The six of us stood with a week’s worth of luggage and looked from the small Korean mini-van to our fearless driver. Panic began to set in when I realized Holt was not used to seeing such a large party arrive to pick up a child, and there was good chance we weren’t all going […]
Category Archives: Things Adoptive Parents Should Know
{#33} All agencies are not created equal
Now that we’re a couple months into our second adoption process, I can say that not all agencies are created equal. In our case, I can’t qualify one as better than the other…yet. They’re just different. Our first agency has been around for 60 plus years. They’ve been doing international adoptions for over 30 years. […]
{#32} Know a Notary
*****PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT***** There is a giveaway going on until midnight. Don’t forget to enter. ******************************************* You’d think since we’ve adopted before that we wouldn’t be daunted by our second paper chase, right? Wrong. Korea’s process is drastically different than most other international programs because the family does not adopt in-country. Instead the trip is pretty […]
{#31} Adoption Language
Positive adoption language is to the adoption community as politically correct is to the rest of the world. While I agree that adopted children and children who physically grew in your womb should not be valued differently, there is a distinct difference between the adopted children and the non-adopted children in your home that no […]
{#30} Draggees
In adoption stories, more often than not, there is a dragger and draggee. For whatever reason, spouses are rarely on the same page at the same time when it comes to adoption. The good news for draggers is that your draggee has a good chance of catching up. I talk to a lot of folks […]
{#29} Save those receipts!
It turns out that if you filed for the Adoption Tax Credit for 2010, you were audited. Period. End of story. And you probably still don’t have your full refund from Uncle Sam. I can’t help but think that this will be a continuing trend in future years now that the credit is so high […]
{#27} Indigenous Efforts
Every parent who has a child by international adoption should really find out what is going on in her child(ren)’s birth countr(ies) in terms of local orphan care. If I had to put care of a child on a continuum, it would look something like this: In an ideal world, children would be raised in […]
{#26} Don't Assume
I recently read a post where a mother tells the story of having had her older boys from China home 3 months when they had dinner with a Mandarin-speaking couple only to find out that the boys had no idea they were there to stay. She was heartbroken to realize that they had woken up […]