Search Results for: blog our adoption story the wait gets long

Feeding Time in A Multiple Cat Household

It’s been about a month since I acquired Chrestomanci, so I’ve begun to learn how this whole multiple cat thing household works. Given my trepidation over a couple issues, like feeding and litter box time, I thought I’d share the tips I’ve learned for others thinking about adopting a second cat. My biggest concern when thinking about getting another cat was how to manage feeding time. Food has always been an issue with me with cats. Dogs are easy; most gobble their dinners down right away so that makes it much easier to regulate their diets. Cats, however, are another … Continue reading →

What Is the Hague Convention? -–An Overview

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This past spring marks two years since the Hague Convention on International Adoption took effect in the U.S. This treaty actually was written in 1993, but had to be ratified by various signatory nations, some of which had different dates set for their country to come into compliance with the treaty. Two years ago, the internet was buzzing with fears that small adoption agencies , perhaps small faith-based programs or programs that specialized in a certain, relatively unusual sending country, such as Poland, would not be able to meet its provisions and would stop operating, thus putting children in areas … Continue reading →

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley’s Bundle of Joy

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. I just had to purchase the October 5 issue, however, when I saw the cover featuring actress Katherine Heigl and her musician husband, Josh Kelley, with their ten-month-old daughter Naleigh, newly arrived from Korea. I’m so out of the TV scene that it took me several paragraphs to realize that Katherine Heigl wasn’t Kate Hudson, but her story sounded very familiar to me. Although the cover teaser talks about … Continue reading →

My Reactions to The Girls Who Went Away

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I have just written a blog reviewing Ann Fessler’s book The Girls who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe V. Wade. It’s an awfully long blog for a book report. Yet I felt I couldn’t do this book justice in one blog. This blog is some personal musings of mine. I’ve just spent most of the day rereading the book for the third time. Of course I have known that birthmothers of 1945-1973 were often acceding to pressure from their parents, boyfriends, or schools, which did not welcome (and … Continue reading →

Other Considerations in Adopting When You Already Have Children

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My last blog talked about how your other children will handle becoming a visibly different (or even more different) family. In addition to getting used to stares, your children will be asked questions about adoption. How will you help your children to answer these? One resource can be the WISE UP Powerbook, a workbook (designed for adopted kids, but it could be adapted for use by a sibling, child with a disability, or anyone who gets asked intrusive questions. It helps kids consider whether they wish to Walk away, say “It’s private”, Share something small, or Eduate people about adoption. … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Adoption Decision

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The Adoption Decision, by Linda Christianson, is not a how-to manual for adopting. He book’s subtitle, 15 Things You Want to Know Before Adopting, only hints at the insight contained within its pages. This book doesn’t just tell you 15 facts about adoption. Its 15 chapters deal with issues families who contemplate adoption must think about. The issues include: attachment and feeling like a “real” parent, affording adoption, managing the grief of infertility, waiting for an unknown length of time during the adoption process, birthparents, open adoption, adopting an older child, international adoption, transracial adoption, integrating a different culture into … Continue reading →

May in Review, Part Two

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An exciting thing this month was welcoming back Rachel, who returns from her leave of absence during which she adopted three children—a toddler from Guatemala and a five-year-old and seven-year-old from Liberia! Rachel wrote An Intro and an Update to reintroduce herself to new readers and bring the rest of us up to speed. She also explained that she will be blogging under the name Shoshanna Grey in order to protect her children’s privacy. In Coming Soon: Weekly Features, “Shoshanna”described her plans to share blogs about adoption in the news, blogs about waiting children or about agencies which serve them, … Continue reading →

Our Adoption Story – The Wait Gets Long

Laney’s agency originally told us that she would be home by Christmas 2006. Now it was Spring 2007 and still no Laney – and no real news either. Then we received the news that our agency had decided to pull out immediately and stop working on adoptions. Naturally, everyone panicked and for several days we thought Laney was not coming home. When I got the email from our agency I turned to my husband and said “That’s it. We just lost Laney.” My husband, being much more practical and balanced than I am, encouraged me not to give up hope … Continue reading →

Talking About Tough Questions

Adoption, under the best possible circumstances, involves loss. Few birthparents deliberately plan to have a child they will have to let someone else parent. Adoptive parents, like all parents, want to shield their children from sadness and from things they think may be damaging to their self-esteem. However, the loss of trust in their parents that secrecy creates is potentially more damaging than the original losses. Books such as Lois Melina’s Making Sense of Adoption and Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child, by Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler, recommend age-appropriate ways of conveying a child’s story to … Continue reading →

Preparing for Your Home Study

Don’t panic! Though there are many things to do, there is no reason to become overly stressed about your home study. First, emotionally prepare yourself that home studies can take quite some time to complete. Keep in mind, if there are other adults living in your home, they too will likely have to complete parts of the home study process in order for your family to be approved. There are typically many steps to a home study, some of which may in include (in no particular order): Completed applications for adoption: In addition to being asked for basic information about … Continue reading →