<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>Adoption Blog</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/</link><description>Kathy and Anna both have extensive and diverse experiences in adopting.  Whether you are considering adopting, are in the process or have adopted, they have information that you'll want to read.</description><language>en-us</language><pubDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:10:28 +0000</pubDate><lastBuildDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:10:28 +0000</lastBuildDate><ttl>60</ttl><item><title>National Adoption Day this Saturday</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/national-adoption-day-this-saturday</link><pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:08:55 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/national-adoption-day-this-saturday</guid><description><![CDATA[Each November is National Adoption Month.  Many adoption organizations and adoptive parent groups have activities.  But in recent years the centerpiece of National Adoption Month has been National Adoption Day, when adoptions are celebrated in a festive manner.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review: In My Heart, by Molly Bang</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-in-my-heart-by-molly-bang</link><pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:12:01 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-in-my-heart-by-molly-bang</guid><description><![CDATA[I finally have my wish, which I blogged about nearly three years ago, to see pictures of adoptive families in books that aren't specifically about adoption. In My Heart, by author-illustrator Molly Bang, is a wonderful author and illustrator who has received three Caldecott Honors.]]></description></item><item><title>Racism, Current Events, and Halloween History</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/racism-current-events-and-halloween-history</link><pubDate>Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:08:55 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/racism-current-events-and-halloween-history</guid><description><![CDATA[Not many people know what Halloween meant to the early Celtic Christians of Ireland.  I knew that the name "Hallow-even" meant "eve of All Hallows (All Saints' Day),  a feast day still celebrated by many Christian denominations.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review: Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-orientals-asian-americans-in-popular-culture</link><pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:21:53 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-orientals-asian-americans-in-popular-culture</guid><description><![CDATA[My last blog wondered about the impact of anti-immigrant feelings, worsened by economic conditions, on international adoptees and their families.  In that blog, I quoted from the book Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture.]]></description></item><item><title>Will Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Affect Adopted Children?</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/will-anti-immigrant-sentiment-affect-adopted-children</link><pubDate>Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:21:09 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/will-anti-immigrant-sentiment-affect-adopted-children</guid><description><![CDATA[School conferences were a revelation to a mother of a middle-school daughter who had been adopted from Guatemala, but even more of a revelation to her teachers.  The girl had reported that the teachers never called on her class.]]></description></item><item><title>An Alternative (Please!) to the Adoption of the Month Club</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/an-alternative-please-to-the-adoption-of-the-month-club</link><pubDate>Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:59:26 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/an-alternative-please-to-the-adoption-of-the-month-club</guid><description><![CDATA[In my last blog, referring to various obituaries written about Patrick Swayze, I talked about how calling attention to a person's adoption without reason can seem to make a false distinction between permanently adopted family members and other permanent family members.]]></description></item><item><title>Star's Death Occasions a Reminder of When and How to Mention Adoption</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/stars-death-occasions-a-reminder-of-when-and-how-to-mention-adoption</link><pubDate>Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:14:51 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/stars-death-occasions-a-reminder-of-when-and-how-to-mention-adoption</guid><description><![CDATA[Other bloggers in this blog have written about Positive Adoption Language  and the impact of adoption words.  I'm hardly a "word usage Nazi" on the warpath for political correctness, but two things this week have left me wishing our culture would be just a little bit more sensitive to my children.]]></description></item><item><title>Birthparents from the show 16 and Pregnant Have Bittersweet Moments But No Regrets</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/birthparents-from-the-show-16-and-pregnant-have-bittersweet-moments-but-no-regrets</link><pubDate>Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:56:58 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/birthparents-from-the-show-16-and-pregnant-have-bittersweet-moments-but-no-regrets</guid><description><![CDATA[The same People magazine issue (October 5, 2009) that told Katherine Heigl's joyous adoption story   also featured an update on the adoption featured on MTV's reality show, 16 and Pregnant.]]></description></item><item><title>More People-Watching (Reading)</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/more-people-watching-reading</link><pubDate>Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:18:29 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/more-people-watching-reading</guid><description><![CDATA[Last week I wrote about Katherine Heigl's newly adopted daughter, who is ten months old and was adopted from Korea.]]