What was I doing 25 years ago today and where was I doing it? That is an easy one. I was giving birth to my first born son. Actually, his time of birth in the evening was about the same as when I began typing this story. We were in Midland Texas during the oil boom for a few years, which included his birth. Many people flocked to West Texas during the boom because there were many jobs and lots of money. That was long before our adoption journey began. We parented close to a hundred children in the past 14 years hoping to adopt a baby girl through the Michigan foster care system.... more

Take a good look around you now that you have started a new year. Are all of your friends somehow affected by adoption? Do you have any of your pre-adoption friends left? You know, the friends you had before you became obsessed with any part of the adoption triad. Perhaps, like me, you drove them away with your constant adoption chatter. Perhaps they felt like they no longer had anything in common to talk about with you or me.

The last time Super Dad and I went out with friends who had no connection with the adoption world I struggled for topics. I didn’t want to bore them... more

I try not to think about our nearly five-year-old daughter having to move. The tears and the heartbreak will be real for her and our family. I was reminded about our own impending tragedy today when I read a blog about a Child waiting for a decision by Kelly over at the Foster Adoption blog. Her blog is about a boy who has dwarfism and is available for adoption. The system is trying to figure out who should adopt him. Should it be the foster family where he has lived for the past two... more

My baby turned 15 yesterday. Had Super Dad and I not pursued foster care, which led to adoption, then we would be three years away from empty nesters. It is hard to imagine what life would have been like just raising three sons. Happy birthday little Lane, your life is so different having 10 siblings then it would have been.

You have become quite skilled at changing poopy diapers, something that your future wife will surely appreciate. You have learned to share everything you own, but most importantly your time. You have learned first hand about child and substance abuse.... more

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It was finally time to get on the airplane and we were seated in the middle rows with Alyssa, Micheline and I in one row, and Jeff, Taylor, Ben and Caleb directly behind us. Thankfully, not every seat on the plane was full, so when it came time to sack out for some sleep, the other person in our row moved and Micheline and Alyssa were able to spread out a bit more.

Due to tail winds, the flight coming home is about 3 hours shorter than the... more

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We had a 3 hour layover in Guangzhou before our plane left for the United States. That may sound like a long time to some, but as you can see, my family kept themselves occupied.

We bought a few snacks, and I had to laugh because we bought a few Haagen-Daz ice cream cups and Caleb instantly turned up his nose because they were chocolate. How I managed to find two Chinese boys in a country of over 1 billion people who... more

January 13,2007

When we left Wuhan for the first time with Ben back in October 2000, the tears started flowing and wouldn't stop as we went through security at the airport. All I could think of was that I was taking my son from everything he had ever known.

Seeing how he had no language opportunities in the orphanage being deaf, and obviously had no family, I knew he had a brighter future ahead, but a part of me still felt as if I was wrongfully taking him... more

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By this point I was fretting that we would never get back, but our driver then pulled to the side of the road, studied the map and street names again, then hung a u-turn, came to the entrance of the alley type street our hotel was on and told us to get out.... more

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We also hoped to purchase some inexpensive kites which we had done six years ago, but there were no kite vendors out today. Instead, there were people hawking fake Olympic souvenirs everywhere you turned. I went ahead and bought a ski cap with the Olympic logo for 10 yuan and no sooner did I buy it than we walked past a vendor who offered us... more

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Since we knew the younger kids wouldn't be able to walk very fast, Jeff headed out with them and Alyssa while Taylor and I ran over to the other store. We also ducked into a music store to buy a few Chinese CD's and DVD's since it would be our last opportunity to find them inexpensively. Why we weren't thinking "taxi" by this point escapes me, but we just assumed it would be a short jaunt.

Taylor and I started walking... more