In my last post I let you in our secret, and announced that we are adopting again from AHOPE.

As I said, I had no idea when we first met Solomon that he would be ours. In fact, we believe that he already had a family committed to him. (Which is probably a good thing, because at that point I was so consumed by Belane and her adoption process that I never would have even considered another child).

We got Belane home, she settled in perfectly and life got to feeling "normal" really quickly. I volunteered to be the supplies coordinator for AHOPE, and I got involved with Project HOPEFUL,... more

I promised I would let you all in on what we are up to, so here is the big announcement.

We are at it again! We have committed to an absolutely beautiful little boy at AHOPE, whose name will be Solomon Tsega Eyasu H. He is almost two years old, and did I mention that he is beautiful?

I have lots to share about our journey so far. I have been bottling it all up until I was sure that pieces were falling into place, that it was really going to happen and that we got to tell the important people... more

I have been writing about the things I have learned in the "Because They Waited" adoptive parenting course. In the beginning of the course they state that adoptive parents have a responsibility to share good adoptive parenting information with other adoptive parents, so I hope that some of you will find some useful information in these posts.

The fourth and final topic that was included in the testing portion of the course was titled, "What DO You Need to Know About Attachment?"

This topic started off by giving some definitions.... more

I have been sharing some of the advice that I garnered from an adoptive parenting course that I took over the weekend. The course is titled "Because They Waited" and it looks at the affects that children may have from starting their lives in less than optimal conditions, and it offers practical parenting advice to adoptive parents.

In my last few posts I wrote about the course in general and the first two modules, which were "Making the Connections" (on brain development) and the Cycle... more

I have been writing about an adoptive parenting education course that I took over the weekend titled "Because They Waited" by Heart of the Matters Seminars. The four-DVD course takes a detailed look into what affects are commonly seen in adopted children who started their lives in less than optimal circumstances (such as foster care, an orphanage or an abusive or neglectful birth home) and then gives parents practical, hands on advice and strategies that... more

In my last post I started writing about the adoption education course that I took over the weekend titled, "Because They Waited" by Heart of the Matters Seminars. I shared some of the general rules of thumb that were presented and my feelings overall on the course. In these next few posts, I will share some of what I learned in each of the topics.

The first topic and section (or module as they... more

This past weekend I took an adoption education course. It is one of the courses that agencies are using to fulfill the mandatory 10 hours of parent training, which is required for Hague accreditation. (If you're wondering why we were fulfilling an adoption education requirement, stay tuned. I will be sharing our big announcement this week). Now focus on this useful information and stop trying to guess what we are up to! :)

The course we took was titled "Because They Waited" and it is produced by "Heart of the Matters Seminars", whose tag-line states that they are "shedding light on adoptive parenting issues." The course is four... more

There are countless resources available to transracial adoptive parents of today. We can read books all about transracial adoption. We can read articles in magazines, newspapers and online. Heck, we can read entire magazines dedicated to adoption. We can read blogs (both personal and educational). We can get pre-adoption education and post-adoption services. We can listen to the voices of adult adoptees. The resources are bottomless if we take the... more

Yesterday my Benjamin Bekalu turned seven years old. I have been doing a lot of thinking about him and his life this week, and I have been thinking a lot about how much he has changed in the past year and a half.

For one, I have been thinking about how strange it is to not really know your child's birth day. As is common in Ethiopia, a place where birthdays are rarely celebrated and important dates and records are rarely recorded, our son does not know when he was born. In fact, his grandmother and sisters did not know when he was born. It seems... more

This morning I was back to waking up to the sound of my alarm going off at the hour of six a.m., which is not a time I have seen in awhile. Today is the first day of the new school year.

In preparation yesterday, we laid out new clothes for all eight of my kids that were heading off to school this year. We have Maggie and Amanda starting Kindergarten, Shane and Ben starting second grade, Des and Ryan starting fourth grade, Nathan starting sixth grade and Mercy starting seventh grade, which is her first year in middle school (or "junior high"... more