></description></item><item><title>Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley's Bundle of Joy</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/katherine-heigl-and-josh-kelleys-bundle-of-joy</link><pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:12:44 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/katherine-heigl-and-josh-kelleys-bundle-of-joy</guid><description><![CDATA[With apologies to our fearless Popular Culture bloggers, I must admit that I am usually woefully ignorant of TV and music personalities.  Nor am I usually a reader of People magazine.]]></description></item><item><title>Is "Mother" Jewelry Insensitive?</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/is-mother-jewelry-insensitive</link><pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:20:02 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/is-mother-jewelry-insensitive</guid><description><![CDATA[A while ago, there was a debate on a listserv for parents who'd adopted from Korea.  It was triggered by an advertisement for jewelry with the Korean letters spelling "omani".   Many adoptive mothers embrace wearing the jewelry as a part of honoring their Korean-American children's birth culture.]]></description></item><item><title>What if she wants to be a cheerleader?</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/what-if-she-wants-to-be-a-cheerleader</link><pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:53:24 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/what-if-she-wants-to-be-a-cheerleader</guid><description><![CDATA[As I've written, I enjoy the differences between my daughters and me.  I'm even learning to enjoy outspokenness, extraversion and being a sports nut, all foreign to my own experience and leanings.]]></description></item><item><title>The Kids are All Right</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/the-kids-are-all-right</link><pubDate>Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:07:43 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/the-kids-are-all-right</guid><description><![CDATA[I've had some forced time at home the last few weeks, due to a nasty virus (not H1N1; I had myself tested).   In some ways it's been good to slow down.]]></description></item><item><title>Media Review: Follow that Bird!</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/media-review-follow-that-bird</link><pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:37:18 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/media-review-follow-that-bird</guid><description><![CDATA[I consider myself a book-lover, frugal, and responsible about other people's property.
 
Thus it may surprise you that, upon finding and reading a book in the church nursery, I ripped it up.  By hand.  Into tiny little pieces.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review: Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-love-adoption-and-brownies-with-sprinkles</link><pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:34:03 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-love-adoption-and-brownies-with-sprinkles</guid><description><![CDATA[Sometimes a book comes along that manages to write about a single experience, but one that is so ubiquitous that we think, "Why didn't anyone write a book like this before?"  Star of the Week: a Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles is based on the authors' own daughter.]]></description></item><item><title>Being Adopted at School</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/being-adopted-at-school</link><pubDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:23:08 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/being-adopted-at-school</guid><description><![CDATA[As children settle into the new school year this week, some will encounter  curiosity from classmates.  Younger children may be asked, "is that your real mom and dad?" If they are from a non-diverse area, they may have comments about skin color or physical features.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review:  Weaving a Family Untangling Race and Adoption</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-weaving-a-family-untangling-race-and-adoption</link><pubDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:04:44 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-weaving-a-family-untangling-race-and-adoption</guid><description><![CDATA[Barbara Katz Rothman is a sociologist.  Much of her work has focused on the meaning of motherhood-ranging from studies of the modern midwifery movement, to the consumer pressure to buy for one's offspring, to the Human Genome Project and the impact of genetics on identity and culture.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review: a Koala for Katie</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-a-koala-for-katie</link><pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:59:09 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-a-koala-for-katie</guid><description><![CDATA[A Mother for Choco and A Koala for Katie are both books emphasizing that, while it is sad that first parents sometimes cannot care for children, the children can be happy with other parents.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review: A Mother for Choco</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-a-mother-for-choco</link><pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:56:02 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-a-mother-for-choco</guid><description><![CDATA[A Mother for Choco is a book very popular with adoptive families. 

Choco is a young bird who lives all alone and wished he could have a mother.  One day, he sets off to find her. First he spies a giraffe, and says, "Oh, Mrs. Giraffe, you are yellow like me! Are you my mother?"   Mrs.]]></description></item><item><title>Book Review: Nikolai, the Only Bear</title><link>http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-nikolai-the-only-bear</link><pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:23:26 +0000</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="true">http://adoption.families.com/blog/book-review-nikolai-the-only-bear</guid><description><![CDATA[Nikolai, the Only Bear is a story about a bear who lives in an orphanage (in Russia.   Nikolai is the only bear in the orphanage.  He is three years old.  He tries to play with the other children, but they are afraid of him.]]></description></item></channel></rss>