Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~Dr. Seuss

This quote from the book, The Lorax, is a great way to open up conversation with our children about how we can serve others. Service is an amazing way to teach our children compassion. It is even more wonderful when we are able to help our adopted children to give back by serving and developing more compassion for adopted children and families.

Where can we find opportunities to serve within the adoption... more

Teaching our children to serve others does excellent things for their development and character building! For adopted children who might have difficult backgrounds, serving others can be somehow particularly healing.

How can you and your child find places to serve and to volunteer?

I recently happened on this website, Do Something. I was fascinated by the many ways that are shown to start volunteering and, as the title suggests,... more

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. ~Franklin Delano Roosevelt

President Roosevelt was a wise man! I worry sometimes that I’m not teaching my children enough, watching their character develop in the right ways, that they will be prepared for the future in the ways that I hope. The more I think, the more I realize that teaching them how to serve is the best thing I can do for all of us. What future will it be for any of us if compassion plays no part?

I have 3... more

So what are the behavioral issues a post institutionalized child & family may or may not have to deal with?I have learned that this varies so much from child to child, you can read blogs of some families just home and they will say “ we are fine, he is attaching just fine, no problems here, its like he has been here all along”, while another family will be having issues right away with eye contact, tantrums, sleeping and eating.

I do think some families have honeymoon periods where the child’s true issues don’t rise to the surface perhaps... more

It’s been my goal to make more Mommy friends. Being a Stay at home Mom can be isolating and friends are a must. I have been reflecting on my past friendships and why I’m no longer friends with certain people. I went to three different elementary schools, three different middle schools and two different high schools and moved at least 10 times during my childhood from the ages 5-18. What does that have to do with friends? Well I made friends but never kept the same friends due to moving so often. I knew after a while not to get close... more

May 8th was Children’s Mental Health Day. Although that date has passed, we still have an opportunity to stop and acknowledge this enormous problem in our country. The entire month of May is dedicated as Mental Health Month.

According to the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (CABF), more than one million children and teens suffer from bipolar disorder, and are among the estimated 50 million Americans who experience a mental health disorder in any... more

I recently had an interesting discussion with a fellow Mommy about our roles as Mothers. I mentioned that I struggle between being a strict authority figure or a warm fuzzy “you can come to me for anything” type Mama. I don’t want to be a “do as I say not as I do” type Mom but then again I’m seeing so much wrong with kids these days compared to the ideals and values that I grew up with.

My friend felt that you can have it both ways… be best friends and be firm. She feels that she has found a happy medium. I feel that I get walked... more

For Mother's Day, remember yourself.

This is a hard suggestion for me to follow. It's opposite of many other suggestions that even I've given this year - before I realized I was WRONG.

I have learned to minimize my Mother’s Days since adopting my children. With all of their "mother issues", and because of all of these acting out concerns, it seems easier to “not have a Mother’s Day” than to offer the kids more reminders of all of the other mothers in their past and of their grief/loss issues.

This year, I realized that this... more

Many adopted children struggle with Mother’s Day issues. Some of the reasons for various feelings have been discussed in other blogs.

We know that adopted children may act out. So, what should we do about it? What can we do to help the child and to help our family?

1. Be aware.

Knowledge is power. We’ve all heard that before. Even so, it’s true. Knowing that our child might act out, that this is a possibility,... more

When I asked around on my personal blog what Adoptive Parents wanted to learn more about Toy and Product reviews came up.It makes sense, everyone likes the Mom tested and kid approved favorites. It seems that there is a overwhelming array of toys and educational products to choose from. There is nothing more frustrating that seeing the toy that you searched for and probably shelled out alot of money on just sit in the corner gathering dust and not being played with.

I often see the same toys at resale shops and thrift stores.I have found... more