I am getting ready to go out of town for four days and I have very mixed feelings. While I will enjoy the break away from the daily routine, I worry how my trip will affect some of my children. Ben has already been begging to go with me even though I told him that it isn't possible. He has a very difficult time separating from me.

Micheline, on the other hand, puts up a wall and pretends not to care if I leave. To be honest, that kind of behavior is much harder to deal with than the child who clings because she does indeed care very... more

Our attachment therapist is big on the idea of object permanence and constancy for children who have attachment issues. Object permanence generally develops by 18 months of age in a neurotypical child, but in a child who has experienced trauma or multiple breaks in attachment, it may not have developed. Your adopted child may be much older and still not truly believe that you will return when you say you will.

A young child who has not developed an identity separate from his parent may also feel that when you are out of sensory... more

I have received requests from readers to include a few recipes from China and Haiti on this blog since that is where my children are from. Recipes don't exactly fall under adoption blogging, but I will add one today since it is a comfort food for my son.

Having lived in China for 11 years of his life, Caleb's taste buds have not totally acclimated to American food. Although he eats most things willingly other than dairy products and chocolate, his face really lights up when he smells Chinese food cooking.

Our attachment... more

If I said the name Dave Thomas, most anyone in the adoption world would recognize him as the founder of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, but even more importantly, a philanthropist who was a staunch supporter of adoption. Having been adopted himself as a child, in 1992 Dave set up the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption which is dedicated to finding families for children in foster care. Sadly, he passed away at the young age of 69 on January 8, 2002 due to liver... more

Today is my 27th wedding anniversary, and I can't help but compare it to when my parents celebrated their 25th. (Only because they didn't have a big celebration for their 27th.) I was their youngest child and I was already an adult - 20 years old. They didn't have anyone living at home with them anymore. I remember going out with extended family to a restaurant as they opened up gifts that were made of silver.

I, on the other hand, have two who are grown and gone, but still have an 18 year old, 14 year old, two 11 year... more

If you took a foreign language in school, do you remember the first time you actually thought in that language rather than your first language? Do you remember ever dreaming in your second language? I remember that happening in Spanish and American Sign Language both, and they were pretty exciting milestones.

My son Caleb, has hit some of those milestones. When he talks in his sleep, I have noticed he no longer does so in Chinese, but rather in English. He no longer thinks first in Chinese and then translates his thoughts into English to say... more

Pardon me if I seem a bit perturbed today. I belong to a Yahoo group of homeschooling parents with a Christian focus and as such I was saddened last week to see many of them openly criticizing other parents who have chosen to send their kids to public school. Just like the working mom vs. stay at home mom argument, these women seem to have taken sides and feel that if you send your kids to public school you don't love them enough.

Excuse me? One woman, speaking of parents who send their kids to school because they needed a... more

I have a confession to make...not only do I cut my sons' hair and my husband's, I cut my own on occasion. Yes - gasp! - even the back. Partly due to frugality and partly due to time restraints I often do things to save time and money that others might not even consider.

There are plenty of areas where I prefer the "do-it-yourself" type method. Why pay someone else to do what you can do yourself? It's the reason our adoption from Haiti was done independently rather than through an agency.

Does that mean that if... more

After a few years of two steps forward, one step back with some of our kids, we finally found an amazing attachment therapist. I tried a psychologist and social worker or two in the past whose eyes kind of glazed over and who said, "huh?" when I questioned them on their experience with adoption and attachment.

Another who advertised herself as being well-versed in adoption issues had a website where she was wearing face paint in stripes across her cheeks, and held a drum on her lap. Her website said she led women's drumming groups through self-discovery and awareness weekends, and that she went into the mountains every other weekend to "find herself" in her drumming circles. I figured... more

An older child can raise their hand during a screening test for a hearing loss. What about babies? They can't raise their hand and say "Yes, I heard that."

If you have recently adopted a baby domestically, your child was probably screened before they ever left the hospital. If your adoption was international, however, it might be very unlikely that your child's hearing was tested with any level of sophistication. Even if their medical report shows normal hearing, adoption specialists recommend that your child receive... more