Eventually you will find that it is time to leave the hospital. No matter the decisions you made while in the hospital, there comes a time when your stay is up. With nurses preparing your discharge papers, you may be wondering how to go about this difficult situation. Thinking about it before it is actually upon you may make it go over easier for all involved.

First and foremost, you need to look at both your state laws and the rules of the hospital involved. In states... more

As I mentioned in last week's post, bathrooms are for more than just potties. Brushing teeth, washing, drying and styling hair, showers/baths, and washing of the hands are all big bathroom activities that can take some time and patience.

When adopting older kids it would be helpful to know what their bathing habits were from before. Your child may not have ever seen or been in a bathtub before. Showers can seem like a dark and lonely place to spend time in as well. If your child had to carry the water for the family, chances are they did not bath regularly. A lot of developing... more

One question I know I see all the time is "How much does adoption cost?" The answer, of course, is "it varies". Foster adoption is the least expensive, monetarily. Depending on the country from which you adopt, international adoption can be as expensive as or more expensive than private domestic adoption.

In February 2009, Adoptive Families magazine published the results of their annual cost and timing survey. The average total of adoption expenses for 2007-2008 was $25,000-$30,000. Less than 6% of domestic adoptions cost more than $40,000. Most domestic adoptions were in... more

My oldest girls are aged nine. Meg is actually going to be ten in a few short months. When I think of puberty, I think I get the normal heavy gut feeling that most parents have. This post could actually be written in for many different categories. In fact I may expand on the effects of puberty with older child adoptions, international adoptions and Ethiopian adoptions in the future.

Right now, though, I have been thinking a lot lately on how to raise two black children through puberty as a white mom. There is a small part of me that says just go with the... more

First and foremost, you should know that while you are in the hospital after the delivery of the child you intend to place for adoption, the child is your child. Not a ward of the state. Not the adoptive parent's child. The child is your child. You are not only responsible for the decisions but you are allowed to make said decisions, no matter what someone else may try to tell you. Don't allow the opinions of the staff to alter how you feel about or react to your time in the hospital.

Knowing that some people may try to get around your rights as the sole... more

Last week I quickly read through my daily update on the East African world. A mere glance was all the attention it got that day. I saw that the Ethiopian Government was planning on building hydropower dam in a rural part of Ethiopia, near Somalia, I believe. My first thought was "Great!".

Electricity is such a problem right now in Addis Ababa, and all over Ethiopia for... more

I am the mother of a son. And my son has dolls. He likes his "babies" and has decided that when he grows up, he is going to be a Daddy. He will have five babies and will put them to sleep in cribs. He will take them to the grocery store in car seats. So yes, I do think boys can and should play with dolls.

I collected dolls and stuffed animals as a child, and my son's room is full of them. In addition to the 5 white Cabbage Patch Kids, for Jack's first Adoption Day, we added a black Cabbage Patch Newborn. The following Christmas we got "the twins" - two brown dolls from the... more

When preparing for bringing my Ethiopian girls home my mantra was,"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best and expect nothing." This is a good way to prepare yourself and I encourage anyone adopting older children to not expect anything at all.

After just a few weeks the girls' progress just blew us away. They picked up on English very well and have higher reading profeciency than many of their peers at school who have always lived here. They fit in socially very well and have friends, participate with others and just amaze me continually.

Somewhere along... more

In the past two weeks I have read one book and seen two movies with the same recurring themes of transracial, non-traditional families and of loss and the importance of a mother's love. I have also attended a conference on the Neuroscience of the neonates and how vital mother's are for an infant's development. It seems I attract all of these topics now that I have become a mother of a transracial adoptive family!

Last month I reviewed The Help,... more

Jack began asking for a baby sister when he was about 18 months old. His best friend K's mommy was having a baby girl. Sitting on the couch between my husband and me, Jack said, "I want a baby sisser."

I replied, "Ask your father."

Without missing a beat, Jack swiveled his head and said, insistently, "I want a baby sisser!"

And so it began...

We initially thought we'd begin the adoption process again when Jack turned three. When his adoption went way over our budget, we thought, OK, we'll wait until he's four. Jack even painted a picture, titled... more