When many people think about adoption, they picture prospective adoptive parents lined up a mile long, waiting for the next available "healthy, as young as possible" infant through whatever adoption program that they have chosen.

Many first-time adoptive parents feel that since it is their first adoption, and they do not have a lot of experience, that they could only "handle" a healthy infant.

We've been there and we've done that. Six years ago when we were in the middle of our first adoption, we had three young, healthy sons. We wanted... more

In my last post, I wrote all about AHOPE, how I got involved with them and how I became committed to HIV+ children in Ethiopia.

Now I am going to write about how you can help the children of AHOPE.

I am the volunteer supplies coordinator for AHOPE. As you can likely imagine, housing and caring for 80 or so HIV+ children requires a lot of supplies. AHOPE relies heavily on donations for items such as clothing, baby care items, school supplies and basic medical supplies. And because it is very costly to ship things to Ethiopia and AHOPE would have to pay fees to receive the packages, they rely on traveling... more

Today I am going to write about something that I am passionate about, and something that is very near and dear to my heart. Today I am going to write about AHOPE.

AHOPE stands for African HIV Orphans: Project Embrace. AHOPE Ethiopia is an orphanage for HIV+ children in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. AHOPE Ethiopia is a NGO (non-governmental organization).

AHOPE for Children is the non-profit corporation licensed in the state of Washington that funds AHOPE Ethiopia. AHOPE for Children is also recognized by the U.S. Treasury... more

In my last post, I shared our experience in choosing to adopt domestically after two international adoptions.

We found both international and domestic adoption to be a wonderful way to expand our family, and also found each type of adoption to have its own set of benefits and challenges.

Here are some of the differences we found and experienced when comparing our international adoptions and our domestic infant adoption.

- There was much less paperwork with our domestic adoption, and we did not have to deal with (or pay for) immigration.

- While preparing our family... more

After a successful adoption of an infant from Vietnam, a successful adoption of a special needs toddler from Korea and a failed adoption from India, my husband and I were left trying to find the right adoption program for our family to bring us our sixth child.

Our... more

In the past few weeks I have gotten several emails/comments from readers asking how we came to adopt the children we did and choose the adoption programs that we did. I have written a lot on how to choose the right adoption agency and on transracial adoption options, but today I thought I would share with you the “technical side” or our adoptions, and how we came to make the decisions we did.

I hope that... more

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “O”, and I am going to write about adopting older children and about older parents adopting.

Older Children – These are the kind of numbers that are impossible to accurately calculate, but a large percentage of all adoptive parents want to adopt a baby, often a baby as young as possible.

At the same time, while there are millions of orphaned babies in the world, the overwhelming majority of orphaned children who are available for adoption are not babies. Many people instantly think of the challenges involved with adopting an older child when the topic of older child adoption arises, and it is true that adopting older... more

I have one more article I wanted to share before I jump back into finishing my Transracial Adoption ABCs.

If you are involved at all in the Ethiopian adoption community, you have likely heard some of the discussions regarding the much-anticipated New York Times article on Ethiopian adoptions. There has been a lot of speculation by adoptive parents and agencies on yahoo groups and adoption forums, in regards to what the article would cover and how it would portray Ethiopian... more

There are many articles in the media about transracial adoption. Often times I read some of these articles and feel that they have somehow fallen short of truly capturing the essence of transracial adoption.

This article, titled “My First Lesson in Motherhood”, from the New York Times, is different. I read this article and thought to myself, “that is what it is all about.”

The article tells the story of a young couple who have suffered through infertility and chosen to adopt to get the baby they so strongly desired. The decided... more

For families that choose international transracial adoption, there are many ways to minimize the risks involved. Here are some tips on how to do that.

-As I say over and over on this blog, research, research, research. Make yourself an expert on the adoption program you choose. Know the adoption laws of your state, your country and the laws of the country you are hoping to adopt from. Speak to multiple agencies and compare waiting times, fees, the process for getting a referral, travel requirements, etc. These things can vary greatly!!

-Talk to other parents who have adopted... more