For months now there have been rumors floating around about problems with the reaccreditation of some of the agencies that handle adoption from Russia - and for months, those agencies have denied any problem. Well, it seems like the day has come that the agencies and hopeful parents have been dreading: a definite hold-up in the reaccreditation process is here.

In order for an agency to facilitate adoptions in Russia it must be accredited, and for many agencies this has been thought to be a simple matter. They've complied with the rules and regulations put forth by the Russian Ministry of Education... more

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is something that I always heard about happening to people who'd been in combat or who'd been victims of crimes. I never realized that it occurred in adopted children as well, although when you think about it, what some of these children have seen and been through before they've come to a stable family could be considered both combat and a crime.

Here's the definition of PTSD from about.com:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) occurs as a result of exposure... more

Little J has just gone through what I like to think of as a developmental bounce. You know, where the kid is moving along, developing and changing, then BAM! he hits the floor of bad behavior, only to spring back up to a new level.

I hope that made sense. I guess what I mean is that Little J does things in spurts - he grows physically in spurts and he grows emotionally in spurts. For whatever reason, maybe because he's louder about it, his spurts make themselves very, very apparent.

For about the first two months of writing this blog Little J's behavior was on the floor. He was really, really, not having a good couple of months and consequently, neither was our family. Then,... more

Well, folks, I was planning on writing a blog this evening on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and adopted children. Either that, or on Masha, that poor girl who was adopted from Russia by a pedophile and then imprisoned for several years before someone figured out what was going on and she was rescued. I also thought I'd do a little bit on post-institutionalization syndrome, or some other cheerful topic like that. Or maybe a little profile on Voronezh, the region where we adopted. I'm starting a section profiling regions in Russia, you see.

But I'm not in the mood for all that... more

We came back from the beach last night in a tremendous thunderstorm, smelling like the dead pufferfish we found in the sand. Big J insisted we bring it home and dry it out to add to his collection. Needless to say, I have to re-wash all the clothes we took on our trip due to their close proximity to said pufferfish.

The whole way home Little J asked if we were going back to the beach any time soon. He loved it. The kids, all the parents, the sand and the pool and the stimulation - he was completely in his element. He was a little sick - he had a cough and a light fever on Saturday - so he... more

I was flipping through Deborah Gray's excellent book, Attaching in Adoption the other day (I was actually wondering if Little J telling me I'm a stupid baby mommy in response to me telling him he couldn't have juice before dinner was a sign of an attachment problem...no, it isn't, and no I don't really think Little J has attachment issues I just have too many books lying around) and I found this fascinating passage about ADHD and malnutrition:

Children with Attention Deficit Disorder, or Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity... more

Hopefully by now if you're an adoptive parent or a prospective adoptive parent you will have discovered the federal adoption tax credit. When we adopted in 2003, the tax credit was $10,000. It has now increased to $10,630. This really came in handy for us: since my husband owns his own business (and since I was unexpectedly employed full-time for 5 months of that year) and we often end up overestimating our quarterly taxes...we got a whole bunch of it back. If you do not owe $10,630 for that year, you may claim the rest of it in subsequent years, up to six years total. If you make... more

Thank you very much, Jonathan Richmond, for putting that lyric in my head 20 years ago. It pops up every single time we get ready to go to the beach:

Well now the beach be one of the best things we got 'Cause it's not what you have on, it's what you have not No more silly clothes for you, no more shoes no necktie too And the beach be one of the best things that we got

As you may have guessed, we are going to the beach this coming weekend!

O.K. start up the car!... more

When I was a senior in high school my high school had an assembly where the speaker, a health and sex educator, told us about a new disease that we needed to be aware of: AIDS. The year was 1986.

Looking back, I think my high school was rather brave and progressive. I don't think many high schools had all-school assemblies to talk about safe sex back then - and I know they don't have them now, especially in the current state that I live in ( as well as the current political climate). But I can remember really clearly thinking that although AIDs sounded really scary, and I'd be sure... more

CAPD stands for Central Auditory Processing Disorder. Here's the definition according to adoption.com:

Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD): This term describes a condition in which the affected individual, whose hearing capabilities are otherwise functionally sound, will have difficulty understanding and processing information that is heard. It is believed that this occurs as the result of a communication breakdown somewhere between the ear and the parts of the brain that receive... more