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

I am going to squeeze one more post out of the letter "W" in my Transracial Adoption ABCs.

Waiver - While this is not an adoption topic that will affect the majority of families that adopt internationally, it is an issue that is near and dear to my heart and is something that is affecting more and more adoptive parents all of the time.

The "waiver" is an extra step to the immigration process that is required for a child that is HIV+ (there is also a waiver required for children who test positive for TB). At most embassies, a medical is done as part of the immigration part of the international... more

In case you have not heard this yet, on Sunday in Alabama, a family that checked into an RV park was told that their two year-old son was not allowed to use the pool, showers or common areas of the park because he is HIV+.

Silvia and Dick Glover are foster parents to little Caleb, and are in the process of adopting him. Silvia mentioned in casual conversation with someone in the park office that the boy is HIV+, when they were discussing his adoption. Shortly thereafter, they were told he could not swim or use the showers or common areas of the... more

When many people think about adoption, they picture prospective adoptive parents lined up a mile long, waiting for the next available "healthy, as young as possible" infant through whatever adoption program that they have chosen.

Many first-time adoptive parents feel that since it is their first adoption, and they do not have a lot of experience, that they could only "handle" a healthy infant.

We've been there and we've done that. Six years ago when we were in the middle of our first adoption, we had three young, healthy sons. We wanted... more

In my last post, I wrote all about AHOPE, how I got involved with them and how I became committed to HIV+ children in Ethiopia.

Now I am going to write about how you can help the children of AHOPE.

I am the volunteer supplies coordinator for AHOPE. As you can likely imagine, housing and caring for 80 or so HIV+ children requires a lot of supplies. AHOPE relies heavily on donations for items such as clothing, baby care items, school supplies and basic medical supplies. And because it is very costly to ship things to Ethiopia and AHOPE would have to pay fees to receive the packages, they rely on traveling... more