Today I am going to write about something that I am passionate about, and something that is very near and dear to my heart. Today I am going to write about AHOPE.

AHOPE stands for African HIV Orphans: Project Embrace. AHOPE Ethiopia is an orphanage for HIV+ children in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. AHOPE Ethiopia is a NGO (non-governmental organization).

AHOPE for Children is the non-profit corporation licensed in the state of Washington that funds AHOPE Ethiopia. AHOPE for Children is also recognized by the U.S. Treasury... more

There are many articles in the media about transracial adoption. Often times I read some of these articles and feel that they have somehow fallen short of truly capturing the essence of transracial adoption.

This article, titled “My First Lesson in Motherhood”, from the New York Times, is different. I read this article and thought to myself, “that is what it is all about.”

The article tells the story of a young couple who have suffered through infertility and chosen to adopt to get the baby they so strongly desired. The decided... more

I mentioned this a while ago on my personal blog, but forgot that I hadn’t mentioned it on here yet.

Our family has been having an amazing experience thanks to Make A Wish.

We had several people, including staff at Belane’s clinic, mention that kids who are HIV+ automatically qualify for a “wish” through the Make A Wish foundation.

It all seemed a little too good to be true (and you know what they usually say about stuff that sounds too good to be true), so we didn’t get our hopes up. But I gave a call after some prompting from friends and family just to “feel things out”, and they jumped all over working with us.

To make a long story short, Belane wished to... more

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

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

Yesterday, as the pharmacist was handing me this huge bag of medications and I started to walk away with it, I was really overwhelmed with emotions.

None of these thoughts were new, and I am usually not a very dramatic kind of gal, but for some reason, I got very emotional.

It was overwhelming to me that my little girl needed all of that to stay well, and that without those medications, she would eventually suffer, waste away and die. It was overwhelming that that bag of medications would now be a part of her daily routine for the... more

Yesterday we made a fast and frantic road trip to Utah and back, for another appointment for Belane.

It was an emotional day, and one that sort of took me by surprise.

We went in to see her doctors to get the results of her last round of blood tests, one of which was a phenotype test, which looked at her particular strain of HIV and determined which medications would be the most effective in treating Belane, and which medications if any she is resistant to. The other test looked at the amount of virus in her blood, or her “viral... more

Let’s see…we got our own “fellow”. He is a doctor that is doing his training in Ped. Infectious Disease, and he has to follow a child with HIV. He has a beeper 24/7, and we can call him any time. Also, I wrote last time that we would see this doctor, Dr. A, at this appointment, and then would transfer over to his partner, Dr. P. Dr. A is a Ped. Infectious Disease doc and also specializes in international adoption, so he usually sees kids for one or two appointments and then sends them on to their regular pediatrician or another specialist if needed. His partner is an HIV specialist, and is the one that usually does the appointments with the HIV kids (although both doctors work together on... more

Since most of the kids are still sleeping I am going to get some more posts written up.

This week it was back to business…Mercy started her basketball league which she loves. We went to her first game last Tuesday night, and then she had two games this week. She is built for basketball (long, tall and thin!) and she is very athletic so she is quite good.

We also have Ryan and Des with rehearsals for their third grade Christmas play. Ryan landed the starring role of “Santa” (after auditions the music teacher told me that Ry is a ham and was up to do all the crazy things the part will require…we know!!!!). Des got the part of Rudolph which she is excited about. At first she... more