I am exhausted today. I guess the past week has really caught up with me, both physically and emotionally. I am very ready to climb in the car tomorrow and spend the day traveling. I plan to crochet fuzzy flip flops for Dora. Beth has a zillion pairs, as do I.

My series this week has been written from my heart, as I experienced it, in an attempt to share the difficulties associated with pain, grief, loss, and adoption disruption. It is an ugly subject, but it happens. All across the country, parents of all kinds (bio, adoptive, step) make daily decisions about who... more

The tooth fairy came to my home the other night leaving a crisp bill for two pearly teeth that my ten year old had proudly extracted herself. Yes my girl is TEN, almost eleven, and she still has an innocent faith in things like the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and I suppose at this point, even in ME her mom.

No, I understand that I am not an imagined, childhood notion. I am a real mom. Sometimes though, when I see my children joyfully observe the customs of youth, I secretly dread the day the truth will bring an end to all that excitement. I also think about how the... more

“Mom, why did we have to adopt my brother?” Buck asked exasperatedly after Ty, his younger brother, had followed him around all day. “Because you are such a wonderful son we figured your brother would be too, and we wanted you to be raised together,” I answered.

“Are you sure we are really brothers? You know the hospital or the state could have made a mistake,” he queried.

“There was no mistake Buck, you definitely both have the same mother. Both of you were placed with us straight from the hospital and I have the original birth certificates.”... more

We frequently hear from adoptive families that are struggling to get their child's birth family to remain in consistent contact. We feel their aggravation. We want better for the child in question. We want easier relationships for all involved. We raise our voices in hopes that these birth parents are listening. And yet, what about the other side of the coin?

A birth mother who has been struggling to keep the communication afloat in her own open adoption asked... more

How carefully did you look at the name you chose for your newborn when you decided to adopt? Did you dissect the name to see what possible combinations people could come up with from it? Apparently, we didn’t look close enough. Now what should we do? Is an emergency name change or spelling change in order?

We spent months coming up with our daughter’s name. We wanted a name that had real meaning behind it. We chose a special name for our daughter that reflected our joy to an answer to years of prayer. The name we chose also reflected our family heritage. How... more

It’s the end of the month and I have tons of little articles sitting on my desk. None of them themselves makes a full blog, but might be considered a blob.

Wells Fargo has a website specifically to teach kids (mostly teens) about money management. The website has games the kids can play, and when they answer questions about money management, they earn virtual money that they can spend, save or invest. Future activities will have the kids get jobs, get a credit card, and apply for a... more

When an expectant parent is sorting through profiles in hopes of choosing a family for the unborn child, issues surrounding parenting style are often high on the list of things to consider. Some want parents that would parent their child in a different way than how they were raised while others are looking for that similarity. Things such as how the children will be raised concerning issues of religion, education and discipline are questions that many expectant parents ask of potential families during the matching process.

However, once the Termination... more

It gets heavy here in this blog sometimes with all of the discussion about decision making, grief, pregnancy, etc. and I figure we could use a short break from the heavy topics and a little chuckle every now and then. The story below will give you a little laugh (or at least a smile as you shake your head in disbelief) and is proof that babies have their own schedules of when they should make their grand entrance into the world.

A very pregnant but not quite to her due date woman named Antoria Gillon waited in line for over sixteen hours with other 13,000 hopeful contestants in the... more

Some of you may have noticed that we've had a few technical difficulties lately.
We're actually working on our dear old system, cleaning some cobwebs out and polishing it up in preparation for more growth.

We expect to be down for a short time early on Tuesday morning but when we come back up (also Tuesday morning) you should notice a significant difference in the speed of our site. Pages should load faster and you should notice far fewer technical difficulties.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause early morning readers but we believe the results will definitely be worth it.

Thanks for your patience.

Lisa

Viet Nam Adoptive Family Interviews : An Introduction

Did you re-adopt your child in your home state? Can you please talk about your decision to do or not do so?

The Engelbrecht Family - We are in the process of re-adopting. This was the best way to change her name in our state.

Christina - Yes, we re-adopted. We wanted our kids to have an American birth certificate because it helps with other citizenship documents... more