Well folks, we made it home in one piece! Actually, we’ve been back since Wednesday night but have been trying to decompress a little bit. Our very long (and very fun) road trip went extremely well and I am so glad the ridiculously large number of miles we planned to travel didn’t deter us. We spent a little over a week away, traveling through four states, spending time at my husband’s family’s lake cottage and spending the weekend with families that I have become friends with in an online adoptive parenting group.

First of all, let me tell you how refreshing it is to be with a group of adoptive parents and their ridiculously gorgeous and adorable children. As I have mentioned before,... more

Today’s Love Thursday post is all about family support and how much I appreciate it. As a ridiculously sensitive person I am acutely aware of the people who choose not to be very active in my family’s life, but I am also guilty of taking for granted those who are active and supportive and loving to my husband, Ella and I.

Since living with my parents and my grandmother, our lives (when it comes to Ella responsibilities) have been made markedly easier. There are now three other adults who are clamoring at us for time with Ella. They want to take her walks, push her on the swing, read books with her and just get all the Ella time that they can handle. It is absolutely endearing. And... more

Mary over at the Ethiopia Adoption Blog recently wrote a post about encouraging empathy in children, and it touched very close to home for me. Ella has begun testing limits and pushing boundaries at an amazing pace. Honestly, in the past week she must have had a little light bulb go off in her head that brought all kinds of new questions with it.

The reason I was so glad to read Mary’s post was because; of course, I want Ella to be an empathetic child who grows into an empathetic adult, and I am seeing positive signs of growth as she goes through this new stage. Her main testing limit trick of choice... more

I’m packing up my family tomorrow and heading out for a really long road trip which is making me a little nervous. The longest car ride that Ella has ever been on was eight hours and let’s just say it was not the most pleasant of experiences. We learned quickly that the best way to take a road trip with a baby (now toddler!) was to dress in comfy pajamas and set out around bed time with mommy and daddy driving through the night. Now that she’s older and can put up more of a fight, I’m not quite sure what we’re getting ourselves into. We’re borrowing a dvd player for the car and Grandma’s supplied a new supply of books, so even if she resists sleep, she’ll have plenty of things to keep her... more

There are times that I am absolutely amazed by the innocent eyes through which Ella sees the world. We have been taking her to a local park with a swimming creek lately and she absolutely loves it. It is here that I have witnessed the sheer innocence and joy that she inherently approaches life with.

First, she readily and happily makes friends. Every child who crosses her path is a potential friend. I’ve caught her with a painted on smile scanning the crowd and trying to catch a certain little person’s eye. As soon... more

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. It was so nice to both be home and get to hang around with Ella all day. It’s also really nice that Grandma’s going to watch her tomorrow night so we can go out to dinner and a movie! We started our morning by going into to Ella’s room together to get her when she woke up. Well, she must have known it was a special day because this baby was beyond ecstatic to see us. She was cheering and jumping up and down in her crib and doing what Steve calls her “Maniac”... more

Have you seen the television show Jon and Kate Plus 8 on the Discovery Health channel yet? It may seem a little strange to be writing about them here because the show has nothing at all to do with adoption, but I’ve been thinking about their family lately. The show is a reality show that follows the day to day lie of the Gosselin family. The family consists of the mom Kate, dad Jon, a set of six year old twins and a set of two year old sextuplets. I am fascinated by this show, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that the parents are raising two sets of multiples. It’s because they’re a biracial... more

Oh man, are we ever Laurie Berkner fans in this house! I first learned about her on the Noggin program Jack’s Big Music Show, but I have my sister in law to thank for really showing me the world of Laurie. She lent us the We are the Laurie Berkner Band dvd and we’ve been hooked ever since.

I would describe Laurie as a folk singer for kids. She writes her own songs and they are simple, creative, catchy and fun. Ella absolutely loves them! We knew that she loved music and loved to dance, but this dvd has opened... more

Actually, the title of this post should be “The Assumptions People Make About How a Parent-Child Relationship Was Formed, and the Assumptions I Make Right Back at Them” but that’s just too long. I (and most transracial adoptive parents I know) talk and unnecessarily concern ourselves with how other people think or might possibly think about our families. It’s a good thing to have those thoughts shaken up a bit, and that’s exactly what happened to me last week.

Ella and I were having a lovely time at the grocery store picking up a few things. As long as the trip is timed right (not interfering with a nap or meal,) she really is a wonderful shopping partner. As we were debating over... more

My husband and I have recently put ourselves in a situation that requires some decision making, and the answers aren’t becoming as clear as I had hoped. We are in the process of moving, but the big ‘where’ that we will be moving to has not presented itself to us yet. So, in an effort to get some feedback I want to ask all of you what your thoughts on this issue are:

Just how important do you think it is that a transracial adoptive family live in a diverse area? And should the diversity trump being close to extended family,... more