has been a real rush at the end to get everything done. Actually, I didn't get everything done, but I did manage to get presents to Ricky and to K's Birth Mom last week.

In some previous years I gone to friends who've thrown parties on this day... more

Today marks the first day of Kwanzaa, a holiday designed to honor African-American heritage.

In 1966 Ron Karenga, now Dr. Maulana Karenga, created Kwanzaa while in California, as the leader of the black nationalist United Slaves Organization (also known as the "US Organization"). Dr. Karenga searched for ways to bring African-Americans together as a community. Karenga combined aspects of several different harvest celebrations, such as those of the Ashanti and those of the Zulu, to form the basis of Kwanzaa. The name Kwanzaa derives... more

Is it too late to say Bah Humbug? It is? Too bad. I've got a bunch of Bah Humbugs (and some other choice words) for the writer of this so-called feature article. "Living with Children" by John Rosemond started out offensive, redeemed itself as the author learned about proper adoption language from a Mother who had written in and then takes a nose-dive into absolute stupidity.

Let's take a gander where things start to fall apart. Again.

in our email exchange, I had expressed my view on so-called "open" adoption, and... more

I’m interested…very interested. So much of what parents are given by professionals in terms of parenting advice for any and all children are reward/consequence based strategies of behavior modification. But what if it doesn’t work? What if there isn’t a consequence out there that will stop your child’s negative behavior? What if there isn’t a reward they care a thing about?

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is different. It focuses on self-regulation of thoughts that trigger... more

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that all of you had a wonderful day with people you love.

We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...tiring, but great!

We have had countless people say over the past few weeks that they would love to be a “fly on the wall” during Christmas at our house, so here is the Reader’s Digest version of things. :)

We started with church on Sunday morning, where all of my kids except for Marcus and Belane sang in the Christmas program. We came home and had lunch, and then the kids watched some... more

Enroll in baby-care and child-care classes.

Adoptive parents get so wrapped up in all the nitpicky details of the home study process that they may neglect to prepare for parenting their child once he or she arrives home.

Laura's Tip: Do you know how to change a diaper? Take a rectal temp (eeew)? Know what to do when your infant spikes a fever? Are you prepared to deal with a toddler temper tantrum? Most hospitals and some adoption agencies offer great parenting classes that will help you feel more confident... more