I did a bunch of interviews yesterday to catch up on several issues surrounding Russian adoptions now. A point that one of them made has been bothering me, and I wanted to share it with you.

This individual was of the belief that the slowdown in adoptions caused by the new accreditation procedures has cost many children their chance to be adopted. "The children who lost their opportunity lost it forever," this person said.

Forever? No, I don’t think so. There are only a few times in life when I accept finality, and the current state... more

This morning, I took a look at toilet training in Russia's orphanages. Now I need to talk about what happens when there are problems with bathroom behavior, and most specifically about a problem called encopresis.

What's that? It is, in essence, what happens when constipation gets out of control. In slightly starker terms, stool gets so backed up in the large intestine that it begins to leak out into a child's underpants and clothing. The Cincinnati Children's... more

There was one part of Rose Alaimo's latest reports from Russia that I didn't share with you the other day: What she learned about toilet training in a Russian orphanage.

As those of you who have brought home toddlers already know, children are potty trained very early in Russian orphanages. Almost as soon as they can sit, they are made to sit on a potty after meals. Nature takes its course and the kids get into a bathroom routine fairly quickly. It is not... more

I've been reading a bit about families who have used baby sign language to communicate with the children they adopt from abroad, and I think it can be a useful tool to help you bridge the language gap. There was a story about one family who used it with the children that they adopted from Russia in a Michigan newspaper earlier this month.

Baby sign, as it is sometimes called, is about two decades old. The basic idea behind it is that learning... more

We spend a lot of time without shoes in my family. We have a "shoes off" policy year round when we enter the house, which cuts (but by no means eliminates) the amount of mud that gets tracked through.

But in summer, it's hard to keep the shoes on wherever we are, inside or out. And when I was looking at my little guy's toes the other day as he got ready to head outside, I was struck by how far he has come since coming home from Sakhalin Island in October 2005.

Then,... more

Every month at my kids' elementary school they have a Red, White & Blue Day assembly. They were started in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which claimed two lives in town, but civics has always been a strong focus of the school's curriculum.

Each Red, White & Blue Day assembly has a theme--the military's role for Veteran's Day, civil rights for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the history of America's flag and the writing of the national anthem for Flag Day this past week. The lessons are simplified, as I suppose they must... more

There is some very insightful writing on the Russian adoption blogs this month and I wanted to pass it on.

Jenni writes about the two children she adopted from Murmansk in December 2005 at "Four Feet More". In a post early this month entitled "Vika And The Bear" she relates what happened when her daughter's kindergarten class read Nikolai, the Only Bear. If you haven't read this book, it is a good one to have on hand... more

I don’t know why it is that the key conversations in our family seem to occur in traffic. It's not like we spend a lot of time on the road; I probably have fewer miles on my three-year-old car right now than most families have after 12 months.

But you might remember that my older son, who was adopted from Vladivostok, started asking questions about his birth mother... more

It's Monday night, which means it is finally time for me to read the Sunday paper. And what do I find in the Sunday magazine that accompanies The New York Times but an article on the very issue I addressed Saturday night: Holding a child back before kindergarten.

I had, ironically, opened up the magazine to read a piece called "Boys Gone Mild", about grownups now having to teach children how... more

I've asked my kids' elementary school to give my little guy another year of kindergarten.

It was not an easy choice. He has come amazingly far--physically, socially and developmentally--since coming home from Sakhalin Island less than two years ago. Just being in an educational setting for several hours a day was a big leap for him. Remember that children in Russia--in orphanages or out--don't start school until they are seven. And I learned in April that there are no major problems that would qualify him for an individualized... more