Right now I'm staring at a huge wall, upon which someone has written: Yo! Sandra! You're O-L-D!

Okay ... the wall's been there for a while ... tall, wide, flat -- a perfect surface for imposing messages ... and I have noticed some scribbles across it before, but all of a sudden over the last couple of days it's all gone rather neon-bright and impossible-to-ignore-blinky / flashing-pay-attention and get-with-the-program-like.

Why?

Gee ... let me think. Could it have anything to do with ... more

Every once in a while, parents win one. And these parents in Texas of a girl with behavioral disorders won a due process case where they were seeking reimbursement from their local school district for their daughter attending the charter school within the psychiatric hospital in which she’d been a patient.

This could indeed be the first case dealing with a new trend of establishing charter schools within psychiatric... more

I received a phone call from a very distraught Sammy tonight. I was not anxious to talk to him since the last time I saw or heard from him almost three weeks ago, he was spewing venom at me, telling me he hated me, and never wanted to come home again.

My how things have changed. Sammy was upset with some of the things going on in his foster home. If I am to believe his version of events (which I don’t) someone has done several destructive things, and framed him for them. I’m not being hard hearted, this is a recurring theme... more

I thought some people might like to try the cabbage recipe that was the very first thing our 11 year old cooked for us just a couple days after she got home from Ethiopia.

GOMEN

Ingredients 1 onion 1-2 tomatoes 1 cabbage 2 cloves garlic, 1 hot red pepper (optional) Oil, at least ½ cup Salt to taste

Preparation -Mince the onion very fine. -Chop tomato very fine or puree in food processer. -Chop cabbage into smallish bite-sized pieces, no bigger than an inch or so across. - Cut hot pepper into very narrow threads. Discard seeds.

Cooking Put... more

The kids have been in school for three days now, and for three days I have been absolutely lost. I have roamed around the house rather aimlessly trying to figure out how to structure both my time and my day, without having any kids around. The house is quiet, terribly, horrifically, quiet. Every attempt at leaving the house has left me feeling as though I have forgotten something, simply because I am not used to leaving the house all by lonesome.

The children on the upside, are adjusting quite well to school. My adopted stepson has had no complaints thus far, and the little guy is enjoying school for the most part, but is still having a little bit of a hard time being gone from... more

I went to the Casa Quivira website to see if they had any new information on the children taken from that adoption home. Aside from the two children who were released to their adopting parents, the exact whereabouts of the rest of the children is unknown. The names of the orphanages they were put in are being kept secret as well as the name of the hospital where the sick children were taken to.

The media with its infamous short attention span has pretty much abandoned the story. You would think... more

Our oldest adopted daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks. She has always been a sentimental person and has always coveted her family’s fellowship. The first few years she lived with us she really only coveted her birth family’s time, but now that she is older, her adopted family’s time as well. It isn’t surprising that she asked both of her birth sisters to be in her wedding, as well as her sister-in-law to be. We were a little surprised when she asked her 17-year-old brother to stand up at the wedding with the... more

Viet Nam Adoptive Family Interviews : An Introduction

Have you encountered any rude/nosy/disrespectful comments or questions about your family? If so, how did you handle them?

The Engelbrecht Family - So many people ask if we can conceive. I just say that she is what we've always wanted.

Christina - Nothing overtly rude or disrespectful. We live in an area that is pretty diverse... more

In Wisconsin, we are just getting ready for back to school. I know some of you have already had several weeks of school, and personally, I’m a bit jealous. I’m not one of those moms that gets upset when her kids leave for school, I’m usually doing the happy dance. I know many special needs parents are.

For the past several days, we have been doing “getting ready practice.” Hannah is not one that gets ready “quick and snappy” in the morning, so we have gotten up at the time that she will need to get up each day, and... more

Do you think that those who pray are more likely then others to seek out special needs children to adopt? Do parents who do not pray, later seek out a higher authority for strength and perseverance after parenting a special needs child? Do those without the power of prayer to help them through the tough times end up choosing not to parent traumatized children?

I have had conversations with hundreds of foster and adoptive families of special needs children over the 14 years that we have been licensed foster parents.... more