I gave up counting how many Kleenexes I went through during Sunday night's Dateline NBC piece on Lisa and Hythem Salem and the children they adopted from Russia. If you saw it, you know already that it is that kind of piece. If you didn't, then you can catch large chunks of video from the segment on Dateline's Web site.

But in going through the Russia Adoption forum yesterday,... more

As a single, working mom of two, I have a long to-do list of things that don't get done.

But when I was working on a reorganization of the basement the other day, I came across the box of materials I had put aside for my younger son's life book. There was the journal I kept during my two trips to Sakhalin Island in 2005, and copies of all the e-mails I had sent or received while I was away. There were photos, but I am not the world's best with a camera and most of the time during my trips I was playing with my son, not taking his... more

I took my kids to see Meet The Robinsons a few days ago. My boys, who were both adopted from Russia, loved the movie. I was appalled. If I had known about the way adoption is treated in this new Disney film, I never would have taken them.

There's no way to write this post without spoiling some of the details of the film. So if you don't want to know, please click on something else.

Before I take my kids to see any movie, I read up on it. The plot... more

My older son brought home his Martin Luther King Day project today. It was done in class, so I hadn't known of it before. And this is what it read:

"I Have A Dream Too!"

I have a dream that one day this nation will be healthy. I have a dream that one day I will help other people. I have a dream that one day I will be able to see my Russian mom. I have a dream that everyone will get along. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day all the people I know are still around. I have a dream today.

I have... more

There was an amazing post yesterday on "Six Blessings" and I apologize for not sharing it with you all immediately.

I bookmarked "Six Blessings" a while back because it is one of the few blogs out there from people who have adopted older children, and also one of the few to continue writing after the kids came home. (Note to all of you bloggers now in the waiting and travel stages: Please carve out time to write after you bring your children home. The rest of us want to know how the story turns out.)

Kim, the author of "Six Blessings", and her husband adopted their twin boys in July 2006, when the boys were five years... more

A week or so ago I heard from my beaureaucratic contact in Russia - A.P., I'll call her.

I wrote her through a translator to reply to a letter she'd sent me inquiring about Little J. When we first adopted Little J I'd written the Ministry of Education in his region asking about his Russian siblings and she wrote back. We exchanged a few letters but once I was told that his siblings had been adopted (my agency told me this), combined with some unanswered letters I sent to her as well as their supposed orphanage director, I stopped writing. I figured I needed... more

Read part 1 of this blog entry, here.

I was talking about whether or not to contact Little J's birth mother...

I have mixed feelings about going that route. Because the children were removed from the home it's a little different than if she/they had to relinquish him. I have no idea why they were removed. Were they being abused? Neglected? Were they on the streets? Who the heck knows? I imagine it's similar to the feelings that people who've adopted from foster-to-adopt have... more

We are in the process of trying to make contact with Little J's birth family. We are doing this for a number of reasons - one, he has five siblings left in Russia and I feel they should be reassured that he is doing well. I don't know the exact circumstances of their removal from their parents' home but it can't have been very nice - and 4 of the 5 (the 5th was over 18 at the time) were placed together in an orphanage while they sent Little J to a baby orphanage. I can only imagine that they wonder where he is.

Add to that the information that we got when we adopted him: when he entered the... more