Continued...

I think about Toby Dawson and think how difficult this must all be for him…to know that he wasn’t purposefully placed for adoption, but actually had a father searching for him in Korea…to think about what his life would have been like had he stayed with his family in Korea versus being adopted and growing up in America. He talks openly about feeling stuck in between two countries and cultures. I hope that finding his birth father and reconnecting to Korea and his first family will help him feel like he belongs in both places.

I think about the adoptive parents (who from what I have seen have remained silent this week) and how they must be feeling. I know it would... more

I have been meaning to blog about this for a few days now, but have been having a couple of “those days” in a row where I just can’t seem to get a break.

Surely by now you have heard about Toby Dawson, or “Awesome Dawson” as he is known…Olympic Bronze Medalist in freestyle skiing at the Turino Winter Olympics…adopted at a young age from Korea by a couple in Colorado (who were ski instructors)…recently reunited with his birth father and brother in South Korea at the age of 28.

You can read a good article about the reunion here courtesy of USA Today, complete with pictures (father... more

This wonderful article was posted to one of my email groups this morning. It is titled "The Lifelong Impact of Transracial Adoption: Learning From Adoptees and Their Non-Adopted Siblings" and was written by Dr. John Raible, Asst. Professor, Diversity & Curriculum Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and was originally presented as a keynote address at the 4th Biennial Adoption Conference at St. John's University in New York in October of 2006.

The link can be found here, and although it is long, this is really worth the read. It is really good stuff, and looks at learning about transracial adoption... more

As adoptive parents, I think one of the best things that we can do (and one of our obligations to our children) is to educate ourselves the best we can on the issues involved in transracial adoption, and the things that our children may experience and feel as they are growing up.

One of the best ways to do this is to listen to the voices of adult adoptees…hearing what was positive in their lives growing up and what was negative, and hearing about their challenges and blessings offers us priceless insight. Things have changed a lot since the first transracial adoptions in the U.S. over 20 years ago, and they have changed for the better, but there is still plenty of progress to be made... more

I realize that I am a bit behind the curve on this one, and I bet that most of you have already read this, but I wanted to mention this article from last week that claims a study showed that adoptive parents are more “invested” in their children than biological moms and dads.

The study, published in the new issue of the American Sociological Review, found that couples who adopt spend more money on their children and invest more time on such activities as reading to them, eating together and talking with them about their problems.

“One of the reasons adoptive parents invest more is that they really want children,... more

I NEVER get to watch Oprah… it is on at 4 p.m. here… right in the middle of kids coming home and doing homework and wanting a snack, and me starting dinner, etc. But I might just try to fit it in today, because Oprah is doing a story on transracial adoption.

Oprah’s show today is called “Fascinating Families”, and one of the families that she is interviewing is that of Lysa and Art from North Carolina, who adopted two teenaged boys from Liberia after seeing them sing in a performance by a boys’ choir from an orphanage in Liberia. Although they had never considered adoption and had attended the concert with their daughter’s brown troop with no intentions of it being a life-changing... more

Tonight there is an interesting show on ABC's 20/20 with Diane Sawyer. It is called "Waiting on the World to Change" The Hopes, Dreams and Hardships of Children in America's Most Dangerous City.

Here is a teaser from the ABC website...

A Year in the Life of Children in Poverty

What's it like for kids to live with no electricity, rushing to finish homework before sundown? Diane Sawyer reports on a year in the life of children in one of the poorest cities in America.

The program looks at kids in Camden, New Jersey.

Jan. 25, 2007 — Abandoned homes, empty... more

I have been saving this post for a “rainy” (busy) day, and thought it went hand in hand with my last post about children, beauty, skin tone, etc.

This artilce is titled “A Reason To Travel: Children” and it is written by Joel Carillet.

Both the words and the photos by Carillet are wonderful… he is a photographer that has traveled the world, and in this article, he talks about the beauty and preciousness of the world’s children he has met (and those he hasn't).

Carillet... more

The fourth and final article in the series “Finding Family-Stories of Adopted Suburban Immigrants” by the Chicago Daily Herald, is titled “Free to Be Me”.

I think that this article may be the most important to read for transracial adoptive parents, as it is written by a woman who was adopted into a white family from Korea as an infant.

In this article, Amy Borema discusses openly her feelings regarding looking so different from her sister, being adopted, not knowing anything about her birth parents, not being able to speak... more

Yesterday I wrote about the first two articles in the four-part series titled “Finding Family-Stories of Adopted Suburban Immigrants” from the Chicago Daily Herald.

All four of the articles highlight a transracial and transcultural adoptive family and do a wonderful job exploring the challenges and blessing of adoption. Make sure you check out the adoption information given on the right hand side of each story, as well as the slide show for each story.

Today I am going to write about the third and fourth articles, and I hope you take the time to read them.

The third article is titled “Siblings... more