The numbers of children in foster care are continuing to rise in this country because of the effects that “meth” and other drugs have seemed to have on the lives that they touch. Instead of numbers of foster placements involved with drugs getting better they seem to be skyrocketing. With drugs continuing to be a major problem of our society, the picture of foster care continues to become bleaker every day.

I have written about the effect of drugs to the foster care system and the... more

As Susana Luarca reported in her last update on ADA, the registration forms for in-process adoptions have changed; here is a copy to view.

This must be driving the attorneys crazy and that may actually be the motivation behind the changes. Adopting parents who were told that they were registered will now be waiting to hear if the have been “re-registered.” When will this chaos end?

The DOS (Department of State) released this statement... more

A totally tough element in the equation of the adoption of older children is how tough it is to get them through school. Long range plans seem to not compute, deferred gratification is an elusive concept when they simply do not want to go to school.

School is very hard for one thing. My children’s track record for school attendance was horrible during foster care and even worse when they were still living in the difficult circumstances into which they were born.

They were moved from foster home to foster home and through various shelters; never staying long... more

When I started writing for Adoption.com last January, one of the first blogs about Russian adoption that I was lucky enough to read was "Three Sons And A Princess". It was the tale of a military family with three boys who were trying to adopt a little girl, affectionately dubbed the "Pineapple Princess".

Jennefer, or Jeneflower as she sometimes styles herself, is the mom of the clan and its chief memory officer. Her writing captured the ups and downs of her family's adoption journey and featured so many smart tips about surviving... more

Our adoption anniversary is quickly approaching, and I am getting more excited by the day. Even though our plates here are packed full with extra life stresses, I am still thinking about the adoption day, and how we are going to make it special. Hubby and I have some things planned during the day while the kids are at school, as he is taking this very special day off from work, but we have yet to decide what we are going to do as a family once the children return from school.

We tend to celebrate... more

There are different ways to do foster care and then there is the decision as to whether or not to adopt a foster child. Some people go into foster care in the hopes of adopting one (or more) of their foster children. Other people do strictly foster care, and others like me, only take in children that they intend to adopt. None of these methods are wrong, just different.

Let’s explore the difference between foster care, treatment foster care, and adoption. They are similar, but each one has its distinct differences.

Foster care

• Children of any... more

This is a very nice way to end the month of January: Seven more adoption agencies have been accredited by the Russian government. The decrees, all dated January 28, cover three agencies from the United States, and one each from France, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Here's who they are and a little bit about what they do:

The agencies accredited from the U.S. are ABC Adoption Services of Roanoke, Virginia, Beacon House Adoption Services of Pensacola, Florida, and... more

I am by no means an expert on children’s grief. But, having been through a family death recently (and the loss of three of LuLu’s grandparents in the decade she’s been in our family), I can offer you the insights I have for dealing with special needs children and their responses to death…or at least MY special needs child and HER responses to death.

Keep in mind that our children will each respond as differently as we do. Some people cry, some are angry, some don’t want to talk about it and some want to talk about it non-stop. Our children’s responses are really... more

A reader e-mailed me and asked if I would share more about my personal story with our home study. I am working through a series about each of the interviews we had as part of the home study process.

Our final interview was scheduled at our house. I was a nervous wreck about this.

Today, I am a pretty good housekeeper, although keeping house is never going to be something that I enjoy. However, at the time we were going through the home study process, I did not have the first clue about how to keep a nice house. (I learned later by reading a book about how... more

One of our first foster care placements was a sibling group who later became our daughters. The oldest was a teenager who arrived at our home enrolled in the school band. Only she didn’t have an instrument and couldn’t play very well. She had, and still has, a natural gift of music that she ended up discovering. We ended up buying her a clarinet and finding private lessons for her. I think that is what started all of our children on their musical journeys.

Our oldest son was jealous that she had music lessons and he didn’t, although he had never asked for them. We ended... more