This just in, folk: orphans do better when they have family care than when they're in institutions!

I'm not really slamming the study sponsored by the McArthur Foundation, which took a select group of children out of Romanian orphanages and placed them into family care. That part is wonderful and has given a few children a chance at a decent life who wouldn't have had one otherwise. No, that part is great.

I'm just laughing at the need for... more

The Minnesota International Adoption Project, which is part of the Institute of Child Development in Minneapolis, just released their most recent newsletter.

This is an interesting project. Here's how it got started:

In 1997, the needs of this population inspired a group of child development physicians and professionals from the University of Minnesota to pool their knowledge about internationally adopted children. Recognizing that no one had a complete picture of the successes or... more

Please read part 1 of this blog series to understand the context of the Minnesota International Adoption Report.

Back to the summary:

Perceived discrimination:

In this study, the researcher acknowledged that many studies on psychological issue in children adopted internationally have been focused on their PI issues, and how resiliant children can be when coming from adverse circumstances. This study's focus was on how the experience... more

It is no secret that Little J had 8 months of diarrhea after we adopted him.

No, that was not a typo. Eight (8) whole months.

It was pretty icky all around. When we'd take samples into the doctor's office for testing we'd triple bag it and it would still overwhelm the doctors and nurses who'd process it.

Maybe that's too much information for you?

Well, diarrhea is a very common occurence when kids are adopted internationally. It can be caused by a variety of factors: new water, new food, more food than the child is used to, malabsorbtion, parasites, or even food allergies.

In our case Little J hasn't been fed enough good quality food, so once he started... more

A friend of mine gave me a review copy of the book Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep?, by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka to look at since I'd complained to her too many times to count about Little J's issues around going to sleep at night. My friend's kids have sleep issues, too, but she was too tired to read the book! I was given a command: read this and report back.

It's... more

Here's the story: "Match made in orphanage is lifesaver: Girl gets adoptive mom's kidney"

Unbelieveable.

For those of you who don't want to click away from this site, it's about a family that adopted three children from Russia. One of the children they adopted by "accident" - they were sent her picture and video pre-adoption but when they met their actual referral it was a different girl - so they adopted them both! The girl they accidentally adopted had only one kidney and things were going fine, until her kidney failed.

Turns out her adoptive mother was a perfect match.... more

I read a great Adoption Day post on one of the Russian adoption listservs this morning and the writer, a proud adoptive Mama, has given me permission to repost what she wrote.

I think this post really exemplifies what a leap of faith you take when you adopt from Russia.

Today, two years ago, I became a mother for the second time. I stood in a court in Orenburg, speaking in ungrammatical Russian, telling the judge why I was fit to parent a 9-month old girl whom no one else wanted. Not her birth mother, who had... more

Here is Little J when he'd only been home a week or two. How could we not fall in love with this child?

Hmmm....the screaming, the hitting, the eating everything in sight (including dog feces and dirt), the not sleeping, the diarrhea....

Nope - didn't matter. We were really lucky because despite all of those negative behaviors we also got a super-cuddly, extremely happy little fellow. The fact that he was sensory seeking meant he couldn't get enough of our touch. He was happiest when sitting on or lying on another person -Mommy, Daddy, or brother.... more

I love this picture, even though it's a really bad one. My husband, the professional photographer, keeps trying to throw it away but I won't let him. It captures everything I love about the good times with my boys. This is from a camping trip we took about 6 months after getting Little J. He was about 2, I think, and Big J was 5. The picture is so dark because we were in the woods and the rhododendrons plus the trees overhead made it seem dusky.

The two of them joining hands was completely spontaneous. They do it now, sometimes, too, only much more rarely. Little... more

So if you are traveling to Russia anytime soon, bring a coat!

My house is very cold. One, we are stingy with the heat in order to save money and two, it's been chilly outside! It's especially cold if you are sitting and writing in a dimly lit room, like I am.

But if you're going to Russia - WOO! I feel sorry for you. Baby, it's cold outside. Hopefully the hot water's been turned on wherever you're going, that's all I have to say.

Here are the current temperatures around Russia:

Moscow: in the 50s, but it might snow on Sunday St. Petersburg: also in the... more