I know that I am not a superhero. I know that I can’t “adopt them all” and I know that I can’t “change the world”. Some days I feel like I need that tattooed on my fore head. If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me “You can’t save the world,” I wouldn’t have near as much adoption debt.

My quote today is by Gandhi. Gandhi has been quoted as saying, “Practically anything you do will be insignificant, but it is important that you do it.” I love that a man who did so much good in his life, was humble enough to make a statement like that. Although his accomplishments... more

I hope all of you had a happy Mother’s Day yesterday. I really enjoyed writing about Mother’s Day and moms all week long.

One of the things I love the most about holidays is seeing my kids get all excited. And even though there are no baskets of candy, stocking full of toys, costumes to wear, or anything else special for them, they were all really excited yesterday. They were all so excited to give me all of the treasures that they have made. I really raked it in! I was given two home-made jewelry boxes from my Boy Scouts, two beautiful flower pots with pens that look like flowers in them from my older girls that they made at church, three small potted plants from some... more

Despite what some cynics may say, Mother’s Day was not invented by the florists and greeting card companies (although they no doubt find it a prosperous time of year). The earliest known Mother’s Day celebrations have been traced to ancient Greece, when Rhea, the Mother of the Gods was celebrated. “Mothering Sunday” was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent in England during the 1600’s, and on this day all mothers in England were celebrated.

In the United States, the idea of Mother’s Day was first presented by Julia Ward Howe, who is the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. In 1872, Howe suggested a day dedicated to peace and celebrating mothers, and she held organized... more

I wish I had a photograph of my husband’s face as I handed him his daughter for the first time. I had been in Vietnam for almost two weeks, and he had been home caring for our three young sons, running the house and still finding time to hold down his job.

He had driven the three hours that night to pick Maggie and me up from the Salt Lake City airport. We were coming off of a 24-hour trip…we started in Ho Chi Minh City, then on to Hong Kong, then to Los Angeles, and then finally, Salt Lake City. I was oh-so tired as I walked through the terminal carrying my tiny nine-pound, fourth-month old baby girl, and as I neared the corner that I knew once turned, would let me finally see my... more

With all of the topics that I try to give advice on, and with all of the emails I get from people asking for advice on adoption, it really makes me laugh that one of the most common things I am asked about is laundry!

Melinda and everyone else, this is for you.

Yes, as you can probably guess, I do A LOT of laundry. It is just a fact of life for large families. For all of you that are curious, I have done some basic math and come to the conclusion that in an average week I wash 91 shirts, 77 pairs of pants, 98 pairs of underwear, 224 socks, 77 sets of pajamas, 10... more

Celebrating Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) with children that were adopted can be complicated, because even though you are their mom or dad, you are not their only mom or dad. Often these holidays can be a time of reflection and remembering their birth parents for children that were adopted.

The June 2006 issue of Adoptive Families Magazine has a great article by Marybeth Lambe, M.D. that offers ways to help your child celebrate Mother’s Day or Father’s Day and how to handle the emotions that they may be feeling.

Here are... more

Yesterday I posted my first of a week’s worth of posts on Mother’s Day. I have some poems and information on the history of Mother’s Day and some fun things just to celebrate moms for the week. I also have some thoughts on how life is different for a mom whose child is of a different race than herself.

But today, I am still working through how I feel about Mother’s Day. Yesterday I talked about how it used to be such a difficult day for me, and how now, it truly is a day that I celebrate, even one of my favorite days of the year.

As I was thinking about it more last night, my feelings do go deeper than that. Of course, I still do miss the relationship I don’t have with my own... more

With Mother’s Day coming up this week, I am going to be writing a little bit about moms and Mother’s Day every day between now and then.

Let me first admit, that I used to hate Mother’s Day. My own mom was abusive, and then ended up leaving our family. My Dad essentially raised us as a single dad. And although he was an awesome parent (still is!) there were times in my life where I really missed having a mom. Mother’s Day was one of those times. I always felt like everyone in the world had a mom to celebrate with but me and my brother and sister. It was definitely a day... more

Click here for Part One of my writing on World AIDS Orphans Day

Today, May 7, 2006, is the fifth annual World AIDS Orphans Day. In 2001, during the United Nationals Declaration of commitments on HIV/AIDS in New York, government representatives from all over the world made a joint commitment to build national policies and strategies to “provide a favorable environment to orphans and children made vulnerable by AIDS.” (quotes above and below are from www.worldorphansday.org)

The goals set at that time were to “Fight stigmatization and... more

Tomorrow is May 7, and it is World AIDS Orphans Day. The day was organized to show how great a need there is for AIDS orphans to be cared for and to call public attention worldwide to the crisis that these children are in.

The number 15 is a scary number in the statistics for AIDS orphans. Every 15 seconds a child loses a parent to AIDS and there are already over 15 million AIDS orphans in the world right now. The numbers and their implications are almost too horrible to really comprehend.

And as if being an orphan isn’t bad enough, AIDS orphans suffer in ways above... more