We have all heard about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving a car. Some metropolitan areas have made it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving because of the many related accidents. Last week I wrote a blog on the dangers of brain tumors associated with cell phone use. Researchers are concerned about the long-term effects on developing children’s brains if adults are showing tumors within 10 years of cell phone use. Now we have another warning for our children regarding cell phone usage. Researchers have found that children may not be able to cross the... more

Recently a reader sent me an email asking for advice regarding a failed adoption in which the reader still has physical custody of the child. May I first make it clear that I am not an adoption professional neither do have legal training. I do have 14 years of foster care experience, have adopted seven children, and mentored new foster and adoptive parents for many years. While I have strong feelings about adoption issues and freely share my advice, it probably isn’t what the reader or most adoptive families would expect to hear. A family involved in a failed adoption is hoping... more

I have a guilty pleasure. It's a teen angst drama that goes by the name of One Tree Hill. Of course, they graduated high school last season and to keep things interesting and fresh, they hit the fast-forward button on time and this season features the characters four years later, adjusting to adulthood with just as much angst as ever. One was recently left at the alter! The couple that married in high school is having problems! Someone kidnapped the kid! Oh! The drama!

So, what does this have to do with adoption?

I wish I could say, "Absolutely nothing!... more

One of the rewards of foster parenting is when a birth parent thanks you; when you know that a birth parent really appreciates all you have done, and all you are doing, for his or her child. My five-year-old foster daughter’s mother looked me in the eyes and said, “I couldn’t do what you do. I don’t know how you can do it.” The name of a child we had fostered several years ago had come up and she had asked me about whom we were talking. I explained that it was a child we thought we were adopting. She had come into our family as a newborn and had stayed until she was 20 months... more

Though I am a crafty lady, and though I have tried my hand at rubber stamping and scrapbooking, I find I need something a little quicker and lower maintenance. Thus, I tend to blog as a way of chronicling my children’s lives.

Though I blog here at AdoptionBlogs, I have a personal blog for homeschooling, as well as a family site. Blogging provides a quick way to summarize each day, or events such as trips or special days. Most blogging tools allow the posting of multiple pictures. Best of all, most sites are free or offer a free version of their premium services.... more

While I feel horribly for Mr. Walker and the difficulties he has surely had, I am glad that he has disclosed his illness and what this can potentially do for our kids.

Hershel Walker was a professional football player for the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. When we lived in Dallas, my husband worked at a grocery store near the Dallas Cowboys offices, Valley Ranch. Mr. Walker would come into the grocery store while my husband was working. When I told him this news tonight he was surprised.

Mr. Walker suffers from Dissociative Identity... more

We send the children off to school in jackets because it is chilly in the morning when the get on the bus. Towards afternoon, the weather begins to warm up. The Children are likely to toss off their jackets into a pile on the ground. At the end of recess, they will probably retrieve them. If just one of the children who tossed a jacket into that pile happened to have head lice then the lice probably jumped onto all of the other jackets. This pile of cloth is the perfect playground for those little biting opportunists to spread. The children will probably slip... more

Sammy called for his twice weekly phone call. He had a pretty deep question that is a tough one even for adults.

The center that Sammy is in is Christian based, which ranks high on the plus side for me. His call had much to do with a deeply theological question, but at the same time it’s a tough question for kids who have been through what our kids have.

Sammy asked me why I don’t forgive my mother. Well, that’s a loaded question. I told him that forgiving and trusting are two entirely different things. I said that I somewhat understand why she did... more

The movie “Get Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” will be opening on April 18, 2008 at theatres. Should you take your adopted children to see the movie? It is receiving a lot of publicity in Christian circles. Christians everywhere are being asked to go out and support the opening weekend of the movie by watching it themselves and taking friends. The official website even has several contests to encourage people to take friends to see the movie. We signed up for a contest that sends... more

It's an old cliche: motherhood changes everything. Any expectant mother hears that old adage and rolls her eyes. I know I said, more than once, when my Husband and I were waiting on the arrival of our oldest son, that we already knew kids would change our lives. "That's the point!" Oh, how little we really knew in the end! Because, as cliche as it sounds, it is simply one of those truths. Motherhood does change everything.

Someone experiencing that right now is celebrity Nicole Richie. If you follow the star world at all, you know that she had a baby in January... more