Search Results for: blog our sibling adoption experience with the

Our 2nd Placement Meeting

With the first placement meeting we had pictures of the brother and sister that we were put in for, we had their names, we knew their history and we even started buying clothes for these two children that we just knew were going to be ours. We had been showing everyone we knew the pictures of the two kids that we would soon call our own. The call that came after that first placement meeting brought such sadness to my husband and me, the unimaginable loss that we experienced where they decided to give the brother and sister we were … Continue reading →

Sheryl Crow Welcomes her Second Baby through Adoption

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Sheryl Crow announced this morning that she is adopting a second child, Levi James, who was born April 30. Crow made the announcement via her website, and her publicist confirmed the information. Crow, age 48, adopted her son Wyatt three years ago, when he was two weeks old. (Click here to see Michelle’s blog on Sheryl’s first adoption.) The sibling connection seems to be important to Crow—she made her announcement by writing, “Wyatt has a baby brother!” Crow reportedly is not deterred by the idea of being a single mother. “For my whole life, I had a pretty clear picture … Continue reading →

China Adoption Book Review Series: Kids Like Me in China

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What does a nine-year-old think and feel about her adoption? What thoughts and feelings does she have on revisiting the orphanage where she lived during the first year of her life and meeting her caregivers? My recent China Adoption Book Review Series (The Lost Daughters of China, China Ghosts, and Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son Parts One, Two, and Three, has covered writings by adoptive parents and from researchers, journalists and academics into abandonment, orphanage care, and domestic and international adoption in China. With Kids Like Me in China, we get to hear from an adoptee. Ying Ying Fry … Continue reading →

“Home for the Holidays” Musical Adoption Special at 8 Tonight

Take a break from Christmas craziness and watch CBS’ 11th annual Home for the Holidays special tonight at 8 pm, 7 Central. As Reba McIntyre (who will perform tonight) says, love is the true meaning of Christmas. Take a few minutes and get inspired. Other music performers include Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, and Shakira. Songs will include both those that relate to themes of love and family as well as traditional holiday carols. The show will again be hosted by adoptee Faith Hill. CBS says that stories of adopted children and their parents will be the main part of … Continue reading →

Embryo Adoption, Part Two

My last blog was on a relatively new type of adoption, embryo adoption. The visibility of embryo adoption will, I predict, increase quite a bit for three reasons. The increased debate about stem cells will impact people’s awareness of and beliefs about frozen embryos, which are a main source of embryonic stem cells. Some scientists say that embryonic stem cells, which have not yet differentiated into different types of tissues, will be the most useful for treating diseases (although non-embryonic stem cells, obtained from blood, umbilical cords or other tissue, have already been used to treat aplastic anemia, and other … Continue reading →

The 2008 Adoption Guide

Initially I thought $14.95 was a steep price for what looked like a magazine issue. But the 2008 Adoption Guide is in fact more informative than many books. It is a combination news digest, workbook, telephone and website directory, statistics almanac, and collection of personal essays. The annual guide, from the publisher of Adoptive Families Magazine, is a concise introduction to adoption topics, but it also provides the insight from personal experiences that people exploring adoption crave (and that experienced adoptive parents can’t seem to resist reading either). The guide covers the four major types of adoption: domestic infant adoption … Continue reading →

Adoption is Great for Dads AND Moms

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  It’s been said that in couples, it’s often the woman who drives the adoption process. Perhaps the women have more need to raise children, perhaps they feel worse about being infertile, perhaps they want to have the childrearing experience so many of their friends have. Or it may just be that they know more about adoption, perhaps because women seem to talk amongst themselves about their personal lives and children more than male coworkers and acquaintances do. Some women have found that their husbands were initially reluctant about adopting. I’m sure sometimes it happens the other way around too, … Continue reading →

Sibling Attachment

Something that I get asked about a lot is my children’s adjustment to one another. We took three kids of different ages and backgrounds and threw them together and said “you’re family now”. It makes sense that some people wonder how that went! I have honestly been amazed at how well it has gone. Once Josiah was in our home I realized that we had a responsibility to protect him – even if that meant protecting him from his own siblings! I wondered if it would be too hard for him to have two older kids in the house, if … Continue reading →

Can Your Sibling Relations Influence Your Children’s?

Many of us come from families of origin where our relationships were less than stellar. In fact, this can be a motivating factor for some of us to try to build our own families where the communication is better; the relationships are stronger and more pleasant, and where our children love and get along with each other. If you come from a family where you do not get along with your siblings, you might be wondering how you can do something different with your own children. Will your sibling relations influence the way your own children interact with each other? … Continue reading →

Book Review: After Adoption: Direct Contact and Relationships

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The book After Adoption: Direct Contact and Relationships, by Carole Smith and Janette Logan, fills a void in the adoption literature by providing real examples of how contact between birth relatives, adopted children and their adoptive families are arranged. The authors include comments from all parties regarding their feelings about these contacts. The authors, who are on the faculty of Applied Social Science at a British university, note that while there is an increasing presumption in favor of open adoption (in both the UK and the US), there is little substantive research as to its benefit. One interesting thing to … Continue reading →