Ways for Kids to Celebrate Flag Day

Flag Day is celebrated every year on June 14. It is a holiday that was designed specifically to honor the American Flag. How much do you know about the history of this holiday? Here is a quick review of the history of Flag Day, and some suggestions about how children can celebrate it. The first Flag Day occurred in 1885. BJ Cigrand, who was a schoolteacher, was the first to get it started. This teacher arranged for the students in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 as “Flag Birthday”. The date was selected because it … Continue reading

Turkey Day Drama This Year?

It is almost Thanksgiving and I am getting ready to for our annual guilt trip by my in laws. Every year around the holidays this happens when they know we like to do Thanksgiving at our house and his mother says that she understands. Even though she says she understands and is not upset we always seem to get the guilt trip. OK to be honest it is not me that gets the guilt trip because honestly it does not bother me enough anymore to feel guilty but my husband he still gets the guilt trip. I am sure that … Continue reading

Adoption Leave and Assistance

In my last entry I mentioned doing some research on adoption benefits that employers may offer. If you are planning on pursing adoption you should start your journey by calling your human resource department and see if they offer any. When you are speaking with them be sure to ask if the company offers any financial assistance to pay for the adoption process. Many employers offer paid leave but if your company is not one of the companies that offer it but your company has more than 50 employees they are obligated under the Federal Family Medical Leave Act to … Continue reading

He Will Tell Everyone Our Adoption Story

We were at the emergency vet for one of our dogs last night and the doctor mentioned about adoption so of course we went into what agency we had experienced with the adoption of our kids. It is so funny my normally shy husband comes out of his shell when people talk to him about adoption. The story always starts with the night he got the call that we were selected for the two boys. We had already been turned down for the first two children we were put in for so when we did not get a call all … Continue reading

Deals for Columbus Day Weekend 2011

Any time the calendar indicates that there will be a three day weekend, you can count on one thing. There will be sales! Columbus Day this year falls on Monday, October 10. Your children probably have that day off of school. Here are some deals you can take advantage of while you are out shopping this weekend. Starbucks has a nice deal for morning people this weekend. Buy any handcrafted beverage, and you can get any delicious, handmade, Starbucks breakfast sandwich or wrap for just $2.00. If you decided to take your family shopping this weekend, and forgot to eat … Continue reading

Guiding Others To Adoption

Every time my husband or I hear that someone is considering adoption we jump in with our story through the adoption process. Now my mom is even starting to do it. A client of her has a daughter that is considering adoption and so now she passes my information on to them. She tells people about the wonderful children just waiting in the foster care system for a forever home. It was funny she calls me up asking me what agency we used, who our case worker was and how long the process was. Do you know what my answer … Continue reading

Mediation Day Part 3

We are headed back into the mediation room; we have been hanging around town for the last two hours and the time has come to hear if the biological mother of our kids is going to relinquish her parental rights to Rebecca. If she says no to our offer which included quarterly updates, yearly picture and a video yearly than we are going to have to go to court to fight her for custody. I am ready to go to court if I have to but I would prefer she did what is best for Rebecca. As I mentioned before … Continue reading

Mediation Day Part 1

Leading up to the mediation with Rebecca’s birth mother we sat down and gave a lot of thought to what we were willing and not willing to do. The CPS case worker talked to us and explained the whole procedure to us and gave us suggestions on what the biological mother may request and what we should and should not consider. Given the fact that she had lost her rights to George and Steve we had a feeling she was going to want them tied into this mediation agreement somehow. Legally she has no right to ask for anything to … Continue reading

Day Two as a Family

Well last night was hard I won’t lie, our first night home and I dealt with lice, vomit and my 3 year old Steve crying in his sleep under his toddler bed. It was a rough night but it was our first night as a family so all the negatives were definitely outweighed by the positives. Steve’s head was still crawling I did not know how long it took for the lice treatment to work. I read the box again and waited a little longer. We invited some family members over today and had them come in small groups I … Continue reading

International vs Domestic Adoption

We have friends that are in China adopting a beautiful baby girl right now. The journey for them to adopt a baby from China started over five years ago. They knew since they got married that they wanted to adopt a baby girl from China they just did not realize how long the process would take. When you do an international adoption there are rules and guidelines that the country of origin requires for international adoption. It does not happen as fast as you see when some famous celebrity goes to a country and comes right home with a baby. … Continue reading