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

We adopted sisters through foster care adoption. One of the sisters was a teenager and the other was nine years old at the time of their adoptions. Since they were older, they knew all of their birth family members’ phone numbers. We also lived in the same city as all of their birth family.

For two years prior to their adoption, we were their foster family. During that time, we established an open relationship with their birth family. The girls frequently spent weekends with either, one set of their grandparents, or aunts and... more

When our daughters came to live with us they were seven and 13-years-old. They were very pretty, quiet girls, who seemed quite shy. Everyone who met them thought they were the sweetest girls and that we were very lucky to have such wonderful new daughters.

Despite the considerable difference in their ages, they were quite close. The older sister would frequently read stories to the younger or they would play board games together. I would have preferred to split them up, and have them each share a bedroom with a child... more

Did I ever tell my sons that they needed to defend their sister? Not in so many words, but I guess their just loyal brothers. While it is apparently all right for them to antagonize their sister until she cries, they won’t allow others to do the same.

In April, we sent three of the teenagers to a boating safety class. Honestly, I didn’t think Lyn would pass the class, but I figured she would receive some benefit from attending it.

The sheriff’s department apparently doesn’t believe in letting anyone fail. One of the... more

When Super Dad and I started out parenting, I felt that all of our children should be treated equally. Whatever we did for one child had to be done for every child, (Probably some baggage I carried from my own childhood.), and then we adopted children. A time came when I was compelled to begin homeschooling three of our adopted children.

However, since all of our children needed to be treated equally, I started my first year of homeschooling with seven students and a toddler in diapers. A few years later, I learned the... more

If you have younger children in your home, bringing in an instant big sister can present some interesting challenges. Especially when you consider that, the teenager is going to be a role model for your younger children, and they will probably look up to her. Teenagers who are in the foster care system are at high risk for being sexually active and for having unprotected sex. The numbers I found for sexually active teenagers in foster care were between 40... more

If you have decided on transracial adoption, should you adopt more than one child of the race you are considering? Many years ago, when we first considered adoption, I felt very strongly about transracially adopted children having at least one sibling that they could identify with racially and culturally. I felt it was somehow unfair to the transracially adopted child to be the only one in the family that looked different. Now our family has completed a transracial adoption.

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Two of our children are 10 months apart in age, so for a little over two months every year brother and sister are the same age. It so happens that their first names are very similar as well. Not a planned thing, actually one was adopted at the age of six. The both have blue eyes and they are both quite thin. As you might imagine, this occasionally leads people who are not very familiar with our family and don’t know that one is adopted to assume that brother and sister are twins.

This assumption absolutely drives Lane... 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

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