We've been cooking so much Ethiopian food around here lately that our repertoire of Korean recipes has been neglected. Several times in the last couple weeks, our Korean boys have requested some of their favorite Korean foods. Today finally I got all the ingredients together to make kimbap.

The boys were eager to introduce their new sisters to some real Korean food. As much as I adore kimbap, I had some serious reservations about whether the girls would appreciate this introduction. They were really good about trying new foods in the first month home. But now that some of the newness is wearing off, I am hearing... more

Awhile back I blogged about my little daughter at the age of three looking around her at the swimming pool in puzzlement at the many white people surrounding her. She finally said, "Where is all the brown?" At the time I was amazed that a three year old would be aware enough to articulate such a question and I was very glad that at least she had a Korean brother to point to.

Today when we once again brought our children swimming at the same pool, the story was a little different. Along with our two Korean kids, we now have four Ethiopian daughters. Besides our kids, today there were also a dozen or so Hispanic people and one other little African American girl. In a group of... more

When we adopted our first Black child, my eyes were opened to the lack of diversity in my own world. I realized that not only did we live in a predominantly white community, but we also watched TV shows that featured mostly white characters, read books where white people were the main characters, and bought Disney movies where the princesses were almost uniformly pale-skinned.

I began a hunt through bookstores for books with African-American characters. I was a voracious reader as a child, but the only Black characters that I remember reading about were very stereotypically drawn Southern... more

This Sunday afternoon, we're packing the family into the van and heading over to the home of a perfect stranger. Well, maybe not entirely a stranger-- two of my sisters have met her, and I have heard from several other people that she is a very nice person.

I am incredibly eager to meet this gal, because she is only the second Ethiopian adult I have the privilege to know in our area. The first one has since moved away. There are other Ethiopians in our area, I'm told -- well, three or four dozen at minimum, and probably more. But I must not be living in the right part of this valley, because I haven't run into them. And so I am delighted that this woman would like to meet our... more

Nesting in expectant moms is normal, but if you are planning an older child via adoption, prepare for turbo-nesting. At least that's what older child adoption has done for me! My girls are 9 and 11, and my case of nesting started innocently enough. I cleaned our girls’ room, bought them new pillows, repainted a dresser, washed and sorted clothes, and filled their dresser. Normal stuff.

But then I started imagining how our house might look to someone who'd never seen it before. Suddenly all I could see was cobwebs in rafters and weeds in flowerbeds. The woodpile looked like a giant had... more

In the past few months I've come across some insightful posts, including this one by Mayhem and Magic written by adoptive parents of Black children, wrestling with the thorny issue of whether or not white parents really can do a good job raising Black children. Since we are for the first time in the process of adopting older children, this is something I've been thinking a lot about.

When you adopt an infant or toddler, they just think of you as mom. They're used to looking at that white face every day. Sure, there will come a time (probably sooner than you imagine) when that child will... more

Much talk is devoted to the experience of a child being adopted into a family of another ethnicity. What about the biological children in a transracial adoptive family? Howe does it feel to field questions about your brother or sister on a regular basis? How does it feel to be part of a conspicuous family?

Recently I read a series of essays written by young adults who'd grown up with adopted siblings of another race. One young person was filling out a college... more

Adoptive parents tend to request girls. That's a simple fact. So much so that recently when I got an email from a future adoptive mom saying she and her husband would prefer a boy, I tried to remember when I'd last heard that. Sure, there are plenty of families open to children of either sex, but the majority of people who state a preference prefer a girl. This is both according to my informal experience and according to statistics.

My husband and I did it ourselves with both our Ethiopia adoptions so far. We'd had four boys in a row at that point and were eager to have little girls again. And frankly, one of the nice things about adoption is that you CAN choose.

But lately... more

This evening I got two emails within one hour from people telling me I'd gotten my wish -- Disney is making a movie with a Black Princess.

MSNBC News Services -- Updated: 8:02 a.m. MT March 9, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - The Walt Disney Co. has started production on an animated musical fairy tale called “The Frog Princess,” which will be set in New Orleans and feature the Walt Disney Studio’s first black princess.

The film, set for release in 2009, also is the first hand-drawn film Disney has committed to since pledging last month to return to the traditional animation that... more

Although our area of the country is a nice place to live, one of the things I like least is the lack of racial diversity. We do have a fair number of Hispanic people, but last I checked, the population of Blacks in our area was less than 5%. Every year, however, there is an African night at our local university. This year was the first year we actually went. I went with my husband and all my daughters; the boys opted to stay at home and watch Star Wars.

Outside the main gathering room, there were displays and things to purchase. Animal skins from a safari/hunting expedition guide... more