I just wanted to share Livi's recent professional picture... this is my very favorite out of all of them. Happy Love Thursday

When I told you about Ivy's place, I didn't really describe it. Sunday afternoon, Ivy came and picked me up and took me to the location of the home she is building. Although no longer exclusively so, Zambia is mostly a cash-based society, so you build what you have money for, then you stop and wait until you have more. She has walls up, a roof (but no ceiling inside yet), wiring in the walls, but not connected to the overhead powerlines, a space for windows, with iron bars, but no glass yet. That kind of thing. She has people living there – no running water, either. They are the caretakers and keep people from stealing from it and/or destroying it. She wants to turn it into... more

Nicholas and the Munchkin have really interacted during this visit. Sometimes they're pushing and hitting. But sometimes they're legitimately playing with one another. The Munchkin busted out with, "I'm playing with my brother!" shortly before or after this particular shot was taken.

Love is watching siblings play... and enjoy it. Love is laughing with them when they make silly dance moves in their underwear in the kitchen. Love is watching them hold hands for a second. Love is holding back tears when you realize that... more

January 13,2007

When we left Wuhan for the first time with Ben back in October 2000, the tears started flowing and wouldn't stop as we went through security at the airport. All I could think of was that I was taking my son from everything he had ever known.

Seeing how he had no language opportunities in the orphanage being deaf, and obviously had no family, I knew he had a brighter future ahead, but a part of me still felt as if I was wrongfully taking him... more

Continued.......

The beginning of my being may not have been the ideal or best of circumstances, but I know it is what it is and I cannot change it nor do I want to. Being born to a mother that chose drugs, men and bad life choices other than her unborn baby, is not something someone wants to hear but again it is what is. Choosing to not allow the negatives of your being for the beginning to control or cast a dark shadow over your life is the important thing. The birth mother that placed an unborn baby at such risk for a life filled with unknown possible effects of her choices would have on her unwanted baby; I have made peace with her choices. I cannot lie that was the hardest... more

Many of us have a need for life to be simple and uncomplicated. We would also love to win the lottery. One way to attempt to make life less complex is to see life as simple and clear-cut. Everyone is either good or bad. Each choice that one faces in life has a right or a wrong solution. There is no room for any variation or deviation. Choices may be simple when you see life in this manner, however, it is not realistic to oversimplify the world in this way.

When considering what birth mothers are like, many people seem to believe that there are... more

If you have read much about adoption practices during the 60's and 70's, you might be familiar with the concept of wage homes. Maternity homes were so crowded with young pregnant women during the 60's and 70's that there was often a waiting list before a young women could get into a home.

Often women spent time during their pregnancy at a wage home first, and then entered the maternity home for only the last two months or so. Wage homes... more

I've been searching for some time for bloggers writing from Russia. Not the politics and economics wonks (not that there's anything wrong with that), but ordinary, everyday people. The informed "everyman" that every journalist yearns to find when sent out on the street to do what would otherwise be a pedestrian story. Somebody who could tell us all what life is like every day for people in Russia. I've recently found two of them and I'd like to tell you about them.

You hopefully got to read a bit of "snowsquare"... more

Continued......

Getting stuck or hung up on being adopted is the worse thing for an adoptee. Allow yourself to go through all the different emotions that one may feel, but not be consumed by them. Do not allow what other people say or think about adoption affect your feelings concerning being an adoptee. So many people talk before thinking about what they are saying or how it will affect others. The images of adoption and the people that are involved with it are not always portrayed in a positive light in this life. It is up to each one of us to look for understanding of our adoption,... more

This series could go on forever as I respond to reader’s comments, and perhaps even more significantly, because I suspect it will take me forever to personally process this whole “relationship” with Amy.

One reader wanted to know why I thought so many people want to deny that adoptees have some tough issues to face. I think there are several reasons for that…

First and foremost, I think a significant number of people in general go to great lengths to avoid facing tough issues. I have no idea what... more