As a means to help parents learn more about their child’s province, I have decided to do a series of posts; each dedicated to one province. I will spotlight any attractions, historical sites, sites to visit, etc. that you may wish to visit during your stay in Viet Nam. This week I will be covering Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Ha Tinh, Danang and Lang Son.

Since Ella is from Bac Giang, that is where I am going to begin. I wish that we had spent more time in her province, and hope to be able to return and explore there in the future. Here’s the... 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

Take a look at this article about my buddy Diem. Faced with aplastic anemia, a potentially life threatening illness and needing a bone marrow transplant, she found that there were no matches for her in the donor registry. None. Zero. Diem is Vietnamese American and faced what many Asian, Hispanic, Black and African Amerian and other minority groups are faced with regularly. There are simply not enough (or in some cases, any) people from minority groups registering to be... 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

The subject of adoptive parents choosing to adopt more girls than boys is one that is discussed regularly in adoption circles. While it’s a common topic of conversation, I’ve been seeing those conversations gain momentum over the last few weeks. I have been following a discussion about the preference to adopt girls over on a Viet Nam adoption listserv that I read and the responses have proved very interesting. I’ve been mulling it around in my head for a few days, and was happy to read Erin’s... more

Traveling to adopt your child will be the experience of a lifetime. With a few precautions, you can help to ensure that your time spent in country will be a pleasant and healthy one. It’s easy to forget to take care of ourselves as parents while we focus our energy and attention on our children, but we won’t be much use to our kids if we’re down for the count. Here are some ways that you can stay healthy while in Viet Nam:

Protect yourself from mosquito bites. This is especially important during the summer months, but can be just as... 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

Is it possible (or probable) that our kids will someday resent the fact that they were treated like every other non-adopted kid, or will they appreciate it? I fairly regularly hear people assure me that Ella’s just like every other child her age. Friends, family members and perfect strangers have all told me at some point that “all kids her age do that/act that way/et cetera.” And as much as I know that she’s a normal kid who is no different than her peers in many ways, she is in a way that she doesn’t realize just yet.

There are some... more