Until All Have Homes is an organization that I don’t think I have mentioned lately. Until All Have Homes was started by Anne Grabeman, and is run by parents of special needs kids (most of them adoptive parents).

They advocate for special needs children all over the world, and work to find homes for special needs orphans. They are not an adoption agency, but network with agencies that have good reputations to help find homes for the hardest to place kids.

One of the things I love most about them is that they also support children with special needs and help them stay with their birth families when possible. There is a GORGEOUS... more

Hey everybody! Sorry I was “quiet” over the weekend… I don’t even have anything overly exciting to share that we did…we hung around, braided hair, watched movies, played games, did some cleaning, went to church and just had a lot of family “down time”. Kind of nice! O.K., Angela asked about the next “Day in the Life of Me”…well, I missed February because I was in the middle of my “A Year Ago Today” posts, but I promise I will jump back into it for March (as long as you promise not to give me too many “oh my goodness you are nuts” comments).... more

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I have to say that we are up against a lot…scrolling through the “answers” on Yahoo to this question was really disheartening and at times, nauseating. So many people don’t care, don’t want to care and don’t think anyone else should care.

More than once I saw the response that we should just let the children suffer and die…

I saw answers that said that we should let the kids in Africa die, because they are just going to grow up to be sick and spread HIV around and have more kids to suffer.

I saw answers that said we shouldn’t help anyone until evil rulers were eradicated and healthy drinking water was available to everyone, because... more

Ok, here is my answer to the question, “How can we make the world’s children a priority in 2007?” that I discussed in this post (and thanks to those of you who took the time to give me your answer.)

How do we make the world's children a priority?

I say we have to be their voice.

To make children a priority…ALL children, everywhere…they need a voice. People need to know what the children's needs are, how they are suffering, where the “systems” are failing them, which of their basic needs aren’t being met, and how they can be helped.

So often people live in their... more

Actress Alyssa Milano poses the question to the general public, “What can we do to make the world’s children a priority in 2007?”

Alyssa Milano is a UNICEF ambassador, and is one of nine celebrities and UNICEF ambassadors that have asked questions on “Yahoo!Answers” regarding the world’s children.

Here is Alyssa’s full question,

“What can we do to make the world’s children a priority in ‘07? Worldwide, 10.5 million children under 5 will die this year, most of them from easily preventable causes. What can we do to make these children a priority in 2007?"

You can find the Yahoo page with Alyssa'a question, video of her doing work with UNICEF... more

One of the most difficult aspects of our adoptions for me is all of the children left behind. They weigh heavily on my heart and my mind…some days more than others.

It sounds cliché to say that it is life-changing to go to Ethiopia or another country stricken by disease and extreme poverty…but it is.

To stand in an orphanage full of children, and to really look into their eyes, and hold them in your arms, is indescribable. Being at AHOPE was tougher than the other orphanages we visited, because only a very few of the children had ever been adopted, and only a small handful were in process of being adopted. I think about those little boys, slipping their hands into mine and... more

It has been a sad couple of days for me…my Belane has started sleeping in her own bed…alone…happily.

Earlier in the month I wrote a six-part series on sleep and adopted children. Here is what I wrote at the end of the last post about Belane…

She has now been home for just over two months and I think she is doing great. Over the next few weeks I will gradually cut back the time I spend laying with her at night until she is going to sleep like everyone else. When she is sleeping all night without waking up anxiously checking... more

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-Adopting a child IS in some ways a selfish act. If you are adopting because you truly want a child (or another child) then it is something you are at least in part doing for yourself. I have heard lots of people say that if you wanted to “make a big difference in the world” or do a big charitable act, you could take the huge chunk of money you would spend on an adoption and invest it into a country, family, program, etc. and make a difference that would touch many people instead of just one.

-In a perfect world, both the adoptive parents and the child... more

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-No matter how wonderful an adoptive family is or how beneficial or even life-saving adoption is for a child, it is extremely important that the loss that child has endured is not ignored or swept under the proverbial carpet. Every child that is adopted, even from the most dire of circumstances, has suffered loss. Losing a birth family, culture, language, home, friends and entire life is significant and often traumatic for a child, and will have effects on them throughout the rest of their lives.

It is also important to remember that although we often see... more

I get some ideas for this blog from the discussions that go on on some of the email adoption groups that I belong to.

One discussion that has been going round and round lately is the one revolving around the idea of adoption being a way to “save a child”.

This is a complicated one, and one that seems to come up fairly frequently on the email groups, so I thought I would tackle it here.

Here are my thoughts, in total random order.

-No one should ever adopt for the SOLE reason of wanting to save a child. There are many other ways that someone can save a child. You can sponsor a child so that they can remain in their family/village and get food and an education,... more