If you live in the DC area you are in for a treat this winter. Two great cultural activities are happening in your neck of the woods.

First, the Russian-American Kids Circus will be at the Weinberg Center on November 24:

About Russian-American Circus The Russian-American Circus has been thrilling families on stages around the country for more than ten years. The company combines the artistry and magic of the circus with the rich and time-treasured tradition of European theatre. These stunning performances are a unique combination... more

In your house does one parent bear the burden of disciplining the kids?

That's the way it is in our house. Mommy (a.k.a. ME) is the one who most responds to the kids' behavior.

Part of this is because I am the one around them the most. Obviously, the one who gets them ready for school and the one who's home after school to hang out with them is the one who has the most exposure. But so often when we're both with the kids I find myself being the one responding to their negative (or positive) behavior. It's not that we have difference expectations of... 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

.Russia is struggling with a population decline, and because of this governmental officials seem to be brainstorming ways to encourage people to have more children.

Hmm. Maybe they're not having children because the majority of them are very poor?

I probably shouldn't say anything as I don't know the whole picture, but it seems to me that paying people to have children, or in the case of this most recent suggestion by the Russian Health and Social... more

Julie, our Parenting Special Kids blogger, just wrote a post about how unpredictable life is sometimes. How out of control of her schedule she feels, all the while needing to provide a consistent schedule for her daughter.

This morning I got a little dose of unpredictability...at 5:40 a.m.

Some days I get up around 5:30 to get an early start on my day. It's easier for me to write in the early morning and today, especially, I wanted to check my various news websites... more

This weekend when I manned the FRUA booth at the SPAFA expo a lot of people asked me questions.

Did your adoption go smoothly? How is your son doing now? Is it possible to know if a child is "healthy"? Do you know if his birth parents drank alcohol? How was the adjustment? How long did it take? Did you like your agency? How was the travel? How was the food? Why was he in the orphanage? How long had he been there? Did he have any delays?... more

This morning was a very horrible, hectic morning. My husband and I are really at the end of our individual ropes as to how to handle our children - specifically, Little J, our 4-year-old bundle of joy - and get out of the house in a timely fashion.

I have a couple of expectations of my children in the morning:

they will eat breakfast they will get dressed, including shoes and socks they will do these things on their own, with minimal reminders.

If teeth and hair get brushed, too, this is a bonus.

Big J... more

When we adopted Little J his Russian name was Yuri. At the orphanage they called him Yura. It was very cute, and we'd planned to keep it, but when we met him it became really apparent he didn't know his name. You could call him anything in a sing-songy voice and he'd turn and look at you. So we changed it to give him my grandfather's first name (his brother has his paternal great-grandfather's first name) and we kept his Russian name as his middle name.

Yuri has kind of obvious teasing potential. The first thing that comes to my mind is "urine." Not nice. Plus, apparently the English version of Yuri is George, which is a nice name but not very common these days. Little J is very familiar... more

Although we've yet to carve our pumpkins (!) we've been in the Halloween spirit for several days now. It started with a party on Saturday night - I was a construction worker, Little J a pirate, Big J a vampire, and Daddy had to work - Sunday night we went to see a display of beautiful carved pumpkins at a local shopping center - yesterday Little J had his Halloween party at school - and tonight, of course, is the night.

We will have candy coming out our ears after tonight. We have a saying in our house, originated by me: candy makes you bad.

Obviously,... more

Before we were adopting Little J there was one song that would make me cry whenever I heard it. It was "Blessed Be" sung by Alison Kraus and written by Raffi, and it's on the "Country Goes Raffi" album, which I listened to a lot because Big J really liked the song "Baby Beluga" and made me listen to it over and over and over again in the car.

"Blessed Be" goes like this:

Baby dear, blessed be your shining light Baby dear, blessed by your morning smile Baby dear, blessed be your gleaming eyes Blessed be this precious child Our... more