We have a dilemma in our household. Our move, 10 miles from our old house, has caused us to have to change school districts. The good news is that our old school has allowed Big J to finish out his 1st grade year there, providing I transport him, and so Little J is continuing attendance at his preschool, which is next to the elementary school. For the past month I have been driving about 2 hours a day just to take my kids to school and back.

Here's our dilemma: at the end of the school year I will not have to drive 25 minutes up and back twice a day to take Big J to school. It'll be summertime,... more

Perinatal encephalopathy, pyramidal insuffiency, intestinal dybacteriosis, Hypertension- hydrocephalic syndrome, Minimal brain dysfunction... YIKES! These are common syndromes listed on Russian medical reports and to an adoptive parent or your average American pediatrician seem SCARY as heck! What do they mean? Do they mean anything? Should you just ignore them?

When we were adopting Little J, his medicals listed the following conditions: aftereffects of perinatal injury of the CNS; delay of psycho-motor development; umbilical hernia; hemangioma of the chest. Luckily, before we got... more

When I was in high school I used to go over to my friend Jen's house after school almost every day. Her mom let us smoke (ssshhh, don't tell my mom) and we'd drink diet coke and hang out and read her family's impressive collection of tabloids.

It turns out that Russia, along with every other civilized country in the world, has no shortage of tabloid-type news of its own. This first bit is really more Entertainment Tonight stuff, but it's fun:

This just in from Russian entertainment news: Russia will get its... more

This is continued from an earlier post. Pam P. had shared with me and other members of EEAC's PEP list a diet-related treatment for Fetal Alcohol Sydrome: gluten free eating.

I'd actually grown quite complacent about the diet because my daughter had been on it for so long -- it was just a given, and sometimes I wondered whether it was worth the trouble. The past months have made me realize that it may be the basis for my daughter's unusual success for a kid with full-blown FAS, who is a sweet,... more

Pam P., from EEAC's PEP list, posted the following a while back about her success with gluten-free eating and her children, who have all been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Related disorders. I found it really interesting because I happen to be gluten intolerant myself (only recently discovered and diagnosed and I also have along family history of alcoholism on both sides of my family.

This isn't really the place for me to get into the whole gluten intolerance thing, but let's just say that this treatment seems completely plausible to me. For people who are... more

Yesterday I posted about the threatened shut-down of 12 well-known and well-respected agencies by the Prosecutor General's office in Moscow. Apparently these agencies have been targeted because they haven't "filed reports on the condition of children after adoption." In other words, the government in Russia has not received the post-placement reports that parents swore they would send to report on their adoptions and the only way the government can enforce it is to threaten to close down agencies.

One... more

This just over the wire from The Moscow News:

12 U.S. Adoption Agencies Targeted

Combined Reports The Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday called for revoking the accreditation of 12 U.S. adoption agencies, saying the companies had failed to file reports on the condition of Russian children after adoption.

Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky warned in a letter to federal education officials that the agencies were in violation of laws and regulations.

The agencies are... more

I interrupt my series on alphabet syndromes common to post-institutionalized children to write about something fun! Shakori Hills Music Festival. This is the festival's fourth spring (they have a fall festival, too) and we've gone every single year! Woo hoo! Good times!

For Little J, this is a weekend of massive amounts of stimulation, the freedom to run wild, lots of adult and kid love (Little J, despite having behavioral probs. at home, is a big favorite of our friends, particularly the men - largely because he is a PARTY ANIMAL and... more

I've posted about Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) before. See my posts in that category -----> for some first-hand experiences with sensory seeking behavior. Little J has been evaluated and found to have this grouping of symptoms all related to a neurological system struggling to integrate.

But I don't know that I've ever posted a good definition of this, along with treatment and outcome information. So here's an addition to my alphabet soup glossary.

Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) is also known as Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Here's a definition from... more

This morning Little J had his 3rd Easter egg hunt this week. He had one at the community college last week, one at school, and then the best one of all this morning at our friends Martha and Kent's house.

It was the best hunt not because of the quality of the eggs or their hiding places, or even the wonderful food we all brought, but because of the wonderful fellowship and friendship that was there.

We really, really, really have the best group of friends. We are so lucky! When Big J was born, almost 7 years ago, I quit work to become a full time stay-at-home mom to... more