What is the third leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults those from 15 to 24 years old? If you said suicide then you are correct. What causes teenagers or young adults with an unlimited future ahead of them to choose suicide over life? The number one cause of suicide in the United States is depression. If you suspect your child is suffering from depression, don’t wait. Seek medical help and therapy right away. A federal government survey released on May 13, says that over two million teenagers... more

A new study found that children who were exclusively breastfed for at least the first three months of life scored about six points higher on IQ tests at six years old then those who were bottle fed or partially bottle fed. As an adoptive parent, do you feel a twinge of guilt when you hear about this type of study? Yes, it is possible to breastfeed adopted babies for some people who are able to plan a few months in advance. However, it takes a lot of effort, doesn’t always work, and if the birthmother... more

I want to talk about the disruption process, but about the emotional process rather than the legal process.

Let’s start with the term disruption. Legally it means that a placement is terminated before an adoption is finalized. A placement terminated after the adoption is finalized is called a dissolution, but disruption is commonly used in both circumstances. In fact, I rarely hear anyone use the term dissolution.

Whether the placement is terminated before or after adoption does not make the decision process any less painful. Our family has never... more

For many of us, Mother’s Day is not the day we had dreamed of when we started out our parenting journey. We don’t have children rushing to us with hugs and fists full of flowers. We aren’t greeted with “I love you” or children wanting to make the day perfect for us.

Many of my days started with my son throwing a huge fit, possibly literally throwing things, cursing at me and other equally fun things. At some point in my parenting journey, I stopped making the day about making my kids feel good about having me for a mom, and instead I celebrate making... 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

Here is the scenario. My mother is a foster parent to teenage girls. I talked her into fostering when my father died about 10 years ago to keep her busy and provide her with companionship. Obviously, since she only parents teenage girls, many are now adults. She told me this morning that an older sister, around 25, has given birth to a healthy baby girl about four hours from where we live. The father, a boyfriend, isn’t helping, nor is he interested in parenting. The mother of the baby told her sisters that she is thinking about placing the baby for adoption. My mother asked me... more

I came across this story this morning. A man who was adopted found his birth father. Instead of the touching reunion many adopted children envision, this man found that his biological father was a convicted murderer on Ohio’s Death Row.

The son, Sean Baker, is convinced of this biological father’s innocence, even though the man is believed to have been the leader in a prison riot that ended a correctional officer’s life, not to mention the crime that landed him behind bars in the first place (also a... more

I don’t swim. Many a brave soul has tried…and failed…to teach me. I took classes as a child. Yes, passing a swim class is necessary to graduate from high school (or at least it was when I attended back in the Dark Ages). But the requirement was merely that you passed the class, not that you had to swim. In fact, I was compared to a pontoon. It was that bad.

I married a man who does not swim. What are the odds of that? He hates it more than I do, if that is possible. He also tried to learn many, many times. We don’t really even like being on the water, much less... more

As with any type of parenting, you often get blindsided by oddball issues that you just don’t know how to handle. One such issue presented itself tonight, and I think I handled it all wrong!

When we adopted our children, we kept their last names as their middle names. For my son, we took his first and middle names (both short names) and made it into one hyphenated name, and left his previous last name as his middle name. I wasn’t crazy about how it sounded, but, I wanted them to have some sense of “normalcy” and at their ages (respectively 4 and 5 at the time)... more

The actress, Edie Falco, who is most closely associated with her role as Carmella Soprano on The Sopranos, recently adopted a daughter, Macy, according to unconfirmed reports posted at several online venues. This is the second child, and second adoption for Ms. Falco, aged 44. Macy joins big brother, Anderson, who is currently 3 year old. Anderson was adopted in 2005, and was named after the mother of the actress, whose maiden name was Anderson.

Falco joins other recent celebrity adoptive parents, including:

Julie Haddon (The Biggest Loser, Season... more