A couple of weeks ago we had an unplanned and unexpected sibling visit with two of my daughter’s older sisters. I mentioned in a previous blog how surprised and impressed I was with one older sister’s improved behavior. I asked her many questions as my 14-year-old daughter watched with mouth agape. However, that is not the only action we took. My daughter has always enjoyed riding our horses. However, she has not been allowed alone with the horses since the bad haircut incident. After the... more

We had a pleasant surprise this afternoon while attending open houses for graduation seniors. One of my daughters has a birth sibling graduating from high school this year. Of course, we were invited to the open house. We have maintained contact with him by having periodic visits and phone calls throughout the 11 years since their adoptions. We have done the same with the other four birth siblings as well, although we had more visits when the children were younger. There were six siblings, who were adopted by four separate families. When we arrived at the open house, two... more

You’ve decided on an infant adoption and you would like to help your older children accept the new baby into the family. Why not let the older children look through baby names with you and help you choose. If you already have baby names picked out, then have the older children help choose the spelling of the names. Infant adoption can be stressful on the whole family.

However, including the older siblings in on choosing some of the details can help them to accept and love their new baby. Older siblings can sometimes... more

My friend has two adopted daughters at home that happen also to be birth siblings. The girls don’t look much alike but both are quite striking and less than two years apart in age. They suffered many years of chaos before coming into foster care a few years ago. Ever since being placed in my friend’s home they have lived a switching game, and it continues now that they are adopted.

They seem to take turns being the “good” child and the “bad” child. Both are never good at the same time, nor are they both bad at the same... more

Over at the Christian Adoption blog, we’ve been talking about the love of spiritual family; the love of physical family; and the love of biological family. As we are in the process of adopting a sibling set, I’d like to speak... more

This photo was taken of my children on Easter Sunday. Lynn was home from college for the day and I wanted to make sure we got a photo where everyone was included, so we went to the park for family photos. Caleb really needed to see himself in a family picture to cement in his mind that he belongs here and isn't going anywhere. He was so thrilled when we put our new family picture with him included up on the wall.

As I look at this photo of my children, I'm grateful for children who have opened... more

In my previous post on family nights, I shared with you how disastrous some of our family nights can be. This is no reason to give up on the idea, however. If you are worried that your family members don't spend enough time together and are constantly being pulled in different directions, you might want to think about establishing a family night of your own.

Our family celebrates Family Home Evening on Mondays, although we have... more

I wrote here last week about our square-foot gardening endeavor, and wanted to update you on how things are going.

I apologize for being in-absentia for most of last week, but just as the rain that has recently fallen here from the skies over the past few days, we have had some storms brewing in our home as well.

The big, green, jealousy monster has reared its ugly head so bad this week that I wanted to either... more