On Tuesday, I wrote about a Mother from India being faced with placing both of her daughters for adoption. A sad story full of death and politics from other cultures, my heart felt heavy when I last left the news story. The good news is that help has been pouring in for the mother and her two daughters.

A follow-up article sheds a little more light on the current situation and some hope on the... more

WaHoo! LuLu’s new teacher just made my day! Simply by calling me, she made my day. It’s assurance that she has indeed been assigned a teacher at the new Georgia Virtual Academy. Although we’d received enrollment confirmation in early September, we haven’t official started yet. The main reason for this is that GVA’s been swamped with students. Expecting about 500 for their maiden year, they have received over 2000 applications for enrollment! And because it’s a virtual school…the enrollment is virtually limitless.

So, there’s been a mad scramble to hire and train teachers, get... more

Many adoptive parents are very concerned that their babies become well attached to them, and this is wise. Attachment is a precious thing and should not be taken for granted. I wrote in a previous post about some ways we can help babies get better attached to us. But how do we tell that our efforts are working?

First of all, your own emotions about the baby are a huge indicator of how things are going. Mother-love doesn't always come instantly-- don't panic if it takes you awhile to feel in love-- and a mom suffering from post-adoption... more

Yet again, the fabooooolous world of celebrity ... where ever and what ever that may be ... is spreading its imposing ripples into the adoption community pond, and since this is a news blog I suppose I might as well take some of my finite time and energy and waste a bit on disseminating the attention those wavelets demand in the their wet, pathetic little way.

(Can you tell I write this celeb stuff grudgingly? Oh, yes you can!)

The coin toss with this sort of thing is always which way to go ... sublime to ridiculous -- yeah, like the first is possible -- or vice versa.

Okay ... that's settled ...

... more

I am writing this late at night in preparation for dripping it out into cyberspace this morning. We are leaving very early in order to get to Purdue in time for me to clean up a little and then meet and greet my vet school classmates. Of course, I had to pack for me and two girls, so I tossed the packing for the Border collies to my husband! I loaded songs on the new MP3 player I bought Dora (she doesn’t know yet) so she has something to listen to when she and Beth are not watching DVDs or catching up on homework. Not to mention the fact that I am pretty wiped out... more

The child within my womb continues to grow. He's still somewhat of an acrobat, flipping this way and that throughout the day. By evening, however, he is usually in the head down position. And every evening, as I get under the covers of my bed, I am transported back in time. You see, every night this child gets the hiccups. Around the same time every night, I feel the rhythmic bump of fetal hiccups. And my heart aches.

I didn't know what they were at first when I was pregnant with the Munchkin. Without reliable internet, I didn't have the ability to Google "short, spasmodic... more

You know the old saying of “Hindsight is 20/20”? Well, here is an opportunity for you to learn some things from other people’s hindsight. A year or two ago, I asked other adoptive parents what they wished they had known before they entered into adoption and foster care. Here are some of their answers.

I wish I had understood my disclosure rights at placement.

I wish I had understood that many times kids have more problems than what their profiles say.

I wish I had understood that attachment problems come in all forms. Mild to severe.

I... more

I've talked about packing lists for traveling to China before (not to mention traveling with that other kind of baggage). But I was never THIS concise: Here's ... more

Mark and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this month, which followed the 14th anniversary of our meeting by about five weeks. Although I can recall both days as if they happened only a month or so ago, I am well aware that there's been no shortage of water under this old bridge of mine since those stirringly romantic moments changed my life for the better and forever.

Falling in love was an easy, natural process for us, and it truly seemed the only possible and reasonable thing to do at the time. From the first minute we shared company there was a familiar... more

I must admit that sometimes I am envious of some of the birthmoms I am friends with that receive tons of photos and sentimental things or gifts from their children’s adoptive parents. Not that I am greedy or materialistic, but I just need reassurance every now and then that I am thought of and appreciated.

Charlie’s adoptive Mom, A, is not one of those sentimental, “mushy” types – like me – so when she gives me something sentimental, it means that much more to me because it is a rarity.

When I saw Charlie and his family last week, A had some things for me... more