The most common treatment of ADHD is medication. Here's the lowdown from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association's (ADDA)website:

Clinical experience has shown that the most effective treatment for ADHD is a combination of medication (when necessary), therapy or counseling to learn coping skills and adaptive behaviors, and ADD coaching for adults.

Medication is often used to help normalize brain activity, as prescribed by a physician. Stimulant medications (Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall) are commonly used because they have been shown... more

Okay, back to my glossary of alphabet soup terms that are often heard in connection with kids adopted from Russia. In my last post on the issue I talked about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its associated terms. In this post I will talk about Attention Defecit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

I should mention that our Ukranian Adoption Blogger, Angela, has written about her daughter's experiences with ADHD. If you're interested in a first-hand account, you should check out her posts. And for all... more

Here's the beginning of my glossary on the alphabet soup of terms that you might read about when adopting a child from Russia.

Number one: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Related terms: Fetal Alchol Effects (FAE), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND).

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs when the biological mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Full-blown FAS can result in facial abnormalities, retardation, small size, small birth weight, heart, liver, and kidney defects, hearing and vision problems, as well as problems... more

Today my husband and I have our first meeting with a behavioral therapist about Little J. Despite our success with the gold stars (he earned his first treat and is working on his 2nd) there's still a lot going on with him that we don't have a handle on. The gold stars have been a very good tool for me as a parent as it has made me focus on the positive aspects of his behavior. They've made Little J feel good about himself, but they haven't worked a miracle or anything. Yesterday, for example, he didn't get any stars due to behavior, even though he had many opportunities to get one (if he... more

My husband has taken the boys fishing for an hour so I can get a little bit of work done, but all I really want to do is watch TV. At our old house we had an antenna and got only the basic channels, but here we have invested in satellite and we get 900 channels, only one or two of which are watchable.

Whether or not this was a wise decision I'll leave to another post.

Before, I was never tempted to watch TV during the day. Really. It seemed like every time I would turn on the TV there'd be a show where some sad couple was up in front of a judge getting divorced, or maybe Tony... more

My youngest son has five older Russian siblings. I know four of their names and their birthdays (the 5th was an adult at the time of Little J's adoption), and I've been in touch with a beaureaucrat in Russia about them. I wrote a letter to them and to the orphanage director at the orphanage where the beaureaucrat told me they lived. I never heard back. Did I get the information wrong? Were the children really there? Was the director unable to reply to me for some reason? Maybe he didn't want to reply?

I have to explain something. When we adopted Little J he was at about 5th... more

"Just watch - once you start the adoption process, you'll get pregnant!" This, from a well-meaning acquaintance who I'd just told about our plans for adoption.

"I hope not!" I said, meaning it. I'd already been pregnant five times in the past year and a half, accompanied by five miscarriages, and the LAST THING I wanted was to get pregnant again. I'd had enough. Adoption was a blessed relief to me. Yes, I could get pregnant. In fact, probably. But I sure didn't want to.

She just chuckled. Silly old Adrienne. It had happened to so many people she knew - just as they were about... more

Sandra, the International Adoption blogger, posted this link to an facetious article/essay/spoof in The Onion about adopting a child from a Third World Country. The piece is very funny, but part of it made me cringe because I sorta, kinda, a little bit, recognized myself.

It wasn't in the part where the writer is saying she got her fictional daughter from a Third World country and is bringing her to a "real" country, or even the... more

Big J wants me to play with him, but I want to write this blog. So we've compromised. Big J is going to be the blogger today. I am typing exactly what he tells me to say.

Here's the message from Big J. He will be 7 in a month.

Little J is nice and a little bit mean. He is nice because he sometimes listens to me. He is mean because he does not listen to me a lot. We like to play together. We like to play "animal rescue" and we like to ride bikes. Sometimes it's hard to play with Little J because he likes to ruin the game we are playing. I am glad we adopted him... more

I was going to title this post "April Fool's Day" but there's nothing foolish about it. It's been a joyful morning so far! Today the weather is brilliant: after a night of rain drumming loudly on the tin roof of our new old house, we woke up to sun, breeze, and a projected high of seventy degrees. The redbud is blooming and the dogwood are just opening their buds. Spring in the Carolinas is the absolute best season there is.

I looked in the Russian papers for possible April Fool's hoaxes (I heard they are famous for this) but I didn't really find anything. In Pravda... more