The Washington Post had an article last week titled “The Young Apprentice” that highlights an African American couple who are raising their son in the United States. In the article the parents share their fears and their concerns about their son growing up to be a black man in the United States, and the ways that they were striving to prepare him for the realities that were inevitable as he grew older.

The parents talk about how life was for them as children and then as they grew up, and when and how they first felt racism in their lives. They talk about what they want their son to know... more

Guess what? I am dating again. No, I am not out cheating on Josh while he slaves away to support our big old family, I am dating my kids. Josh is in on it too. We’ve started a new “mom and kid” and “dad and kid” date schedule, with one child getting a “date” with mom each week and one kid getting a “date” with dad each week.

We’ve only been doing it the last few weeks, but the plan is already getting rave reviews. The kids love it, and Josh and I are really enjoying it too. I decided that I wanted to set something like this up to be sure that Josh and I are each getting quality... more

Sorry about the “long time no post”. We took a spontaneous week-end getaway trip and I didn’t write up any posts in advance.

What a great time we had though. We went to Utah for a party/get together for adoptive families and that was so much fun. It was a three-hour drive for us, so we left early on Saturday morning, hitting a WalMart and doing a quick stock-up and then went right to the party.

You can’t go wrong with perfect weather, a ton of food, a large outdoor place to play and lots of kids. My kids ran and played and ate themselves silly and had so much fun seeing other families “like ours”. Not only did all of the other families there have kids that were adopted, but... more

Today my Amanda Mee Yeon turns five years old. It is hard to believe! (Extra-hard to believe because she only weighs a few pounds more than my two year old.)

Amanda came to us just before her second birthday. She arrived at the Salt Lake City airport with her escort, and she was exhausted, sweaty and quite bewildered. Within minutes of being with us though, she took the Winnie the Pooh balloon that her beloved Omah (foster mom in Korea) had given her before she left Korea and which had been clutched in her hand ever since, and she hit her new brother in the head with... more

Ok, so in my last post I summed up the “Reality Check” survey by Public Agenda which showed some troubling differences in the ways that white students and minority students in the U.S. described their school experiences.

I thought that the survey was interesting, and or course upsetting that there would be such a difference. I do think that it would have been more enlightening if white students and minority students in the same schools had been interviewed for the survey however, because I don’t think that it is a surprise to anyone that issues like dropout rates, drugs, fighting,... more

A recent “Reality Check” survey by Public Agenda, a group that describes itself as “a nonpartisan opinion research and civic engagement organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975,” found what it describes as “troubling differences in the way minority teens describe their school experiences compared to white pupils.” This was a headline story on Yahoo news this morning and the survey results can be read in full here. Students, parents, teachers and administrators nationwide were surveyed and asked if they felt that issues such as high dropout rates,... more

This weekend we watched another really fun family movie. Some unseasonable weather had us stuck indoors, and after countless rounds of checkers and quite a few other games, we were ready for a movie. Josh came home from the video store with “Cheaper by the Dozen Two”, which is another one we missed while it was in the theaters but really wanted to see.

I really enjoy the large family movies that have been popular lately, like the Cheaper by the Dozens and Yours Mind and Ours. (Ok, I was not overly impressed with the remake of Yours, Mine and Ours but I LOVE the original.) I... more

The June 2006 Adoptive Families Magazine has an article that really hit me close to home. It is called “A Past Without Pictures” by Katherine Sanders, and it talks about how the author’s daughter, who was adopted internationally and transracially as an older child, often struggles with not having any photographs of herself when she was younger.

We have the same issue with three of our children, who were adopted at older ages. With our girls, who were adopted domestically, we did get to meet their birth mother and spend time with her, but although she promised to get us pictures from when the girls were little, she disappeared shortly after... more

More on moms…Today I have been thinking about how being the mom of a child that is of a different skin color than you is different than being the mom of a same-race child.

Since I am the mom of kids that are biologically mine, and kids that have joined us through the miracle of adoption, I know that there are some differences between the two. There is no difference in how I treat them or how I feel about them or how very much I love them, but there is a difference in how society sees us.

The biggest difference is recognition. If I am out in public with one of my biological sons, I am never ever questioned about my relationship to that child. Society at large assumes I am his... more

In the past month we have had two more birthdays, which means more reflection for Mom. Both of my “big girls” had birthdays and are a year older and brighter. Des turned 8 and Mercy turned 11. They have been a part of our family for almost two years now, and they have grown and changed so very much, that they are almost unrecognizable from the two little girls we were first blessed with.

Des thought she was mean. She thought she was fat and she thought she was ugly and that she wasn’t very smart. She has been told all her life that she was mean and tough. The first day I saw her, she was wearing shorts that were three sizes too small, a shirt that barely covered her and she had her... more