I blogged about a tragedy in which a young mother did not seek medical help for her daughter who wasn’t eating, and the child died. The 19-year-old claimed that she had tried to plan adoption for her daughter but that agencies wouldn’t work with her because she had no prenatal care. A hard-to-believe claim, but the story got me thinking : Could Education Have Prevented This Tragedy? In Let’s Educate Our Youth About Adoption, I suggested that preschoolers learn to call 911, and that young children learn to see adoption as a normal way of building a family. I suggested … Continue reading →

I reflect on my co-blogger Lyn’s blog in the Education Blog about teen-age girls making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Teen mothers who plan adoption for their babies are less likely to go on welfare than those who parent as teens. Unfortunately, most mothers choosing adoption are young adults—teenagers often decide to parent. Of course, some teen moms do a fine job—but these girls will quickly realize it’s no lark. My blog Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away from You cautions that some doctors’ and dentists’ comments and policies regarding keeping parents out can be … Continue reading →

I kicked off the month by attending a Cultural Fair with exchange students and au pairs. In my blog Celebrating ALL Cultures, I assert that celebrating all cultures makes our kids believe we truly accept diversity and aren’t just accepting them because they are our kids. I talk about some of the history of adoption with Proxy Adoptions. This means adoptions where the prospective parents didn’t meet their children first. In the past this sometimes meant there was little in the way of a homestudy or any education for the adopting family. Today a homestudy is always done, and while … Continue reading →

This month I reported on several conversations I’ve had with my kids. Three of them were basically the “how babies are made” conversations, humorous but revealing insights into what my kids thought at different ages. You can read what I responded at each age and decide if you do, or don’t, want to base my answers on yours! First I had to deal with my older son’s questions about babies and his shock to realize that not all of them (including himself!) were Korean. This story is told in Where Babies Come From, or, Don’t Fall Asleep on an Airplane. … Continue reading →

As part of my blogging each week I want to have several regular features that I’ll write about on certain days. These are things that I think are relevant to many in the adoption world and are hopefully things that my readers want to see. Adoption in the News – On Mondays (starting next Monday) I will share with you some of the recent news “buzz” related to adoption. I will try to cover a good mix of information and events from all perspectives of the triad. If you see an article or a story that you think should be … Continue reading →

I began the blog on All Saints Day with a tribute to certain “Saints” in U.S. Adoption and Pioneers in International Adoption. Then I wrote a tribute to the founder of my daughter’s Korean adoption agency, who has lived an exciting and multifaceted life and is remarkable for his humble concern for children. In honor of National Adoption Month, I wrote two blogs on Top Ten Myths about Adoption. For Part One, click here. For Part Two, click here. Then I wrote a blog about events on National Adoption Day, Saturday November 17. These events included finalizations of thousands of … Continue reading →

A major theme for this month in the adoption blog was discussions—especially discussions with your child, but also discussions with others. I began the month sharing my four-year-old daughter Regina’s questions about her droopy eyelid in Talking With Kids About Special Needs, and in Principles for Talking with Kids About Special Needs I discuss how I tried to use the same tenets for talking about her eye that I use when talking about adoption issues. Regina also figures prominently in the next blogs. She told me, “I Don’t Like My Skin”. I stumbled through a response, shared in I Don’t … Continue reading →