Hey ya'll - I have a book coming out in about a year. It's called Mishka: An Adoption Tale, and it's about a teddy bear who's given as a gift to a little boy by his prospective adoptive parents. The bear stays with the boy while the parents have to return home, and he's there when they return as well.

My main character (the bear)'s name is Mo. Here he is on the way to Russia with his new people!



My very talented illustrator, Miranda Mueller drew him. Isn't he adorable?

I am very excited about the new book. I spent the morning talking to half of the 2nd grades at my son's school (I will talk to the other half tomorrow) and they responded so well to the story! It makes me very happy.

I love talking to them about adoption, about my family, and about Russia. You wouldn't think 7 year-olds would be so sensitive and astute, but they often are. In the second class I spoke to today we talked all about communication, and how long it takes for children adopted from Russia to learn English. In Mishka there are several parts where people are speaking Russian to Mo and he doesn't know what they are saying. The adoptive parents also speak English to Yuri (he's the boy they're adopting) and of course he doesn't understand what they're saying. The kids I spoke to today were very interested in that. We had a great conversation.

It was also the first time I did this presentation in front of my older son. He was super (of course). He didn't talk much, although he did tell the class that we raise money for orphanages on our Family Day. That made me so proud. I didn't realize that he had been paying that much attention. Certainly the last time we talked about raising money on Family Day he didn't seem to take it seriously. But today he did and he also seemed really proud that his family does that.

A good day all around!

(Hey - if you want me to add you to my mailing list about Mishka, send an e-mail to me at adoptrussiablog@adoptionmail.com )