The Dissolution Or Disruption Of An Adoption

Editors note: This is not a “feel good” topic, but it is the reality for many families. Adoption disruption is not an story to blog about, and it’s never an easy decision to make, but until things change, it will continue to become a reality for more families. Written by Linny If you keep an eye on adoption sites that feature children available for re-adoption, it would seem there are more and more...

Things To Think About Before Adopting A Sibling Gr...

One of the members at our adoption forums is considering adopting a sibling group of older children. She asked for some advice and I wanted to share her questions, and my answers here for our readers that may have the same questions. What makes that difference between good and horrible? With my kids (half bio. siblings), the difference was what age they were removed from their abuser, how many foster homes they were in and...

Adoption Stories: China Adoption

The following post was submitted as a comment by one of our readers. Sharon. The summer before Becca turned six, we moved to a new neighborhood, so that she could have a yard, a playroom, and (eventually) a puppy. A “plus” was that the neighborhood was majority Asian, with the largest proportion of the Asians being Chinese. While Becca had a few close friends and many acquaintances who were adopted from China, like her,...

Adoption Community Protest Movie “OrphanR...

Update: Debbie, one of our adoption forum members shared a sample letter. I posted it at the bottom. Update #2: A list of email addresses has been added at the bottom of this post. One of our adoption forum members brought this to our attention (thanks Debbie!) and I am passing it along to anyone who may be interested. I’m also adding my personal thoughts, which I shared on our adoption forum, at the end of this...

International Adoption Resources

(note: you can purchase all the books mentioned in this article, through our secured amazon store, by clicking the links) by Cynthia Teeters You may think that the first thing to do to start an international adoption is to get a list of agencies and begin contacting them for information. Actually, you start by realizing that thousands of parents have passed successfully through this process before you and that by tapping into...

If I Had My Child To Raise All Over Again

If I had my child to raise all over again, I’d finger-paint more and point the finger less. I’d do less correcting and more connecting. I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes. I would care to know less and know to care more. I’d take more hikes and fly more kites. I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play. I’d run through more fields and gaze at more stars. I’d do more hugging and less...

Go With The Flow…Even If It’s “W...

I’ve been subscribing to The Daily Groove, a mindful parenting newsletter from Scott Noelle, for quite a while now. This reminder came at such a great time for me (Thanks Scott!) because it came a few hours before Shawna & I did some paint by numbers and it helped me to bite my tongue when I felt she wasn’t doing it “right”. Go With the Flow… Even If It’s ‘Wrong’...

Why You Should Hold Your Baby

“If You Hold That Baby All The Time…” by Pam Leo “The single most important child rearing practice to be adopted for the development of emotional and social healthy infants and children is to carry the newborn/infant on the body of the mother/caretaker all day long…” – James Prescott, Ph.D. Every mother who has ever had a baby shower has probably heard someone say, “I wish they...

Small Body, Big Spirit

:: Small Body, Big Spirit :: Mother Nature doesn’t aim for mediocre. She imbues every child with HUGE creative potential. Children are born *knowing* they’re supposed to be BIG — innately powerful, free, and continuously expanding to new horizons. Today, no matter how physically small your child may be, notice and appreciate his or her BIGness in spirit. That spirit is easy to see when your child is...

Fathers Role in Parenting

1) Father To Son: • Help him take responsibility for his own behavior. Don’t encourage a “boys will be boys” attitude that excuses selfishness, impulsiveness, and domination. • Allow him the full range of emotions. Help him learn that real men can be afraid, can hurt, and can cry. Boys need to find safe places to cry where they will not be ridiculed. •It is important for fathers to model appropriate...

Having Adopted And Biological Children

Our adoption forum members share their experience with having both adopted and biological children. ** Our two biological children were 9 and 11 when we began the process to adopt an infant. As a result, they were very much aware of and involved in everything, and we anxiously awaited our son’s arrival together. We all flew to be there for the placement. After placement, they were excited about holding and feeding the...

Meeting Your Childs Emotional Needs

Childhood is Now by Pam Leo “Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.” – Chief Sitting Bull I often hear people say, “Kids today are different, I would never have behaved that way as a child.” Are kids today different or is it kid’s lives today that are different? In her book The Continuum Concept, Jean Leidloff points out that, “Natural...

What To Do With Your Kid’s Art Work

One of our long time adoption forum members asked for suggestions on how to manage the ever growing collection of her child’s art work. Having three kids myself, I’ve had to come up with some creative ways to display their pictures, drawings and paintings over the years. One of the things I do is line the inside of EVERY cabinet door with my kids artwork. Every kitchen cabinet door (16 of them) plus all...

Real Parents

Teaching This Equation at School and at Home by Deborah McCurdy “They’re not your real parents!” The little girl’s words were not meant to hurt. At 8, she was struggling to understand her own adoption. But our adopted son was hearing these words for the first time, at the age of 5. And he was devastated. For weeks, Mark could not bring himself to share the incident, nor his pain, with us. What...

Grateful

I’m grateful for my children because they have taught me so many things….even things I didn’t want to learn. My youngest (my nine year old daughter that we adopted at age five) teaches me to not take life, or myself to seriously. She also teaches me about unconditional love and what that really means. My middle one (daughter age twelve, adopted at seven) teaches me empathy and forgiveness. My oldest (fifteen...

Our Parenting Choices

Our Parenting Choices: by Pam Leo “Everyday, every parent makes major and minor, conscious and unconscious decisions about how to interact with their children. We may be pushed by the traditions of culture, or the approval or disapproval of family members, but in the end, all parents decide for themselves how to treat their children.” - Dr. Meredith F. Small, Author of “Our Babies, Ourselves” From the...

Three Things I Want My Kids To Know As They Grow.

…and what I’m doing now to help them. 1) I want them to know that learning is a natural part of life. That’s it’s not something seperate from life…not something done in a building from Monday through Friday with weekends off. As unschoolers, my children get to see learning all around them. It’s not something they’re made to do, there are no grades or tests needed to prove that they...

Learning How To Be A Better Parent

Good Parenting Skills Can Be Learned by Jon Arnold We all want to be good parents and learn good parenting skills. Parenting is a full time job, and sometimes it may seem like MORE than a full time job, but when it gets down to it, we have to acknowledge that as parents, we are going to make mistakes. But one of the keys to good parenting is to recognize those mistakes, accept the mistakes, and learn from the mistakes for...

Teen Advice

Wearyparent.com wants to know what advice you received as a teenager that you took to heart. Growing up, my mother had always been a source of inspiration for me. She was, and still is, one of my closest friends (she was my matron of honor when I got married) and someone I always went to for advice. She always told me to follow my own path in life and do what made me happy. That nothing was out of reach. She never criticized...

Soulful Fathering

One of our members at the Forever Parents adoption forums shared this with us on the forums and it’s perfect for today. Happy Fathers Day! Soulful Fathering The five ‘p’s’ of fathering and other tips for spiritual dads.The following tips for soulful fathering are in honor of Father’s Day. Pass them along to your favorite dad. (Of course moms can use them, too.) 1. Listen to your heart when you...

‘Even More’ 15 Fun Things To Do With Y...

Here’s part three of ’15 Fun Things to do with your child’. Most of these suggestions were submitted by members of our adoption forums. This series is part of Friday 15. I hope you find some ideas for fun (and mostly free) things you can do with your kids! 1) jump rope 2) Make slime 3) Go on nature walks and take pictures of things with the digital camera. 4) Make a texture book of different scraps and...