Have you been blessed with a sibling group of babies and toddlers still in diapers and drinking bottles? Would you like some simple time saving tips to make life a little easier? Children change and develop so quickly at this age that within a year they will all be easier to care for, especially if you potty train a couple of them and eliminate bottles. In the meantime, enjoy them, and take many pictures. Use the bottle time to hold, snuggle, and bond with them, even though they are not newborns.

Instead of disinfecting the changing pad after each diaper change do this.... more

“Mom, why did we have to adopt my brother?” Buck asked exasperatedly after Ty, his younger brother, had followed him around all day. “Because you are such a wonderful son we figured your brother would be too, and we wanted you to be raised together,” I answered.

“Are you sure we are really brothers? You know the hospital or the state could have made a mistake,” he queried.

“There was no mistake Buck, you definitely both have the same mother. Both of you were placed with us straight from the hospital and I have the original birth certificates.”... more

The first sibling group that we adopted was two sisters who also had an older sister placed with an aunt. It was almost 12 years ago that our daughters came to live in our home. Now our adopted daughters are all grown up, and the older of the two sisters has two children. That’s right we are now proud grandparents.

Yesterday, our oldest granddaughter turned two years old. There was quite a gathering at our older daughter’s house for the birthday party. You see we maintained an open relationship with our daughters’... more

Many states have policies about siblings remaining together for adoption, even if they haven’t been in a foster care placement together. Should that policy also govern placement when one of the siblings being considered for adoption is severely mentally disabled? What if that disabled sibling is preventing the other sibling from being adopted?

This situation does actually occur; I’ve seen these siblings on the various state websites that list available children for adoption. It also happened to the older sisters of one of my adopted... more

If you have adopted a child from the foster care system, then chances are your child has one or more siblings, somewhere. Sometimes you know where those siblings are, and then you can help to foster a sibling relationship. Younger siblings often emulate older siblings, and that part of the sibling relationship seems to happen even when they live in different families.

Older siblings can be a source of encouragement and unconditional love for your child. Unfortunately, once they get to those later teen years,... more

While some of the children were introducing themselves to a visitor, our seven year old blurted out, that’s my brother, and we came from the same mom. Now that he is old enough to understand that, not only are they brothers by adoption, but they are also brothers by birth, he takes great pride in the knowledge. He definitely looks up to his big brother and follows him everywhere.

Another cute phrase he sometimes uses when he wants a drink or a bite is we’re brothers so we can share, because brothers don’t have germs.... more