Because of my strong belief that we should all do something to help those less fortunae than us, I have started a new category on my blog titled "Opportunties to Do Good". I have moved over a few of my old posts to this category and am adding this new one today. If anyone has a suggestion for me to write about in this category, feel free to leave me a comment or email me at transracialadoptblog@adoptionmail.com

Here is a great opportunity to do some good. Love Without Boundaries is an awesome organization that provides humanitarian aid... 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

Let’s face it…most of us enjoy shopping! While I am not a big fan of “the stores” and could go years without being in a mall, I do really enjoy shopping online. I can shop all by myself when the kids are in bed, I can take my time, I can comparison shop without running all over the place and I can sleep on it if I am trying to decide whether to buy something or not.

A relatively new line of products to shop for are adoption products. As more and more families choose to grow their families by adoption, more and more adoption related products become available. Today you can buy... more

Whether you are in the research stage of your adoption or your child is already forever home in your arms, a wonderful way to learn about adoption is reading other families’ adoption stories.

The internet not only serves as a wonderful research tool when looking into adoption, but it allows people with similar interests to connect and share their stories in ways that would not be possible otherwise.

I know many people who have been inspired to adopt after reading another family’s adoption story online. In fact, way back when Josh and I were just talking and praying about the idea of adopting (and I was researching behind his back…LOL), it was after I read a family’s story... more

This is a little bit off topic in regards to transracial adoption, but someone posted this information on one of my email groups this morning and I thought it was important enough for all parents that I would share it on here.

The Family Watchdog website is a site that provides information to parents, grandparents, babysitters, etc. about sex offenders. The site allows you to put in your address, and a map comes up with all of the registered sex offenders in your area. This site shows registered sex offenders that live near your home or school, and ones that work near your home or school. You might be unpleasantly surprised who is living... more

Blog. It is sort of a funny-sounding word, isn’t it? I casually mentioned to a family member that I was really enjoying being a “blogger”, and she looked at me like I was nuts. She had never heard of a blog, so certainly didn’t know what a blogger was. Truth be told, this same person probably wasn’t familiar with the terms “texting” or “surfing the net” either… Technology sure has a way of changing our vocabulary! Actually, my fairly new computer doesn’t seem to know what a blog is either, because it keeps turning that word red with my spell-check program.

So, just what is a blog? The term blog is short for web log, which Wikipedia defines as,... 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

In this post I talked about some of my favorite movies that tackled the race issue. If you check out the comments, some people added some other great titles to my short list. There are literally hundreds of movies that deal with racial issues, some good, some bad.

Well, yesterday on one of the email adoption lists I am on, someone posted a link of adoption related movies. I have to say that there is a part of me that cringes when I hear about a movie with adoption in it. Don’t get me wrong…I... more