Should your special needs child have a sensory diet? Is a sensory diet anything like a gluten free diet? Will it add hundreds of extra dollars to the grocery bill each month? Actually, a sensory diet has nothing to do with food at all. So don’t head over to the natural food store yet, save your gas. It is an exercise, activity, and play program designed for an individual child with sensory processing issues. The Sensory Diet is usually designed by your child’s occupational therapist for homework between therapy sessions. Having the child practice daily, instead of just during... more

Blogs are mere snapshots of our lives. Sometimes readers forget that bloggers live lives outside of their internet blog. This is especially difficult to remember while reading niche blogs. (Niche blogs being those that focus on a very specific part of the blogger's life, such as an adoption blog.)

Sometimes readers forget that birth parents are more than just birth parents. They forget that they are career men and women with jobs and responsibilities. They forget that they parent other children and thus have those joys and woes. They forget that... more

I think that baby showers are painful for birthmothers because they remind of us what we did not have and what we missed. Most of us who are now birthmothers did not have that celebratory baby shower that so many new mothers are thrown in the late months of pregnancy. It’s almost like the baby shower is a passage to motherhood and it’s one of those rites that we miss so going to baby showers can be difficult.

If you feel too emotional or not ready to attend a baby shower just yet, politely try to bow out. Most of the times friends and family will understand. Don’t... more

Today I received the results of my teenage daughter’s achievement test from the public school. If you have been reading for the past few weeks then you already know about the IQ test results. If not, here is the link to read about my surprise at her new IQ despite having FAS. My daughter has been at homeschool with me for the past four years. I removed her from public school for several reasons. I felt they were not trying to challenge her; she was stealing, forging... more

“If women were convinced that a day off or an hour of solitude was a reasonable ambition, they would find a way of attaining it. As it is, they feel so unjustified in their demand that they rarely make the attempt.”

Does this quote by Anne Morrow Lindbergh sound familiar in your life? I know it certainly does in mine.

Sometimes I have several instances of the same topic come up in a short period of time so it’s something that I take notice of. This is one of those times.

Recently I saw a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar”... more

Perhaps more than any other group of bloggers on the internet, blogging birth parents are faced with the dilemma of how much is too much when it comes to sharing information, pictures, stories and the other things that bloggers are quick to share. While we have seen many mommybloggers in general pull back with how much they are sharing due to safety concerns, birth parents are being forced to pull back their sharing for various and differing reasons.

Many birth mothers from the closed era are aware that, at any time, their adult child can come across their... more

It seems like everyone around me is either pregnant or knows someone who is pregnant. For new birthmothers and even not so new birthmothers dealing with friends or family members who are pregnant, baby showers, and all the festivities that goes along with a happy pregnancy can be emotional.

For me personally, I want to be supportive and genuinely happy for friends that are pregnant but sometimes it is difficult, especially if the circumstances of their life are similar to what mine were during my pregnancy that resulted in making an adoption plan. I am... more

According to a new government report, the number of teens giving birth has risen for the first time in 15 years. For every one thousand young women, between the ages of 15 and 17, twenty-two will give birth. This may contribute to another unhealthy trend. The number of low birth weight newborns continues to increase. We know from statistics that youth in foster care are more likely to engage in risky behaviors than other teens are. Therefore, when you see an increase in the general population of teens, you can be sure the increase among foster youth is much higher. In fact,... more

Many of the blogs I write are quite “heavy” because, after all, life in foster care is not a fun subject. Most of the kids don’t get to laugh often and as parents of foster kids, we don’t always get to laugh either.

Lately, Hannah has been cracking me up. Some things are just plain funny, and other are a six year old not quite understanding the other world yet. I thought I’d share some of these with you and hopefully add a little bit of levity to an otherwise hard subject.

One day Hannah and I were running errands and she was wearing her “fancy” shoes,... more

As if the constant talk of adoption isn't bad enough, blogging birth parents need to beware the trolls. I recently talked about personal attacks via blog comments but it needs mentioned again in this series.

Trolls exist on the internet. They thrive on drama, confrontation and the anonymity that the internet provides. Many of these rude individuals would never say the things that... more