They’re super-sibling-friendly. I love being the idea of being able to be with my kids full time. Since I do not work outside of our home, I can be available for lunch duty, chaperoning, and to see the kids’ school presentations. Since only one kid is in school full time, being “available” can get interesting. ...
Unadulterated Applesauce
We were blessed with an abundance of apples this fall. Along with receiving a couple bushels from a family member, the kids also wanted to go out to pick apples. Although apples have a fairly long refrigerator life, we still ended up with over a half bushel that didn’t get eaten before they were beyond...
Things I {heart}: child of mine
My mom is a healthnut. For better or worse, I “inherited” her healthnut-mom attitude. In our house that means a lot of whole grains, balanced meals, treats in moderation, occasional uses of super-healthy alternatives like flax meal and wheat germ for eggs and bread crumbs respectively, and frequenty hiding of veggies in meals to boost...
{#7} Perspective
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...
Clean!
If you know me in real life, you know that I despise cleaning. I enjoy a straight, organized, clutter-free zone as much as the next person but it’s so tortuous for me to get there, that I’m often just leave my roost rather than let the clutter stress me out. Recently, Patrick and I have...
{#6} Tell your kid early
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...
{#5} Find a support group
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. ...
{#4} Questions and comments
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...