Go here to read part 1 of this story In early 2003, we began our third adoption hoping to adopt an African American newborn born in the U.S.   Our social worker told us to most folks weren’t waiting longer than 3 months for a baby, and was confident we’d be chosen by a birth-mom...
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(Warning:  exceedingly long, exceedingly detailed) In the fall of 1997, when we decided to adopt a baby from Korea, our four birth children ranged in age from three to nine years old. As we filled out mountains of paperwork and I prepared our home for another baby, I realized that I’d really love to...
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(Music giveaway below!) ~~~~ I first met Shaun Groves in a waiting area in the Miami International Airport.   We were on our way to spend a week together in the Dominican Republic along with several other bloggers, where Shaun (who’d invited us) would be showing us the work of Compassion International.   I hadn’t really...
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Due to recent adoption tax credit changes, lots of families this tax season have been asked to provide the IRS with documentation of costs they paid for adoptions in the last several years. We’re in that boat too. I spent several hours the other day sorting papers and found zero receipts for our 2007...
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I got an email today from a mom in the process of adopting a sibling group of older kids and hoping to homeschool.  She wondered what kinds of resources I might suggest.  I thought I’d share my answer here in case others were also in this situation. ———- There are so many possible ways...
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I was asked by Amber Haines from The RunAMuck to contribute to the Idea Camp, and talk about the effect of adoption on other children in the family.  This is an important issue, one that tends to be only briefly covered in most books about adoption.  I could give you a whole lot of...
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Some of you might remember the adoption conference that I attended back in October– lots of good messages by some really inspirational speakers.  For those of you who wished you could have been there, I wanted to let you know that many of the keynote speeches are now available to download right here, perfect...
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I am paying for my writing time this morning by allowing the puppy to shred yesterday’s newspaper all over the living room floor.  Quiet at any cost.   Have discovered she doesn’t have accidents in the house if I keep her leashed within 6 feet of me at all times.   Down side of that plan? ...
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Sometimes kids with grief issues can have a hard time enjoying the good moments in family life. This afternoon we settled in to work on a Christmas craft,  a pinecone elf project that I saw here.  Most of the kids got into the project and enjoyed it.   But one was struggling. After beginning the...
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