Little J screamed and spit at his brother at dinner, so my husband told him to go to the naughty step.

"You're stupid!" Little J yelled.

For that he got a spanking. Nobody disrespects my man. After that little interlude he was put right back on the naughty step.

"But I hate it here! I hate it!" he protested.

"That's the point," I said. "It's called punishment."

We learned about the naughty step from Supernanny, a television show whose first episode prompted my husband... more

This morning I asked Little J to clear his breakfast dishes. "NO!" he said. I then told him to clear his breakfast dishes.

"You're mean."

"How am I mean?" I asked. "I just want to teach you manners! That's not being mean. That's being a good mommy."

"You are a good mommy," he said. He cleared his dishes.(Little J has been in an extraordinarily thoughtful and mostly sweet mood the past few days, although also his energy level has become frenetic. He is changing. As long as he isn't hostile I can deal with the hyperactivity...but... more

In May of this year a number of well-known, well-respected accredited agencies were denied reaccreditation because of a new law the Russian Ministry of Education put on the books: the requirement that all foreign adoption agencies get NGO (Non-governmental Organization) status.

Here's what the Joint Council of International Children's Services (JCICS) said about NGO status in June:

Agencies that are already accredited under the old rules will be allowed to operate until their accreditation expires. Agencies seeking new accreditation or renewal (including the large number we know are scheduled for re-accreditation... more

We are in search of a good gymnastics class for Little J. He is very coordinated, has no fear, is good at it...but is a terrible listener and quickly grows bored if he has to wait too long for his turn.

We tried a Mommy-and-me class at our local ladies exercise salon when he was 2 and 3. We actually did that class 3 times since it was cheap and he seemed to like it...although it was exhausting and humiliating for me. He wouldn't do the routines (it was set up like a kid-friendly obstacle course), and he mostly ran around screaming or spent the whole... more

There's a discussion going on right now on (or do we say 'in'?) the adoption.com forums about losing the weight gained after adopting their child. Since I am forever seeking that magic advice about losing weight (besides eat less, exercise more...how boring!) I read it all. I was surprised to find that the weight gain thing seemed to be commonly accepted as something that typically happened after adoption.

I guess it's a miracle that I didn't gain weight after we adopted Little J. I was already up about... more

Here's a link to a nice story about the process of Russian adoption as seen through the eyes of Nathan and Melissa Bridgers. According to the reporter it's the first article in a series of articles following this couple on their adoption journey. I'm looking forward to reading more...and sooner, rather than later. I hope it doesn't take them too long!

Here's another story about... more

Masha was 5 when she was adopted from Russia by a man whom I refuse to call her father. The very first night she was brought home he started to sexually abuse her. After a while, he began to take pictures of her and to send them to fellow abusers via the Internet.

Now Masha is 13 and she's been rescued from her horrible circumstances. She's appeared before the Senate and on 20/20, testifying about the horrors of her situation. Many in the Russian adoption community felt that she was being exploited once again for ratings and they worried that the negative publicity would impact current Russian adoptions as public sentiment in Russia was given yet another example of a bad outcome of... more

If you adopt from Russia you are typically given a sheet of information that details your child's medical history. Whether or not that history is accurate is probably very individual, and, depending on who has written it and translated it, it may or may not include actual usable medical information.

In our case, the immunization records that we were given on Little J turned out to be accurate. Before we left to go get Little J I had interviewed several local pediatricians to find one who was familiar with children adopted internationally. One of the things I asked was if it was that... more

Last week I got slammed on the other blog I write, Hoping to Adopt. I don't know if the person was a real person or simply a troll, but he/she (the gender changed - which leads me to believe he/she was just trying to cause trouble) accused me of buying a baby. He/she said that my money would have been better spent helping mothers keep their children instead of selfishly ripping a child from a poor mother in crisis.

I wrote some replies... more

Other bloggers on this site have written great posts about whether or not to rename your adopted child - some have said its important to keep the child's name to preserve identity, some have suggested using the child's given name as a middle name, and some people have said - new family, new country, new identity.

There are also several interesting threads about this in the adoption forums. Here's one, and here's another. Here's a third.... more