Race and Adoption

I’m not sure we’ll ever “get” race, especially as it relates to transracial families, and particularly families formed by adoption.
Two things set this off:
Reading a blog recommended by another blog that was on a carnival at a blog I read.  The final blog in the rabbit trail was mostly about adoption, specifically Chinese adoption.  The [...]

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Homeschool conference: Dr. Ray Guarendi

I just love Dr. Ray.
Unlike some of the speakers on the schedule at the IHM Conference for homeschoolers in Washington, DC, last weekend, I’ve heard Dr. Ray Guarendi before.  (It was very strange to see him in person; I’m used to him being on tape or on TV.)  He’s refreshing after book after book after [...]

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Happy Mother’s Day!

I wish all you moms out there a very happy Mothers’ Day!
We are moms by birth, by adoption, by fostering, and by taking people under our wings.  We are moms joyfully expecting to see graduations and weddings, moms frustrated with difficult and rebellious children, moms who placed children for adoption, and moms who lost babies [...]

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Sneers and jealousy

Not nice things, certainly.  Even uglier when thrown around in the “mommy wars.”  But I was reading my paper in between homeschooling lessons (“Let mommy finish the paper, honey, and we’ll play a game.  Yes, the whole paper.  No, I’m not done yet.  Yes, I’m sure you won’t collapse of boredom without me for five minutes.  [...]

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Sometimes tears are the only answer

Since the mandatory waiting period is over, I just filed our re-adoption paperwork so my youngest can have an easily accessable U.S. birth certificate.  We skipped paying the lawyers $700, because the parts that go through the courts are just a few form letters (I also did all the paperwork for finalizing our older two children’s [...]

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The Olympics: half naked and half brained

Like I’ve said previously, I enjoy watching Olympians do things I couldn’t even dream of doing.  Right now I’m watching the women’s marathon (on fast forward).  I might be able to keep up… on a bike.  Mostly, I’m watching to see views of Beijing.  “Hey, we saw that!  That looks like the gate we went [...]

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Afraid to be loved

Well, at least the Olympics coverage has given me plenty to blog about.
Tonight, it was a comment about a swimmer.  The commentator said something about, “She was adopted by her parents.”  Gee, I sure hope she wasn’t adopted by strangers…
My kids were obviously adopted.  (Ok, I’ve had a few people who seem to think they [...]

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China’s real population problem

The paper today had a nice little side article about how China had approved a lifing on the restrictive one-child policy for those families with children who were killed or disabled during the massive collapses of schools during the Sichuan earthquakes.  It also had a separate article about parents of dead children being pressured to [...]

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Black mermaids and Slovak t-shirts

My kids were watching “Dora saves the mermaids”  this morning.  I noticed that the mermaids were decidedly multi-ethnic.  Before that, we had watched “Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan,” a new Nickelodeon show about a young Chinese girl and her friends; some shows center on Chinese culture, and some are just fun.  (Not quite as good as Sagwa, but, [...]

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If you think my kids should be dead…

My brother and his wife are expecting their first child.  While visiting a few weeks ago, the proud parents treated us to a full set of ultrasound photos and videos.  Ok, it looked a little weird to have a nearly perfect silhouette of the baby while being able to watch the two chambers of the [...]

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