Fatherofeight's comments

Out to Eat with All the Boys - Blog Entry

01 Feb 2007 07:53 AM

Both of you are right, it is fun to take them out but you must keep them under control. Andrea, we had considerable heartburn that night. Crickett, I flew on a nine hour flight once with a screaming 2 year old, ear plugs didn't help, it was horrible. Thanks for your comments

Little Stevie Wonderful - Blog Entry

31 Jan 2007 04:27 PM

I can remember "finger tips" like it was yesterday, I was 16. Its fun to go back and listen to it now, wow, it was good.

The Watermelon Cat and Mr. Bones - Blog Entry

31 Jan 2007 04:24 PM

Neat story Art. Its funny but the boys could relate to the cats and they gave them security. One of our little guys was mean to animals when we got him, he would have needed something that did not bite back.

Care of African American Children in Transracial Adoptions: When You need a Stylist - Blog Entry

31 Jan 2007 09:42 AM

Andrea, as I have said several times, I am learning to appreciate you and your insight very much. This helps me also. I know that I am "preaching to the choir" with this comment, but it really miffed me when we sat in the hair stylist place and they had 6 or 7 large books full of pictures of models with specific haircuts, so our child could look through the book and pick out a haircut, guess what, not one picture of an African American child, so I had to explain to Matthew Walter that we needed to find another place to go, which we have done. Our new African American stylist is wonderful, she takes good care of him, she explains everything to Nancy and me, and she doesn't mind writing down the names of products (that we have never heard of) and telling us exactly where we can go to find them. Her shop costs more but it is worth it.

ADHD and Adopted Children - Blog Entry

31 Jan 2007 09:06 AM

Hey Pam, this article hits one of my hot spots, I may write a similar article based upon our experience. We have an ADHD diagnosis for one of the boys, we think its wrong. The one time I saw the psyciatrist (we usually see his nurse), I said that I thought it was really anxiety related, he said, its treated the same way so it doesn't matter. I think adopted children get the diagnosis too much, African Amercian boys get it almost as a knee jerk reaction, if you're on Medicaid, it is an easy way to get you out of the office and not spend much time wth you. Medicaid doesn't pay much. They don't want to help, they just push pills. And, based upon what I see, the next popular diagnosis is going to be bipolar. Put them on meds and bring in the next patient.

Educational Crisis in Texas - Blog Entry

30 Jan 2007 01:13 PM

It will cost everyone because it impacts the economy and the social welfare system, and its just not fair that kids grow up in an atmosphere that does not encourage them to get an education.

Care of African American Children in Transracial Adoptions: Mixed Race Hair Care - Blog Entry

29 Jan 2007 07:27 PM

Once again thank you so much. We will use your blogs frequently.

Hard Work with Little Return - Blog Entry

28 Jan 2007 12:49 PM

Thanks to both of you. Valorie, no we have not actually lived in the inner city. But our church was on I-10 where one side of the freeway was very yuppie upper middle class and the other side was fairly impoverished in some areas.

I think that is goes to what you and Art are saying, I saw in prison ministry a lot of hardened criminals who came back to God and scriptures that they were taught as children would come back to their memory. Many times it was a faithful grandmother that had planted the seeds, and I liked to think that dear granny had never stopped praying, even when they were carted off to prison.

We were in Houston three differnet times, I worked for Shell and we were transferred in and out, but the years that I am writing about we were there for 17 continuous years, now we live 45 miles from Houston kind of in the country, although the city is creeping closer and closer.

Respecting Your Child's Privacy - Blog Entry

27 Jan 2007 09:20 PM

Hey Pam, I guess we are taking the other approach, but our children know everything that they are mature enough to know and we want to be very open. Interesting this week, Matthew's teacher told them a Bible story about the disciples running to tell the others something (I think it was the empty tomb) and she asked if anyone in the class has ever been that excited to tell about something, and Matthew raised his hand and said he was, he wanted to tell about being adopted and what his life was like before he was adopted and what it is like now. So I guess we are all going to always tend to be too open.

Once we were all waiting in a line, and he told the people behind us about his birth mother, why she couldn't care for him and how he came to be our son. He always does it from a "look what God has done for me" viewpoint.

Trying to Rescue Disadvantaged Kids - Blog Entry

27 Jan 2007 07:28 PM

Yes, thanks for reading. It will be a series, but I am skipping around rather than going way back and working up to it. I am guessing that there are 50 blogs that get me from my childhood in white upper middle class Arkansas to where we are today. I want to detail the triumphs, trials and errors along the way that shaped how we look at things today. I look forward to reading about your experiences in the inner city.