WHAT TO BRING When traveling to Ethiopia, it is best to disregard typical traveling advice regarding money. Traveler's checks and credit cards are mostly useless in Ethiopia.

Traveler's checks are very hard to cash in Ethiopia, and will probably only work at big hotels like the Sheraton. You will be required to show the receipt as well as the actual traveler's check, thus negating some of the protection of traveler's checks.

Credit cards, likewise, will only be honored at the big hotels. You can get a cash advance on your credit card at the Sheraton, which is... more

Mary's Favorite 30 Minute Stirfry Serves 6

2 cups thin-sliced beef 2 T. sesame (or olive) oil 1 onion, sliced into long thin slices 2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly on the diagonal 1 cup slivered cabbage 1 sweet pepper, sliced long and thin 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms 2 T. sugar 2 T. soy sauce 1/2 cup water 2 T. cornstarch 1 clove minced garlic sprinkle of sesame seeds, optional Cooked rice

Start rice cooking and slice meat and vegetables. Sprinkle beef with 1 T. sesame oil and mix oil through the beef with your hands. Stir fry beef in a hot skillet or wok until meat is just... more

One of the issues when considering adding to your family is the cost-- both the cost of the actual adoption, and the cost of the day to day needs of a larger clan. Because of this I thought that some people might like to hear how we keep costs down at our house.

I'll start with groceries. Here are the biggest things we do to keep our food budget around $600-$650 a month for 10 people:

COOK FROM SCRATCH

1.) I cook most things from scratch. I enjoy cooking and take pride in making food both affordable AND delicious. I do spaghetti, lots of Korean-type stirfry, Ethiopian... more

When I get to talking with someone unfamiliar with adoption, people will often look admiringly at my beautiful children, shake their heads, and say, “Oh, I don’t know HOW their birthmom could give them up. How could they ever do it? I know I couldn’t.”

The subtext of the message is that they think of the birthmoms of my kids must have been terribly callous creatures who just thoughtlessly ditched their children without thought or regret. I have even heard, “Oh, they only want boys over there. They give away all the girls." (Yes, said about Ethiopia-- a patent untruth but spoken with breath-taking conviction.)

I always jump to the defense of the birthmothers. ... more

I read an interesting article recently on family. org. It stated in part:

"Adoption agencies have reported a growing interest in adopting children with Down's syndrome. Partly because of education efforts and mostly because of positive first hand experiences, there is a waiting list for couples who want to adopt one of these loving special needs children. In some cases the waiting period is as long as three years.

David Tolleson of the National Down Syndrome Congress says there are challenges but the good outweighs the bad. “Uniformly the families have found that having an individual with Down... more

Many adoptive families at some point consider bringing a child into a family that is the same age as a child already in the family. In adoption circles this is called artificial twinning. Some adoption agencies feel comfortable with it, and some do not.

We adopted two boys who are 2-1/2 months apart in age. The second boy came home (at 20 mo) when the first was almost 23 months and had been home 1-1/2 years. The decision was not one made lightly. We entered into it with lots of thought and prayer, and also with a certainty that this second child was meant to be in our family.

However... more

Many families seem to be waiting longer for referrals from Ethiopia these days. I have friends adopting through several different agencies at the moment and this seems to be a phenomenon being felt by everyone. Several factors are probably contributing to this.

The Ethiopian government recently made a new rule that abandoned children need to be in care for three months before their cases will be allowed to go to court. This especially affects infants. Older kids tend more often to be relinquished by extended family, rather than truly abandoned. (Not real comfy with that word, but it is descriptive here.) Also the government is requiring more paperwork before cases... more

Fairly early in the adoption process you’ll want to pick up a copy of the I-600A. This is a BCIS form requesting advance permission to bring an orphan into the US. You can pick it up at your local immigration office--locations listed here. You can also print it off at this website. If you print it off the internet, it is a good idea to print it on salmon-colored paper if possible, since the special color of this form reminds the BCIS office to give it top priority... more

Adrienne shared on the Russia Adoption Blog how they were able to afford adoption. Since this is a big issue for most people, I wanted to share how it worked for us. Our family is a single-income family with a moderate income.

All 4 of our adoptions cost in the range of $15,000. This included agency fees, plane tickets, immigration paperwork, in-country costs, etc. With each of our adoptions we paid for at least two adult airfares, since each time either my husband or one of my older children came along with me.

Our first adoption was funded by refinancing our home. Due to fixing up and... more

In January we were audited by the IRS: something about the numbers of children we were claiming on our taxes. I guess they decided they needed some documentation if we were going to claim so many and get such a big tax refund year after year. I was tempted to bring in every single kid, just to prove their existence. Line them up, 'Sound Of Music'-style and have them give their names. Fill up the guy’s office. The sheer mass, I hoped, would cause him to tremble, fear for his upholstery, and let us all go home.

Then I realized anybody could bring in all the kids in the neighborhood and claim them as their own. And in that type of situation, some of our teens might deny... more