Continued from here

We served up dinner of doro wat, shiro wat and injera, along with a huge pot of spaghetti for the kids that didn’t feel brave (although to their credit, they all tried it). Most of the kids loved the doro wat, although most of them chose to mix it in with their spaghetti instead of eating it with the injera. Injera is definitely an acquired taste. (I love it).

Josh and I ate WAY too much. It is amazing to me how much smells and tastes... more

Last night was A LOT of fun. Thanks to some family of ours, who drove a whole heap of Ethiopian food up to us from a fantastic little Ethiopian restaurant that is seven hours away, we had the most wonderful meal…and the most wonderful time watching Belane and Benjamin go NUTS!

Our brother and his girlfriend found a fantastic little Ethiopia restaurant down near where they live, and when they told the Ethiopian family that runs it about our family and our kids from Ethiopia, they were very excited. We were called and asked what our favorite... more

I have written quite a few posts on this blog about hair.

You can read this one on Transracial Adoption Hair Care, and this one on learning how to "do hair",.

You can also read "Adventures in Hair Care" Part One, Part Two, Part Three... more

Happy New Year everybody! My wild and crazy celebration last night included a bunch of my favorite small people, my best friend, oodles of food and way too much Chex mix! Both of our husbands were in Denver for the football game (my Christmas present to Josh), so it was a wives and kids only party.

Truth be told, we cheated…we put the New York news channel on and had the kids watch the ball fall at 10 p.m. our time…they blew some horns, wore silly hats, cheered and kissed their moms, and then all were in bed by 10:30 p.m.

Anyway,... more

Those of you that know me, even if just through this blog, know that I am not big into celebrities (at all). I have tried for the most part to even ignore the “celebrity adoptions” on my blog, although I did give in and write about Angelina here and here, and Madonna (just once!) here.... more

Continued...

I wanted to share these experiences because often you hear transracial families (including myself!) complaining about the downside of being what I call a “highly visible family”. If you join any email list about transracial adoption, you will quickly run into parents complaining and lamenting about the nosey, insensitive, prying, thoughtless, bizarre and down right rude questions/comments that all transracial adoptive families seem doomed to get every once in a while when out in public.

I have written about how to “deal” with the attention, the worst comments we have ever gotten and strategies for responding to awkward or rude comments or questions.

While... more

I had an experience while Maggie was in the hospital last week that was one of those reminders of how being a transracial adoptive family is unique.

I was up there one night, right after a shift change for the nurses. The “new” nurse that was on, is a woman that I know well from our community. She came in and sat down and we talked some about my family, life, orphanages, etc. This woman has volunteered a lot in Romania, and so we had a lot to talk about.

At the end of the conversation, she looked like she was struggling to decide whether or not to tell me something. Then she said, “Your family really touches people. Tonight, when we were changing shifts, Maggie’s last nurse... more

Today is my Maggie’s fifth birthday. Josh often refers to Maggie as “the one that started it all” because she was our very first adoption.

In 2001, Josh and I had three biological sons, who were five, three and two years old. We had taken permanent measures to ensure that we would not be having any more children the “old-fashioned way”, as pregnancy was dangerous to me because of injuries I sustained in a riding accident.

And yet I knew we had more children out there (it’s probably a good thing at that point that I didn’t know how... more

Over on the transracial adoption message board, I found a post about an interesting research project being done by a professor at George Mason University.

The name of the project is “Transnational Adoption and Changing Faces of American Families” and it is being conducted by Prof. Linda J. Seligmann in the Department of Sociology and Antropology.

The website describes the project like this…

This... more

Being proud of my kid is something I feel often. My kids are great. They are fun, happy, loving, full of energy, hilarious, compassionate, well behaved, smart and talented in a million different ways. Sure, they get on my nerves now and then for bickering or shouting when the baby is asleep or leaving socks on the floor, but that is to be expected. :)

I am proud of them when we all file into a restaurant and get nasty glares from everyone, (one waitress admitted to considering quitting on the spot when we first walked in), and then as we finish... more