Bringing home a new child, whether he is a baby, toddler, school-aged child or teenager, is a huge event in a family. For my next few posts, I will be offering up advice and sharing tips to help ease the adjustment for you, your new child and your family. These tips will be geared towards families adopting children of all ages, and for families adopting both domestically and internationally.

My tip for today is to prepare. There are things you can to do emotionally prepare for your child's arrival, and there are things that you can do to physically... more

Bringing home a new child, whether he is a baby, toddler, school-aged child or teenager, is a huge event in a family. For my next few posts, I will be offering up advice and sharing tips to help ease the adjustment for you, your new child and your family. These tips will be geared towards families adopting children of all ages, and for families adopting both domestically and internationally.

My tip for today is to prepare. There are things you can to do emotionally prepare for your child's arrival, and there are things that you can do to physically... more

A reader asked several questions regarding my post about Dora’s manure moving adventures this past weekend. Specifically, the reader inquired about why I required the child to stand in a certain spot when they were done; how much of an explanation I gave about what I required; and whether or not the child was resentful if they received little or no explanation and... more

When it is finally time to book airfare, your head can be in such a whirl that the little details can be hard to remember. Here are a few reminders. First of all, if you check prices at a website like Expedia.com or other popular sites to book travel, you will probably find prices to be quite a bit higher than if you get tickets through a travel agent who specializes in travel to Africa. It is possible to get tickets in the range of $1400-$2500 for a flight from the U.S. to Ethiopia, including connecting flights. In general, airfare is highest in summer, and as far as airlines go, Ethiopian Airlines usually has the lowest prices.

One of the perks of using a travel agent who is... more

It can be extremely easy to over-pack when flying to another continent for a two to three week stay. Many parents to be worry that they will not be able to find the essentials for themselves and their new child(ren,) so they literally pack everything but the kitchen sink. We over-packed in a few area; Ella’s clothes and food and snacks for us. Here are some tips to avoid over-packing:

Find out about your hotel’s laundry service. Ours was excellent and affordable. We could have gotten by with half the amount of clothing we brought. Actually, my husband brought about... more

Here’s our dog in her Halloween costume, so I just couldn’t resist the pun-intended title. Our weekend went by in a complete blur and both Super Dad and I are much more exhausted than we expected. Already scheduled to be incredibly busy with a softball game, a high school homecoming and two Halloween/Harvest events, we had to squeeze in counseling and visitation trips to LuLu’s hospital (about a 2-hour round trip) on both Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was not a good day for LuLu. Although on Friday the doctor reported her to be a bit more stable, the... more

With my kids, medical forms, treatment foster home forms, etc. I fill out paperwork nearly every day. I hate the space that asks what my “occupation” is. What do I write in that space?

Today my morning started with getting Hannah up and started for school at 7:30 A.M. If Sammy were living at home, my morning would start at 6:30. With “normal” moms, they could trust their older kids to get up and get ready for school without any help, but not in a special needs home. There are medications to be administered, and in my home, I have to monitor Sammy to make sure... more

Don’t laugh at me…I brought Ella’s Halloween costume to Viet Nam with us last year. There was a possibility of us being home by Halloween, so I spent some glorious time ogling the baby costumes and choosing the perfect little lion costume for the little miss. Of course I didn’t know her size, so chose what I thought would be best. I bought it, took it home and dreamed of the little girl that would be THE cutest little lion on the East Coast that Halloween!

Then our travel date didn’t come as early as we had expected, and we were in sweltering, lovely Hanoi on Halloween.... more

If you're soon to be traveling to adopt a young Chinese person - or if you're just the type to be interested in other people's trips - you could do worse than to cast your eyes over Randy Cassingham's travel blog.

If you haven't heard of Cassingham, he's one of the godfathers of internet publishing. He's been running a for-profit e-mail newsletter, This is True, since the mid-90s. It collects news stories from the world press - focusing on the bizarre, idiotic and just plain unbelievable... more

After I wrote the post regarding destruction of beds and bedding, I received quite a few interesting comments and I’ve really been thinking about the sensory affect on children. I need to research it further but in the meantime one of my grown daughters, adopted at age 11 with her two younger brothers, now 22 and 24, told me her version or explanation.

“Maybe part of the problem is that the kids have a hard time with whole, intact things (i.e. nice jewelry, matching bedspreads)... more