About: Robyn C

recent posts by Robyn C:


Traveling with an Infant

November 20th, 2009
Categories: Tips, Travel

airplaneFor those of you who have your children home with you for the holidays - Congratulations! Now that the holidays are upon us, you might find yourself traveling with said children. In Jack's first year, we took six planes, all over the country, and two trains from Massachusetts to New York and back. We became instant experts on traveling with an infant. If you are going to fly with an infant under 14 days old, get a doctor's note! I called the airline we flew with Jack, and asked them if I needed one. The customer service rep said no. Imagine my surprise when we were almost arrested for not having said note. It's a long story, but the point is, even if the… [more]

Open Adoption Roundtable: Birthdays

November 18th, 2009

The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It’s designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. This round's topic involves birthdays. I know that birthdays can be an extremely emotional time, for everyone connected to adoption, not just those of us in open adoptions. So what is it that we do, as part of our open adoptions, during the “birthday season”? I admit that I am terrible about keeping in touch. If someone is on Facebook, I can handle it, but without the computer feeding me info, I'm way out of the loop. I hope to do better next year. There are three days that I make sure we contact Jack's birthmother:
  • Jack's birthday
  • Her

Stretching It

November 13th, 2009
Categories: Media, Points to Ponder

ChalkboardI was cleaning out my email account recently, when I came across a URL I had sent myself to look at. It's from June 1st, regarding Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban adopting a baby from Vietnam. I wasn't struck by the article, which by now is old news, but by the comments. (I'm leaving in all the spelling mistakes. Really people, how hard is it to read what you write before you click post?) Doesnt anyone want to adopt an AMERICAN child??!!! ~ E I was thinking the same thing!! There are so many children that need loving parents right here in our own country and everyone seems to be going overseas to adopt. ~ M I dont understand celebrities. Yes children of other… [more]

God’s Role In Adoption

November 11th, 2009
Posted By: Robyn C on Hoping to Adopt
Categories: Random Thoughts

Flash of Light

God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens) We've all seen it. The advice from others telling us that our child will come when God sees fit. The overjoyed adoptive mom who feels from the first moment that God meant this child to be with her. The ubiquitous "It's… [more]

Open Adoption Roundtable: Excuses, Excuses

November 9th, 2009

The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. This round we're going to consider one critique of fully open adoptions. Have you ever heard--or perhaps even made--statements like these? "We have medical histories and can share the information we have about their birth parents with our children now. If they feel a need to initiate contact with their birth families when they are adults, we will fully support them." "The decision to have a relationship with her bio family should be hers when she is ready. Creating a relationship between them before she wants it might cause issues in the future." "Children deserve to have just… [more]

Digital Scrapbooking Update

November 6th, 2009
Categories: Scrapbooks

Back in May, I wrote the post Where Are All the Brown Kid Stickers? about my quest for finding brown children in scrapbooking embellishments. Since then, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for brown children, especially in digital scrapbooking kits. Tomorrow, November 7, is (Inter)National Digital Scrapbooking Day. (Don't ask me why they write it like that, with the parentheses.) Because many digital stores are having sales for the occasion, I thought I'd take a moment to point out my favorite designers, who became my favorites in large part due to their multicultural embellishments. At the top of the list is Wimpychompers. As far as I've seen every single one of her kits contains at least one brown child. And her kits are adorable! Close behind… [more]

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National Adoption Month

November 5th, 2009

USMap

You may know that November is National Adoption Month. Courtney wrote a great post about it on the Adoptive Parenting blog. Although we can all celebrate our adoptions - past, present, and future - National Adoption Month focuses on adopting from the US foster care system. This year's theme is "You don't have to be a perfect parent." According to about.com, the focus for 2009 is encouraging the African American community to consider adoption. There are 510,000 children in foster care, approximately 129,000 of whom are legally available for adoption. The National Foster Care Coalition reports that "the percentage of children of color in foster care is higher than that of the general US population" and that children… [more]

Adoption Carnival: Photos of Adoption

November 4th, 2009
Categories: Adoption Carnival

Grown In My Heart's Adoption Carnival III asks: What is your most treasured adoption photo (or two)? Iggy, Jack, and S I don't have permission to post pictures of Jack's birthmother (S) and the son she parents ("Iggy"), so I had to blur my favorite photo. You can see Jack, who is 7 months old. He's sitting between Iggy, then age 2, and S. We went back to Missouri in August 2006 to finalize Jack's adoption. We were able to spend a few hours with S and Iggy. Iggy was a little competitive with the baby. He seemed to like Jack OK, but vastly preferred getting attention from my husband to actively playing with Jack. I regret not spending more time with S after… [more]

Adopt

November 3rd, 2009
Posted By: Robyn C on Hoping to Adopt

Dictionary Pageadopt transitive verb 1 : to take by choice into a relationship; especially : to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) as one's own child2 : to take up and practice or use [adopted a moderate tone]3 : to accept formally and put into effect [adopt a constitutional amendment]4 : to choose (a textbook) for required study in a course intransitive verb1 : to adopt a child [couples choosing to adopt]2 : to sponsor the care and maintenance of [adopt a highway] ~ Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Who knew that the word adopt had so many meanings. I didn't, and I make a living on words. Why am I quoting the dictionary? Two reasons. First, November is National Adoption Awareness Month. Courtney wrote an informative post on the Adoptive… [more]

We Want to Adopt Your Baby

October 30th, 2009
Categories: Miscellaneous

Stop SignIf you've ever gotten into a discussion or even read about abortion, you've likely encountered comments about anti-abortion protesters adopting the babies they believe they're saving. An offhand remark about abortion on an adoption group resulted in one woman proudly stating that she and her husband stand in front of their local "abortion clinic" with the sign "WE WANT TO ADOPT YOUR BABY. ALL EXPENSES PAID." When I first read that, my mind went blank. Then I thought, Wow. Wow, that's just wrong. Because what she and her husband are essentially saying is, "WE WANT TO BUY YOUR BABY." If the sign read "We want to adopt your baby" and ended there, somehow that would be acceptable, though presumptuous. A woman could walk up and… [more]