Category: Things Adoptive Parents Should Know

It seems many adoptive parents agonize over whether to send their internationally adopted child to language and/or culture school.  Honestly, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer, but here are some things to think about. Does your child want to?  I did about 3 years of Saturday Korean school in grade school because my best...

Typically I think social workers are more intimidating to adoptive parents than RAID is to insects.  Why? Because the person who has the power to place a child in your house is assumed to have the power to take him away. Although meant to promote adoption, last Saturday’s FOX movie, Change of Plans, was another...

Perspective is everything.  Adoption. The word conjurs up everything from loss to gain, from joy to grief, from fulfilling to empty, from only option to second (or next) option. Perspective is everything.  Try to maintain a balanced one. Speaking of perspective, I’d love to have yours on how the first week went.  Is there a...

I hope I’m preaching to the choir but be upfront, honest, and open with your kids about your adoption journey and start early.   If you decide to hide it, your child will find out eventually.  Whenever he figures out, it will be much more traumatic than if you had just been honest from the beginning. When...

In many cases, agencies are far too understaffed to provide the kind of post support that adoptive parents need.  If parenting wasn’t tricky enough, there’s always this adoption layer in the back of your mind which only complicates things. Take a friend of ours.  She has a biological son, E1, and an adopted son, E2. ...

If your adoption is obvious (i.e, trans-racial) and even if it’s not, you will probably get countless ignorant questions and stupid comments.  I know these really get under some parents skin but, let’s be honest, it comes with the territory.  Although it doesn’t excuse them, they really are to be expected.  So why are we...

I guess this one is really for propspective adoptive parents. Yes, adoption can cost a lot of money. Tens of thousands of dollars.  Yes, that is really intimidating. The good news?  God has provided tens of thousands of dollars to families He has called to adopt. We are one of them.  There is a federal...

I know that social workers are pretty adamant about these things but please don’t project the worst case of identity crisis on your child just because he’s adopted.  While I fully realize that adoption creates a lot of identity issues, I also know a population of adoptees who are happily adjusted, fully identified,* and hold...