Search Results for: blog in the chill of midwinter

My Last Blog

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This is going to be my last blog as the Adoption Blogger for Families.com. I’m looking forward to spending the summer with my kids, possibly working at their school, and taking on new writing projects. I may well guest blog occasionally for this or other Families blogs. It seems the Adoption Blog will continue, so I hope this blog, along with Families’ forums, can be a source of information and community for adoptive parents, adoptees, and birth parents. Yesterday I could think of a million things to say in my last few blogs and wondered how I would fit it … Continue reading →

Christmas Stories and Quotes, Seen in the Light of Adoption

Our former adoption blogger MJ wrote about the relationship between her faith and adoption. I’ve been thinking about some quotes, Scriptural and otherwise, that have a new meaning for me when seen in the light of our family’s experiences with adoption. Visualizing the Christmas Story can be a bit more intensely real when you think of your child being born in a borrowed house and possibly left there for a day in a cold December. If you have an international family, many of the charity appeals you hear this time of year seem not so far away, but much closer … Continue reading →

Book Review: A Mother for Choco

A Mother for Choco is a book very popular with adoptive families. Choco is a young bird who lives all alone and wished he could have a mother. One day, he sets off to find her. First he spies a giraffe, and says, “Oh, Mrs. Giraffe, you are yellow like me! Are you my mother?” Mrs. Giraffe replies, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have wings like you.” The scene is repeated as Choco finds a penguin with wings, but not large cheeks; a walrus with large cheeks, but no striped feet. Choco “just couldn’t find a mother who looked just … Continue reading →

Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away from You (and Neither Can Dentists)

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Only now do I realize that a visit to the pediatric dentist was much more of an ordeal for my mother than it was for me. Anticipating the protests, torn between comforting the child and ensuring that the necessary things happened, not wanting the dentist to be cast as the bad guy lest we be even more fearful, she took most of the blame herself. She always seemed so sure of herself and of what had to be done. It wasn’t until years later that I realized she hadn’t felt as sure as she seemed. Mom had once asked me … Continue reading →

Gina’s Good-Night Story

The following is an unpublished story I wrote for a creative writing assignment–but mostly for my daughter. I hope it will be helpful for other families. “NO!” said Gina. She stamped her foot. “What’s wrong?” Daddy asked. “No-o-o,” Gina whined. Daddy looked tired. “Use your words,” he said. “Unh!” said Gina. She couldn’t remember all her words. She just wanted Daddy to make it all better now. “I know!” said her big sister. “Let’s look at her special pictures from when she came home!” Gina’s brother brought the big album. Mommy opened it to the pictures of Daddy meeting Gina … Continue reading →

Talking About Tough Issues: Abandonment

Some adoptive parents are very distressed to learn that their child was abandoned. They believe that this means the birthmother did not love the child. It is certainly difficult to think of a beloved child left alone, but remember that when it is the only option, abandonment does not have the negative connotations it has in this country. In the case of international adoption, often a country does not have a formal system for placing children for adoption. In these countries “abandonment” does not imply that the child was found in a dumpster. “Abandoned” babies in these countries are usually … Continue reading →

“She Just Abandoned Me!”

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“How could she just abandon her child like that?” “How can I tell my child she was abandoned?” “How can I ever speak positively of my son’s birthmother when it breaks my heart to think of my son being left alone?” “I was abandoned when I was two months old.” Many children who were adopted from other countries have papers stating that they were “abandoned”. Parents who adopt from any country, including the U.S., have people comment “How come his parents didn’t want him?” or “How can these people just abandon their kids?” (Note to people who have asked me … Continue reading →