This is one of those things that you have probably seen, but I think is worth really looking at and pondering a bit.

I got this in an email (and I have seen it before too) and thought it was very relevant to transracial adoption. I did some research and found that while these sorts of things are impossible to figure out exactly, that it is pretty close to accurate, and even if the numbers aren’t perfect, the spirit of the message is real.

If we could reduce the worlds' population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same,... more

A few weeks ago I wrote this post on a BBC photo journal on street kids living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This week BBC has a new photo journal set in Ethiopia, this one titled “Ethiopia Shoe Shine Girl”.

The pictures and the accompanying text tell the story of 12 year old Meskerem, a girl whose father has died, and whose mother’s “job” is to collect rubbish, which pays about the equivalent of $7.50 a month. The mother’s income is not enough to support the family, so as is common in... more

A recent Chicago Tribune article, titled “Interracial twins bring a new dimension to the American Family” talks about families who through adoption, end up with “virtual twins”, or children of the same age, who happen to be of different races.

The article focuses on the Goering family, whose first two children are Jenna and Sam. From the article: “Seven years ago, they entered their parents' lives on the same day. And yet, Jenna and Sam aren't twins. He was born in the U.S., the biological son of computer consultants Jody and Addison Goering. She was abandoned six months earlier in rural China, and first introduced... more

On Friday my “un-photographable” post was on an orphan boy that we met in the park in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Well, this morning the BBC has a photo article titled “Underground Children” that tells the plight of homeless children in Ethiopia.

These children are surviving by living underground in horrible conditions. They spend their days looking for scraps of food, working odd jobs to earn small bits of money, running from police officers, trying to avoid those in the world... more

It is a bit exciting to me to see so much about racial issues in the media spotlight this week. Earlier this week I posted about a survey that was a headline on Yahoo News about the different experiences white and minority students were having in regards to their educations in the United States. (if you missed these posts you can read them here and here).

Today, MSNBC has a front page story on what it is like to be... more

It was a lovely surprise this morning to wake up, turn on my computer and see the headline on Yahoo news telling me that I deserve over $130,000 a year in annual salary!

That’s right, a Reuters story by Ellen Wulhorst was published yesterday titled, “Study: U.S. Mothers Deserve $134, 121 in salary. The survey was done by Salary.com, and determined the “proper” salary for a stay-at-home mom by calculating the earning power of the 10 jobs that most closely resemble what an average stay-at-home... more

One of my favorite quotes on “hope” is this one by Helen Keller, “"The world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming it." Today I am going to share with you two of my favorite articles on hope.

Hope Lives Here (published in Good Housekeeping) and What will become of Africa’s AIDS orphans, both by Melissa Fay Greene, are two of those articles that many, many adoptive parents have read and been inspired by, especially parents of children adopted from Africa. If you are not familiar with Greene’s writings, she is a wonderful, award-winning writer and... more

This article, “Why is race still a factor in adoption?” was recently brought to my attention.

The story was recently published in the Philadelphia Inquirer and tells a heartbreaking story about a three year-old African American foster child named Kevin, who had been living with the same foster couple for two years. The couple, who are the only mom and dad that Kevin can remember, were planning on adopting him. Oh, and they are white.

Without warning, county officials and police entered the home and removed the child, who of course was crying and scared. He was placed with another family, of who little... more

This article ran on the front page of the New York Times on April 12. The article discusses how modern technology has made it possible for the average person to purchase a DNA kit for approximately $100 that will tell them what their racial genetic make up is and where their ancestors are from.

My first thought, was that it was really interesting. I thought about how for someone that was adopted and did not have much or any information on their birth family, ancestors, etc. that it could be a very... more

This article is currently on the New York Times website. It is titled “Adopted in China, Seeking Identity in America” and was written by Lynette Clemetson.

The article is written about adoptees from China, but easily applies to any transracially adopted child and family. It focuses on children adopted from China who are now teenagers, and how this first group of current-day adopted children are handling issues of race and culture.

The article states, “As the oldest of the adopted children move through their teenage years, they are beginning — independently and with a mix of enthusiasm... more