Search Results for: blog loving an adopted child

Loving the Hair Song

If you have a Sesame Street fan in your home, or even if you don’t, you’ve probably heard the hoopla surrounding the latest Muppet hit: “I Love My Hair.” The superdooperschmooper cute music video went viral after it debuted on Sesame Street earlier this month. Now all I hear All.Day.Long. is my 6-year-old begging to watch and re-watch, and re-watch the skit that features an adorable brown puppet singing her heart out about the versatility of her tresses. The video was inspired by Sesame Street’s head writer and puppeteer Joey Mazzarino, who is a dad to a 5-year-old daughter with … Continue reading →

Jambo (Hello) to a New Line of Six Character Dolls Who were Adopted

In Friday’s blog, promised that I would do a positive blog on dolls. Last year, I wrote about dolls for kids of different ethnicities in my blog Toys and Dolls for Multicultural Families. Yesterday I reminded parents that while it is good to have a doll that reflects your child, not every doll needs to “match”. This year I can share with you some doll characters with different family constellations. Jambo Kids are school-age dolls. They are soft-bodied dolls about 12 inches high. A book is available for each doll. The website tells a little bit about each of the … Continue reading →

Older Child Adoption – Blessing or Nightmare?

When talking to people who have adopted older children, it seems that you almost always hear stories from two opposite ends of the spectrum. There are the families who say that their adoption of an older child is nothing but a nightmare, that it ruined their family and that their child will never function normally in a family setting. Then you talk to the those on the other side who say that their adoption of an older child has been a breeze. Everything went smoothly, they’ve had no problems, the child is a joy. Is it possible that both experiences … Continue reading →

When Adopted Kids Grow Up: Worst-Case Scenarios

My last blog spoke of research on adoptees’ adjustment. I mentioned David Kirschner’s book of worst-case case studies. It is a pain-filled and painful book of adoptees who became criminals. But adoptive parents need not panic. Kirschner makes no claim that most adoptees will be violent or that adoption is bad, or even that all adoptees will be maladjusted. He believes that looking for a pattern in the court cases he has worked on might illuminate things that don’t work to help adoptees. He believes that his experiences can not only help adoptees, parents and therapists to avoid horrible outcomes, … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Orphan Train Children: Will’s Choice

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The Orphan Train Children series, a spin-off of the Orphan Train Adventures Series, tells the story of children who were sent West on “orphan trains” to be fostered by townspeople. The children in this series are fictional; the orphan trains themselves are not. In Will’s Choice, twelve-year-old Will, whose mother died when he was four, travels with his father who works in a circus. When Will shows no signs of being talented enough to earn a living with the circus (okay, he’s rather clumsy), his father tells him that he has arranged for him to go “on a grand adventure”—to … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Orphan Train Children Series, Part One

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There are two new book series by prolific children’s author Joan Lowery Nixon. Two of the seven books in the Orphan Train Adventures series have won major awards. A spin-off series, Orphan Train Children, is a series of small books telling the individual stories of fictional children on the train. My first reaction upon seeing this series was, “oh, no”. A children’s book about abandoned children being put on a train, stood on platforms for townspeople to choose from, then being used for farm labor? Sure non-adopted kids might find this bit of history new and unusual, but won’t it … Continue reading →

Love You Forever–Reassuring Your Adopted Child

“I want to go bye-bye!” my four-year-old sobs. This has become her standard response to being reprimanded. I usually tell her she can go to her room. Then I make sure to add, “We’ll be here when you’re ready.” There is nothing particularly unusual about this, of course. It would be wrong to assume adoption is the primary cause of every emotion my daughters have. However, many adoptive parents and adoption professionals report that adopted children often experience insecurity and fear of abandonment. The last few times my daughter has wanted to go bye-bye, I tell her, “I would come … Continue reading →

Easter Children

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“Am I really not supposed to be here?” Adopted adults have written about struggling with identity issues. I’m not sure, but I wonder if that question was ever at the heart of those issues. I remember teaching Sunday School and having several children of divorced or single parents in the class. The curriculum went on and on about how children were to be created in a loving, selfless and endless union of a married man and woman. I totally agree with that ideal. But I remember worrying that children whose parents were not together, or who were conceived out of … Continue reading →

Adoption Books for Children: Focus on Korea and Vietnam

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This blog will be the first in a series. I’ll share some adoption books which tell the stories of children from different parts of the world. Of course, many of the stories will be interesting to children adopted from other countries than the ones depicted, or to non-adopted children who are likely to meet adopted friends or classmates at some point in their lives. Next I’ll do a series of books for adults on adoption from different regions. In An American Face, a boy looks forward to receiving his American citizenship, but thinks he will be getting a new “American” … Continue reading →

Helping Children with a Dual Reality of Birthdays

Birthdays are a time of great joy for children, and for families as they celebrate the gift of their child. Yet some adopted persons report feelings of sadness around their birthdays. Persons who were adopted must deal with the dual reality that on their birth date, something joyous happened certainly, but often something sad happened as well. Perhaps they were born into sad circumstances, or their birth was the occasion for their permanent separation from their birthmother. Other children hear, nearly every birthday, details surrounding their birth, how their parents couldn’t wait for it, how wanted they were. But around … Continue reading →