I am a nut when it comes to naming our kids. I have to choose a name right away. For me, it is just an important part of bonding with my child to be, whether that child is coming through birth to me or adoption.

Within weeks of getting a positive pregnancy test I would be handing Josh lists of baby names and asking his advice. Within weeks of accepting a referral or choosing a waiting child I would present him again with "what do you think about this name?" types of questions. Josh is a pain in the butt when it comes to choosing names. He doesn't like anything "fancy" or "weird". He doesn't like anything that sounds "made up" and he doesn't like anything that is spelled unusual (unless... more

Within minutes of deciding that Josh and I did indeed both want to adopt Solomon, I had emailed Adoption Advocates International (who we used to adopt our Belane and highly recommend), and let them know that we wanted him! They were already aware that we were considering adopting him because we had requested his file and an updated medical report. I got an email back almost right away saying that if we could get our paperwork updated quickly, that they would put him on "unofficial hold" for us.

Well, "quickly" is my middle name when it comes to doing adoption paperwork. I got right on the phone with our homestudy agency and... more

After coming to the realization that Solomon was indeed meant to be with us, I had a lot of conflicting emotions. When I saw new pictures of him from people who traveled to AHOPE or heard little udpates on how he was doing, my heart soared.

And yet at the same time, I was really nervous. For one, I was worried that Josh would not agree that we should adopt him. Deciding to adopt Belane was very emotionally difficult on both of us, and I did not want to go through that, or put Josh through that again. However I did know that there was at least a possibility that he would be open to the idea, because a few months earlier he had knocked my proverbial socks off when he told me that HE... more

Yes, the rumors are true. We are adopting again! :) I have been sharing our story of how this all came to be, and in my last post I explained how we got reconnected with our little Solomon, who we first met while in Ethiopia last fall.

Upon learning that Solomon was still available for adoption, I did have not have that overwhelming "this is your child" feeling right away like I did with Belane. It was more like a quiet, yet persistent thought and voice in my head, that gradually grew louder and harder to ignore.

My first... more

In my last post I let you in our secret, and announced that we are adopting again from AHOPE.

As I said, I had no idea when we first met Solomon that he would be ours. In fact, we believe that he already had a family committed to him. (Which is probably a good thing, because at that point I was so consumed by Belane and her adoption process that I never would have even considered another child).

We got Belane home, she settled in perfectly and life got to feeling "normal" really quickly. I volunteered to be the supplies coordinator for AHOPE, and I got involved with Project HOPEFUL,... more

I promised I would let you all in on what we are up to, so here is the big announcement.

We are at it again! We have committed to an absolutely beautiful little boy at AHOPE, whose name will be Solomon Tsega Eyasu H. He is almost two years old, and did I mention that he is beautiful?

I have lots to share about our journey so far. I have been bottling it all up until I was sure that pieces were falling into place, that it was really going to happen and that we got to tell the important people... more

In my last post I started writing about how many transracial adoptive parents who choose to adopt internationally get questioned by others as to "why" they did not adopt from the U.S. and "take care of their own". Usually these questions about why parents would adopt a child from another country when there are children waiting in the U.S., is full of judgment and negativity.

I know many an international adoptive parent who has been asked this question by family members, friends and total strangers, so today I am going to write about how to answer it.

In my last post I wrote about some... more

One of the many questions and comments that transracial adoptive families who have built their families through international adoption dread the most is, "Why didn't you adopt from the U.S.?" or some variation on that theme.

It seems that most people have a vague knowledge of the fact that there are lots of kids waiting for adoption in the United States, and then many people seem to have the attitude of, "we should take care of our own first", even when they don't really have any idea what is involved in adopting domestically or internationally or why an adoptive family would choose on over the other.

It is true that there are over 100,000 children currently available for adoption... more

I have been writing about the challenges that we have faced in navigating a relationship with the birth mother of my two oldest daughters. I have shared a lot about our personal situation, and yet I have left out a lot of details and specifics.

In this post I am going to offer some advice in handling a difficult relationship or situation with your child's birth parents, and I hope it is helpful to some.

If you are in a challenging relationship with your child's birth parent or birth parents, here is some advice.

- Get professional help. Adoption agencies that handle domestic adoptions usually have one or more employees who specialize in handling contact between adoptive... more

I have been writing about our relationship with the birth mother of two of our daughters, and the challenges we have faced in trying to do what is best for our girls.

Continued from this post:

Shortly after I responded to the request I got from "an aunt" of the girls, I got a request through the adoption agency for letters from the girls to their birth mother. At this point the staff at the agency had changed, so the lady that called me had very little knowledge of our adoption situation or what had happened in the past. I talked to her in detail about what had happened and that... more