Search Results for: blog traveling to our daughter part three going home

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 →

Frugal Month in Review: November 2008

November to be is the beginning of two things. The holiday season starts with Thanksgiving, and then there is winter. Despite the fact that winter doesn’t officially start until next month, the fall seems to give way to the winter in November anyway. We had a day of snow already. Here is looking ahead to December and the end of the year! November 1st Frugal Month in Review: October 2008 “Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot. November 2 … Continue reading →

Tears in Heaven

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Meg, my eight-year-old, is saying some very wise things lately. Last night we came across a baby’s T-shirt that I was saving because Regina’s foster mother had sent it with her. Meg wanted to know what clothes I’d saved from her own days in Korea. I mentioned the snowsuit that covered her pink outfit. This reminded Meg of the story she’s heard us tell of how her foster mother, after a moving prayer in which Meg was transferred into my arms, snatched her back again and covered her more warmly. “You know, Mom,” Meg said now, “I think she was … Continue reading →

Adopting When You Already Have Children: Travel Considerations, Part Three

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When deciding whether your children should travel with you to pick up their new sibling, think about how your child or chidren will react to the settings and events you expect to be in and encounter. If it is an area of extreme poverty, will it distress your child? Will he find it hard to see other kids in an orphanage who are not being adopted? Parents who adopted from China describe their first meeting with their children as taking place in a hotel where their children were brought to them. That might be an okay scenario for an older … Continue reading →

Mardi Gras in Missouri

I’m still in shock. As I was going through my new calendar today I noticed that we are only about a month away from Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday falls on February 5th this year. Fat Tuesday then Ash Wednesday and before long it’ll be Easter… and we’re still celebrating Christmas in our home. My daughter is up to the ninth day of Christmas and happily belted out what her true love gave to her earlier today as she eagerly awaits the Epiphany and the gifts she’ll get to open on Three Kings Day. But, back to Mardi Gras. If you … Continue reading →

Surviving Holiday Trips with Teens

Millions of families throughout the world will be hitting the highways, the rails, or the air this week as the busy holiday travel season reaches its peak. For many parents that means spending uninterrupted time with moody teens who would rather be any place, besides stuck in a minivan or plane with the entire family unit. So how can you make the most of a family vacation that spans hundreds of miles and costs thousands of dollars? Here are a few tips: Choose Your Destination Wisely. Do so by first getting input from your teens on where they would like … Continue reading →

Life Imitating Art: My Marriage and Friday Night Lights

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I could relate to an ordeal that Tami Taylor, a character on NBC’s Friday Night Lights, was going through. She and her husband were having a commuter marriage because he had accepted a coaching job in another town. Still in Texas but about two hours away from their home. She stayed behind so that her daughter could stay at her high school with her friends and so that Tami could keep her job. Being apart while a spouse is working elsewhere was something I could definitely relate to. Except in my … Continue reading →

Family Travel: Taking Your Children To A Strawberry Farm

I was going to title this blog “A Trip To The Strawberry Farm—A Parent’s Survival Guide,” but I didn’t want to send the wrong message. Yesterday my 3-year-old daughter and I finished off the last two pieces of a very tasty strawberry rhubarb pie. It was a pie we made together with the fresh strawberries we picked earlier this summer at our local berry farm. (I froze a few pounds and have been adding them to recipes throughout the summer.) Nothing says summer than fresh strawberries, right? That was my thinking about two months ago when I loaded my daughter … Continue reading →

“Will you call me mommy?”

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I had assumed that, since my older daughter was using a few words (among them the Korean word for “mommy”) at the time of her adoption, I would tell her that I was her new mommy. Many mothers who adopt from Korea have a necklace made with the Korean characters for mother. These, along with T shirts, are also available with the characters for “grandmother” and other family members. I sent a photo album for the foster mother to show the child, in which I had painfully transcribed family members’ roles in English and Korean. I saw her point to … Continue reading →

Arrival Parties

Maybe some of you have witnessed an international adoption placement at an airport. I remember seeing one while I was in college. There were a couple dozen people, balloons, and one very scared looking tot. Many people who adopt have waited a long time to have children. Sometimes they do not have the baby showers or other preparatory celebrations that expectant parents enjoy. The adoption of their child is one of the biggest events in their lives, and they want to celebrate with everyone. Grandparents and friends are eager to show they accept and support the new family. But imagine … Continue reading →