Here's a good post from jayme and jon's adoption blog: past, present, and what could have been.

Also if you haven't yet read There is No Me Without You (and are not utterly sick of me talking about it) don't miss this excerpt featured at Adoptive Families The Only Thing He Brought.

Here's the letter I wrote to the Ethiopian government reporting on the well-being of our older daughter from Ethiopia. Sometimes it is easy to get intimidated by writing this letter. But really it does not have to take very long or be very complicated.

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Dec. 4, 2006

Attn.: MOLSA Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Hello!

We just wanted to write to give you an update on our precious Tsion, whom we brought home from Kidane Mehret in February of 2004 at the age of 1-1/2 years.

Tsion is now 4½ years old and continues to be a delightful child. She can write her name and is learning the sounds of the ABC’s in preparation for reading. Tsion enjoys... more

One of the requirements of adopting from Ethiopia is that families write a letter to the Ethiopian government once a year giving a report on the adopted child. Complying with this requirement is a very important part of helping the Ethiopian government continue to feel positive about international adoption. Don't forget to do it!

Here is one of my letters this year. I'll share the other one tomorrow. Along with the letters, I'll be sending half a dozen pictures of each child, including this great one I got of all our kids the other day.

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Attn.:MOLSA... more

I came across an amazing article at Rainbowkids.com. A Different Perspective gives a glimpse into the emotions a little child must feel when he comes into a new adoptive family.

If more parents understood the extreme stress a little one faces when coming into a new family, I think they'd be a little more patient with tantrums and slow adjustment. Grieving and settling in take time.

DOn't miss this article. Whether or not you agree 100% with the analogy, the viewpoint is enlightening.

I haven't shared any hair pictures in awhile, so when my 2 year old's hair turned out extra cute today, I snapped a couple pictures to share. I divided her hair into four sections and did one twist in each section. You can find a pretty good description of how to do twists here.

I decided while taking 15 minutes just to comb out the tangles that her hair is getting too long to leave loose for more than a day. It just gets... more

I realized today that I hadn't mentioned on either of my blogs what we did for Thanksgiving. We managed to have a nice time in spite of the fact that my husband had to work Thanksgiving day. I keep telling him they need to just kick all those patients out of the hospital so the health care workers can have the day off, but so far no luck.

We began our day with Thanksgiving church. We were visiting family for both of the meals of the day, so I lucked out in the cooking department. My 14 year old made a pie and the little kids helped peel potatoes to bring to my mother in law's house. We brought a salad and cookies to the evening shebang with my family, which was held at our church.... more

Many children adopted past infancy fear that their new parents will get sick and die. The first time I got sick after my then-2 year old came home, she was deeply worried. She kept trying to make me sit up and get up off the couch. My illness was obviously bringing back some terrible memories. I know almost nothing about her past, but her behavior convinced me that her birth mom had been ill.

Recently there was a good discussion about this on our agency's parent e-group, and several moms graciously agreed to let me share their comments here.

Gigi shares this story about her children:

My kids age 6 & 4 have the most macabre, fatalistic onversation I... more

An issue that parents often wonder about with new kids is immunizations. While children are in Ethiopia waiting to come home, they do receive medical checkups and immunizations.

Both of my girls had shot records that were up to date for their ages. It took a little doing to convert the Ethiopian dates to US dates, but once we figured all that out, it appeared that the girls had gotten shots in a reasonably timely manner.

However, many doctors don't feel comfortable trusting immunization records from third world countries. First of all, in some cases there could be errors, simply... more

My girls both have loosely curled (easy) hair. Because of this, I know there is much more to say about Black haircare than I know. I was thrilled to read the following very helpful advice from a mom on my adoption agency e-group. She very kindly gave me permission to copy it here to help other moms whose girls have the more challenging types of hair.

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Hi all,

I know I appreciated information like this when I was in the process of adopting a year ago, so for those of you interested, I wanted to give you my opinion regarding 'Carol's Daughter Hair Products'. After several people mentioned it, I decided to give their products a try on my two daughter's... more

A tiny miniscule portion of one days' chatter from my 4 year old:

"Hey mommy? Can we have a little chat?"

(I must mention that 'chat' here is a misnomer because she does not really expect much back and forth conversation when she gets in a 'chatty' mood, just lots of mmm-hmm's and nods from me as I hang raptly on her every word.) In any case, I must have agreed because in she plunged with her usual facial animation and Italian hand-motions.

"When I was in my room, I was thinking that we could play 2 games in each day. We have to skip Sunday, because we have to go... more