Tag Archives: mother

Are You a Working Mother?

I know, your first reaction was “Aren’t ALL mothers working mothers?” Yes, they definitely are, but WorkingMother.com is geared toward moms who work outside the home. They’re looking for working moms whose children play video games to take a brief survey. In consideration, they’ll send you a $5 Best Buy gift card by mail. It takes about six weeks to get the card, but the questionnaire only takes a few minutes. $5 for a short quiz is very good pay. We are signed up with just one research firm, and take one or two surveys a month. Usually they’re geared … Continue reading →

Hollywood’s Baby Bulges

For more than a decade her hourglass figure has been photographed and flaunted in magazines and catalogs, but now Eva Herzigova is getting used to some new curves. According to news reports, the famous Czech supermodel is seven months pregnant with her first child (the father is her Italian entrepreneur boyfriend Gregorio Marsiaj). And, the 34-year-old is revealing her true feelings about gaining nearly 25 pounds. “I’m just so happy. I want to be pregnant for the next 10 years,” Herzigova recently told a British newspaper. “I feel so powerful. You have no idea. But it’s an inner power. You … Continue reading →

Taking Children with you to the Courthouse

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Earlier today, I covered the fact that there is a world of difference between jobs that allow you to stay at home and do them, vs the ones that allow you to work from home, but not at home. People are usually very interested in courthouse research, until they realize that it isn’t done at home, and then they start to panic. “What am I going to do with my kids?” Since I have no kids, I usually tend to be at a loss for a good answer, but luckily, I have seen other mothers answer this question, and so … Continue reading →

Becoming the Woman I Want To Be

I have this image of a “perfect” woman in my mind. She is much like the Proverbs 31 woman. I see her as a woman who is able to balance attention to her husband, each child, her home, her community activities, and all while making time for God. I see her handling all these things with great poise, grace and humility. I’ve seen aspects of this “ideal” woman in many whom I admire. If only I could bottle up their different attributes and make them my own… I have a mental list of all the things I would like to … Continue reading →

Final Visit

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It had been almost a year since we had taken four boys into our home. We had visited with their birth mother once or twice a month. After all the visits, only one of the boys even knew who she was. She had never been their caretaker. Texas law mandates that these matters be concluded in twelve months. With the prospect of a nasty trial over parental rights looming, the birth mother had signed a relinquishment of her rights. It was now time for what the adoption community calls the good-bye visit. It was scheduled for two hours at the … Continue reading →

Going Back to Hades

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In a previous blog, I described the place where our adopted boys were living when the state took them into custody. I think about taking our oldest back to see the area. At the proper time, a visit will help him let go of his experiences there. He and I talk about where he came from occasionally. It does not happen often because he generally avoids the subject. He would usually rather talk about my experiences and friends. We have discussed every scar on my body. We have talked about my parents and siblings. He asks a lot of questions. … Continue reading →

Our First Meeting With the Birth Mother

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This is the story of the first visit with our boys’ birth mother. We were pretty nervous. We had no idea what to expect, plus we were getting our first chance to meet our new baby’s three older brothers. We met two of the boys, ages four and eighteen months, in the lobby. The older one looked scared and the younger was shell-shocked. We already had an inkling that we would eventually adopt all of them. We were then escorted to the “playroom.” It was a fairly small room with no toys and some old office furniture. It was definitely … Continue reading →

Our Flawed Birth Mother

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The story of the birth mother of our five adopted sons may prepare those of you who want to adopt children out of a state foster system for what could be ahead for you. Lola, not her real name, was born to an abusive mother herself. She was adopted at three years old. I do not know much of her early history although many of the professionals who have examined her think that she has fetal alcohol syndrome, which is very serious. By age fifteen, she had run away from her adoptive home, never to return. She has been living … Continue reading →

Characteristics Of A Good Mother

There are many mothers in the world, both good and bad. I have seen mothers that I wish that I could be more like and those that I think should never have had children in the first place. But what exactly makes a woman a good mother? Anthropologist Margaret Mead has spent years studying children, parents, and the methods used by mothers raising children all over the world. When asked what she considered the most “valuable capacities for a mother to have.” She replied by giving five qualities that she feels every good mother must possess. 1. Treats each child … Continue reading →

Crazy Bride? Crazy Mother?

What would you say if I told you that a woman (a reportedly sane woman) walked down the aisle only 11 hours after giving birth to her first child? Would you call her decision crazy? I did. But you can judge for yourself. According to the Daily Mirror newspaper, Nicky Heys, who resides in southwest England, went into labor three months early–the night before her wedding day. At first she thought her stomach pains were pre-wedding jitters, but when they worsened she was rushed to a local hospital. A few hours later the 35-year-old secretary gave birth to a son, … Continue reading →