Sucking the air outI would like to address a comment made on a blog that I wrote on July 2, 2008 entitled “Place Older Adopted Children With Stay at Home Parent.” In that blog, I stated that older adopted children typically come to their new family with abandonment issues. I realize there are many other issues involved, but I am addressing just abandonment for now. In the summary of the article I stated, “Try to find a way to spend those first... more

I’ve mentioned that our homeschooling schedule becomes slightly more relaxed during the summer months. We tend to lots of reading for the various summer reading programs. For one such program, my oldest son read The Jacket, by Andrew Clements. The book centers on a Caucasian boy who accuses an African-American boy of stealing a jacket. When it’s revealed this accusation is in error, it causes the boy to rethink his beliefs about race and color, and examine his own prejudices.

I asked my son about this book. He was able to summarize the plot for me, and... more

Two of my children have special medical needs, and one has grappled in recent past with mental health issues. Whenever possible, I try to involve my children in the process of caring for their conditions, knowing that at some point, the majority of care regarding it will be transferred to them.

My oldest was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes shortly before his third birthday. About a week after his fourth birthday, he began checking his own blood sugar – yes, with a lancet – under our close supervision. Now, at almost 10 years of age, he does entire infusion... more

A report released today by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute suggests that minority children are not best served by what they term a “color-blind approach.”

Citing statistics that show over 50% of children waiting to be adopted are children of color, the Institute recommends the Multi-ethnic Placement Act be amended to include race as a factor to be considered when placing children for adoption.

This is an adoption “hot-button” issue, emotionally charged, and with serious ramifications.... more

Though our therapist felt our daughter was “adjusting beautifully” at our last visit, she did schedule a follow-up, just to “check in.” Today, about a month out from the last visit, we had the check-in appointment.

Once again our daughter went off for her one-on-one with the therapist, though for this visit their “alone time” was a little longer. When I finally got to go in, it was much the same as last time! Our therapist feels that our daughter has truly made remarkable progress... more

With about six weeks of school left, it has become apparent that my teenage daughter, Lyn, cannot possibly pass four of her fourth grade classes. She has special needs that include a learning disability, fetal alcohol, ADD, and verbal Apraxia. There cannot be any benefit to her education or her self-esteem to continue to fail for the rest of the school year. If she were in public school, instead of homeschooling, there wouldn’t be any choice. She would have to finish out the current school year before starting summer school. What a waste of time and energy. However,... more

Hereditary Spherocytosis is a relatively uncommon blood disorder, occurring in 1 person out of approximately 5,000.

As the name suggests, the condition is primarily an inherited one. With this condition, the blood cells are mutated, and are atypical cells with very thin walls. Because the cells are not the shape healthy red lbood cells are, they have difficulty passing through the body. However, unlike sickled cells, they do not cause pain as they pass through the body. A hallmark of the condition is that the spleen retains these cells longer because of their... more

It was bound to happen. We can all pretend that racism is a thing of the past, yet we know in our hearts that it isn’t. We were told during transracial adoption training that it would happen and that we needed to prepare our children for it. Of course, we didn’t think it would really happen to us. It may be especially difficult for those of us raised in Midwest, middleclass, suburbia to accept. We were never exposed to racism growing up because we weren’t exposed to people of other races enough to say so. My high school had three blacks in attendance and two of them were actually... more

As I’ve blogged about before, just about everyone in our immediate family has some sort of special condition. How can you keep track of it all?

I’ve been pretty up-front with the fact that I have ADD, and organization is not my strong suit. Therefore, I have to work doubly harder to have a system. Most people who don’t know that I have ADD think I am incredibly organized (ha!), so I guess I’ve developed a system that works well for me.

At the crux of my system is my... more

In a previous article, I discussed what a service animal is. The benefits are tremendous, however, a service animal is a highly trained entity and not a “pet” in the sense that we use the term. Therefore, it bears considering if a service animal is right for your family.

Does the child need a service animal? Many of the organizations listed in the previous article had guidelines for application. Though... more