Should your family socialize with other adoptive families? What benefits are there to socializing with other adoptive families? Does your area have organized events specifically for adoptive families? If not, have you thought about organizing a support group or an event? Maybe you have never considered any of these questions. Because our adoption journey began through providing foster care to area children, attending social events for adoptive families seemed very natural. In the process of becoming licensed foster parents we were required to attend many hours of training and... more

My niece is getting married on Saturday. I have been helping her plan the wedding since she and her fiancé’ set the date. I’ve been so busy this past week helping her with last minute details for the wedding and preparations that can only be done in the week prior to a wedding. She’s also had two bridal showers, both of which I have attended, one of which I was in charge of in the past two weeks.

The showers and wedding preparations have of course reminded me of my own bridal showers and wedding that were just five years ago this month! Feeling nostalgic, I was just... more

Should you send for a mail order DNA kit to test your adopted child’s DNA? Will this test help you know if your adopted child is predisposed to a genetic condition? If your child came to you through international adoption or another method without a medical history, you may be tempted. The mail order prices even seem affordable and you can order them on the Internet making DNA testing more tempting. Each time you visit a new doctor, dentist, optometrist, or specialist you have to fill out a medical history for your child. If your child has asthma symptoms, symptoms... more

The last week or so with Hannah has been horrid. She has exhibited behaviors we have never seen before and has cranked up some behaviors that hadn’t been around for a while.

For several months Hannah has been a fun kid to be around so her behaviors took me a little bit by surprise. When they continued for several days I knew something was bothering her, but she wasn’t ready to talk about it.

Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with this issue since this is how Sammy chose to deal with emotional issues. It is not uncommon in foster and adopted kids... more

In my last post, I talked about being envious of a friend who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and although she thought she would make an adoption plan, her family has agreed to help her. I suggested that if you are pregnant, you should consider talking to your parents about whether or not they would be supportive of your decision to parent, but you may be wondering how you go about this.

I know if I were reading that post in the position I was in over six... more

Do you have a child that suffers from psoriasis? It is a chronic skin condition that can have a negative impact on a person's quality of life. It can negatively affect self-esteem and relationships. Your child may be embarrassed by the presence of psoriasis and feel insecure about friends seeing it or finding out about it. This could cause your child to avoid close friendships or staying overnight with friends. The characteristics of psoriasis include red, thick, scaly plaques that itch and bleed. Dermatologists have found a correlation between psoriasis,... more

Recently an email came around as a forward on our homeschool loop at Yahoo groups. Frequently, I just delete forwards without even looking at them, but something made me read this one. Maybe it was a little nudge from the Holy Spirit. Shannon Ethridge who is the author of Every Woman’s Battle and coauthor of Every Young Woman’s Battle wrote the article being forwarded. The article was only about the way women dress, teenager girls in particular, as that is Shannon’s focus for her books. However, as the mother of several teenage boys, I also insist that they take care in their... more

I can’t believe it has been over a month since I have posted a blog. It feels good to sit down and write another entry … and yet, I have been so insanely busy that I haven’t had a moment to even think about the blog, much less write it. Let me tell you what has happened in my life this past month …

My last entry showed you a photo of the used (but new to us) horse trailer my husband and I recently purchased. We traveled to Indiana to retrieve the trailer. Ten minutes after leaving the trailer lot, we stopped to get gas, and being unfamiliar with the (non-existent) turning radius of the trailer,... more

I am cheering for the parents in this article. They were accused of child abuse against their four biological children. Their children had a rare disease called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and a partially descended brain.

Initially Leslie Udvardi was charged with Munchausen by Proxy and the charges were then changed to child abuse.

This isn’t the part that makes this... more

I received a copy of Adopted Teens Only: A Survival Guide to Adolescence from the publisher. For the most part I really like this book. It is written as a book for teens to help them understand adoption issues and the feelings they have as they struggle for independence and identity.

Here’s a little bit about the author, Danea Gorbett. She’s an adult adoptee who met her birth father when she was a teenager. It was a tenuous relationship. She became a psychologist... more