A few weeks ago, my two little cousins came over to spend the night with Gracie and me to celebrate the Chinese New Year together. My mother found this poem of an anonymous writer that describes a toddler’s perspective. I could not help but to be reminded of my little cousins and Gracie when I read this poem for the first time. I am sure if you are the older sibling to a toddler brother or sister then you should be able to identify with this.

Toddler Rules of Property If I like it, it... more

While I was away on a youth trip to Schroon Lake, New York for three days Gracie missed me. My mom said she looked at my picture and asked “Where Sissy”? Mom said Gracie would call out “Sissy, Sissy”? and my mom would tell Gracie that I was away and that I was going to be back home in two days or tomorrow or whatever time frame was left on me returning. The thing I thought was most special is she wanted to sleep in my room each night I was away to help her feel like she was close to me even when I was hundreds of miles away from her.

Another... more

Do you have a child who struggles with attachment? Whether an infant or an older child, is eye contact too difficult for him or her? When Ben arrived home as a four year old, eye contact was way too intense and intimate for him to handle. He loved to be rocked when he was having a hard time, and even regressed for a short time where he wanted to be held and drink from a sippy cup while I rocked him, but would he make eye contact during those times? No way.

How do you encourage children to make eye... more

I hope no one is offended by this post as it is meant to discuss religion in a lighthearted manner, and is not mocking or making fun of any religion at all. I just thought my interaction with my son today was a bit humorous.

Caleb has been immersed in our family's religion by jumping in with both feet since the second week he was home. We have scriptures for him in Simplified Chinese, (not that he wants to read them yet), many church videos in Mandarin, children's church music in Mandarin that he loves to sing and simple scripture stories in simplified Chinese that he actually loves to read. We pray as a family both morning and evening as well as at meal times and he loves... more

part 2

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

part 1

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

I have been blogging here about our new garden that the kids and I are working on. Since I last posted, we now have onions that have sprouted, and one lone cilantro sprout. Unfortunately, our tomato plants and peppers are not showing any signs of life yet, but from past gardening experiences, I know peppers can tend to be very late bloomers.

Tonight, in my email was an article from the International... more

I have already written about some of Caleb's first holidays with us. You can read about his first Chinese New Year in the United States here and his first Valentine's Day here.

Rather than focus merely on first holidays, I would like to focus on some of the other "firsts" in my children's lives. With all of my adopted children arriving at an older... 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