A child who is overweight weighs too much. A child who is obese has too much body fat. In both cases, the child’s weight exceeds the healthy range for his or her height. It isn’t always immediately obvious if a child is overweight or obese because children grow at different rates. If you take your child for regular physicals then your pediatrician probably charts your child’s height to weight ratio. You can ask your doctor if your child’s weight... more

Stubbornness must be a hereditary trait because I see my adopted daughters setting their jaw exactly like their birthparents and grandparents. One of the advantages of an open adoption is realizing your daughters’ come by some traits quite honestly. Hopefully, that helps us parents not to take it personally. I thought my daughter, who is now an adult, was stubborn growing up until I met my recently adopted 10-year-old daughter. She continues to give grief over schoolwork. Last year I thought she was purposely not doing schoolwork because she wanted to be homeschooled... more

It appears that our youngest daughter, now 18 months, will be the easiest to potty train of all of our children. Considering the fact that our oldest children will turn 25 during the next two months, and that we have parented nearly a hundred children, that is impressive. Honestly, I haven’t even tried to potty train her. I brought the potty chair out of the attic, and placed it in the bathroom a few months ago, because our granddaughter who is two has started potty training. Ami follows me into the bathroom and usually sits on the potty chair while she waits for me.

In... more

Shea likes to drive himself to church service so he can hang out with his teenage friends and this day was no exception. He really isn’t too bad of a driver for just being 18, but he does have ADHD, dyslexia, and those raging hormones that are common in a teenage boy. Honestly, I was a little surprised that our church didn’t cancel morning services.

You may have heard about our recent winter storms here in Michigan. The snow covering the roads and trees is truly lovely, until you have to drive through it. With temperatures hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit... more

Some people have strong opinions about whether children should sleep with their parents. For young infants there is a safety issue. Obviously, a tiny baby could easily be suffocated by an adult rolling over in bed while asleep. But, how many times has an exhausted mom, desperate for a few minutes of sleep, snuggled her baby in bed in the middle of the night. I have fallen asleep that way many times over the past 24 year of parenting. What parent would turn away a toddler scared awake by a loud crack of thunder at three in the morning? Of course, these are exceptions and... more

No parent wants to hear a new baby scream with pain, but we know it is going to happen at each of those early well-child checkups. Immunizations always make parents feel a little guilty because we have to help hold our baby still while the nurse injects their little legs. When the child being immunized is newly placed with you for adoption, it is even harder to be the injection helper. You are trying to bond with your baby and you really don’t want to be associated with painful experiences. I learned a little trick 24 years ago when my oldest son was born to help with immunization... more

If your adopted children are anything like mine, they tend to get colds or some type of illness frequently, especially during that first year of placement. All but one of my adopted children came to us through the foster care system so we have some experience with new germs entering our home. Colds, especially when accompanied with constant coughing and runny noses, are a nuisance. When the coughing goes on all night long, interrupting your sleep, you can become desperate for some type of help. When the colds spread to all of your children, you can become really desperate.... more

When you are in the process of adopting an older sibling group, you probably have daydreams of shared moments. While shopping you may think, “this will be so fun with the children.” While passing a local attraction you may think, “I can’t wait to take the children there; I know they will love it.” Your daydreams may turn into reality if your adopted children are able to form positive attachments with you. Unfortunately, bonding with older adopted children is a two-way street. If your new children have suffered so much trauma before joining your family that they can’t... more

If you have adopted a sibling group, you may need to find ways to stretch your food dollars. Buying prepared packaged foods becomes cost prohibitive when you are feeding a family with more than four members. Eating at restaurants becomes less frequent as well. To stretch your food dollars you will need to begin preparing more of your food from scratch. I am not talking about the time consuming jobs of preparing a loaf of bread or homemade cold cereal, they are still quite reasonable to purchase.

However, you can prepare delicious meals that your family will love using... more

One of our first foster care placements was a sibling group who later became our daughters. The oldest was a teenager who arrived at our home enrolled in the school band. Only she didn’t have an instrument and couldn’t play very well. She had, and still has, a natural gift of music that she ended up discovering. We ended up buying her a clarinet and finding private lessons for her. I think that is what started all of our children on their musical journeys.

Our oldest son was jealous that she had music lessons and he didn’t, although he had never asked for them. We ended... more