Sometimes we as adoptive parents like to see adoption as a clean and perfect thing. We want a child. A child needs a family. Put the two together and you have a perfect solution. It's all good, right?

If you've read me more than a few days, you know how pro-adoption I am. Adoption is indeed a great solution for families who want children and children who need parents. I believe that there was a divine plan that brought these future daughters of ours to our attention after their mother died.

However, I get a lot less comfy with the words 'meant to be' when I think about the tragedy that brought them to us. If I say that our girls were meant to come to us, am I also... more

I first heard about a reading program called Read Naturally from a friend who brought home eight year old twins from about two years ago. After working hard with them at home and at school for at least year and feeling frustrated because they still struggled to read well, she discovered this program, and immediately wished she’d tried it sooner. The program is designed especially with ELL (English language learning) kids in mind. Since the girls we’re waiting for are close to the age of hers, I was interested to check out this reading program to see if it might also benefit my new arrivals from Ethiopia.

I received several different... more

A few weeks ago I bought two Amharic/English books for our new girls. The first is Silly Mammo - a retelling of a traditional Ethiopian folk tale written by Yohannes Gebregeorgis and illustrated by Bogale Belachew. The second is The Lion's Tail, a story by Jane Kurtz, which has been translated into Amharic by Yohannes Gebregeorgis.

I was pleased to learn this week that EthiopiaReads.org has some new books for sale!

The Fig Tree by Genet... more

The other day I blogged about the book God Grew Tired of Us, a story written by one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Soon after that I was pleased to get an e-mail from an adoptive dad I know through my adoption agency, and who happens to work with John Dau. He said that John would be glad to talk with me if I was interested. I jumped on the chance.

We had a nice chat on the phone the other day, and now I have a two part interview to share with you. In the first portion of the interview, John talks about some of the challenges that new immigrants from Africa face. In the second part (coming tomorrow)... more

(In case my last post led you to believe that all Somalis and Ethiopians are at war.)

A couple weeks ago we had the privilege of greeting my sister at the airport as she brought home her baby boy from Ethiopia. We've been waiting for this day since early 2006 when Rachel and her husband decided to adopt.

Anxious to not miss a minute, we ended up arriving about half an hour ahead of time. In following little ones around and killing time in front of the arrivals gate, John and I ended up wandering into the nearby gift shop with our 4 year old.

John struck up a conversation with... more

Social Security Card

It is possible to obtain a social security number for your child with Ethiopian paperwork, and if you are going to be filling out your taxes very soon, you may want to go ahead and do this with just the Ethiopian paperwork. But many families decide to wait until after re-adoption to avoid the name change process.

We usually head straight for the social security office as soon as we leave court with our copies of the adoption decree. The social security office needs all the same paperwork that the court does (birth certificates, marriage license,... more

Green Card

You'll want to keep an eye on your mail box. Within a couple months you should be receiving your child's 'welcome letter' and green card in the mail. The timing of this varies widely. Some families receive these within a few weeks of arrival. Some families get two 'welcome letters'. Some families wait up to a year to get anything in the mail. And some families never get a green card. if you do not get your child's green card within a couple months, you may want to contact your local USCIS office just to... more

So you finally have your child home. Finally the paperwork is all behind you, right? Wrong. There are several things that still need to be done. First on the list are the reports you agreed to supply to the Ethiopian government to let them know that your child is well and thriving.

Family Reports

One of the things that you commit to when you adopt a child from Ethiopia is to provide the Ethiopian government with regular updates about your child. Your letters need to be written 3 months after homecoming, 6 months after homecoming, and then on the yearly anniversary... more

(Reminder: Don't forget the Rosetta Stone petition, if you haven't weighed in already. Thanks!!)

One of the things that adoptive families run up against as soon as they get their referral is the question of how much of the child's history to disclose to friends and extended family. It can seem really natural to share all the details that you have with interested loved ones, especially if your child is very young on homecoming. However it is wise to think carefully about how much you will disclose.

Your... more

Part One Part Two

After the yummy sushi and a quick bathroom break for the little girls, we had 10 minutes to get the boys to their practice. Thankfully we weren't far. They got out of the van bearing a hot dog and a coke for big sis, who'd been waiting long enough for her brothers and her dinner to show up that she'd called to check on us.

By 6:40 we were finally home. I sent the little kids outside to stretch their poor car-cramped legs while I put away the groceries. Hubby walked in the door at... more