Many parents who were adopting from Ethiopia last year were familiar with the blog "Destination Ethiopia", which was written by Denise B., a volunteer who spent seven months at Adoption Advocates International's Layla House in Addis Ababa.

Denise did a wonderful job blogging about her experiences with the children. She talked about the emotional highs and lows of orphanage life, for both her and the children. She shared her joy as children were united with adoptive families, and shared her sadness of missing kids she grew close to. She shared... more

The idea of "finalizing your adoption" can be a confusing one. Basically, it means that you have adopted your child in your state, through the local court system. Once this is done, you can apply for and receive an updated U.S. birth certificate (from the state you live in if you adopted internationally, and from the state the child was born if it is a domestic adoption).

We got to finalize Belane's adoption on Friday, which was nine months and a few days after she came home. Technically we did not have to finalize her adoption or "readopt" her. She came home on an IR-3 visa, which meant she was a U.S. citizen upon arriving in the United States, and that her adoption was full and... more

The New York Magazine had a long and wonderful feature article yesterday on adoption, featuring several different families who adopted from Ethiopia. The name of the article is "The Nuclear Family, Exploded" and it was written by Emily Nussbaum.

The article looks at a wide variety of adoption issues, and addresses them by sharing the experiences of several different adoptive families. The question is asked, "Do parents really love adopted children differently than their own offspring?"

Some of the issues addressed in the article include:

- The unexpected challenges that can go along with bringing home a new child.... more

One of the things that constantly nags at the back of my brain, is the worry of what happens to the children who never get adopted, and eventually age out of the foster care system, or get kicked out of their orphanage.

It is no secret that in many countries, once children reach the age of 14 or so and are considered "un-adoptable" and leave the orphanages, they are at a huge risk for sexual exploitation, child labor and other dangers. Young girls are at a high risk of becoming pregnant and creating more children that will not have parents who can care for them.

Kids leaving orphanages with little or no education, no family and no support have very few options open to them.

In... more

Parents of non-white kids have often had to search high and low for black, Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic dolls. While blond-haired and blue-eyed dolls are fine, parents and children want dolls that look like the little girls that are playing with them, and many parents want their children to have dolls with a variety of skin tones and features.

For transracial adoptive parents, finding ethnic dolls can be fun and can be a challenge. I was excited to see this... more

It is hard to believe that we are already well into August. Summer vacation where we live will come to an end in just two short weeks, and the kids will be back in school.

We have had a wonderful summer vacation full of traveling, swimming, hiking, playing, staying up late, visiting friends and family and getting good and dirty.

The break from school and activities has been a welcome one, and yet the excitement of a new school year has been fun this last week or so, too. I have a formidable pile of new backpacks, notebooks, crayons and clothing.... more

I have one more transracial adoption question from a reader to answer. If you have a question you would like answered or a topic related to transracial adoption that you would like to see answered, please leave a comment.

Today's question is:

What is the best way to integrate with a racial/cultural group that you have not had much interaction with in the past? (i.e. white parents adopting an African son)

Many different adoption experts and professionals reiterate that it is important for transracially adopted children to have people in their lives of their... more

If you have not yet visited the "Anti-Racist Parent" blog, it is a wonderful resource for transracial adoptive parents. The Anti-Racist parent blog is a blog (produced by an anti-racism training company titled New Demographic) for parents who are committed to raising their children with an anti-racist outlook, which is obviously something that should be very important for all transracial adoptive parents.

While most of the posts on this blog are educational, appropriate for transracial adoptive families and very thought provoking, Wednesday's post this week is a real gem for transracial adoptive... more

For families adopting internationally, a common question that pops up is if it is a good idea to bring the children they already have at home along on the trip to pick up their new child.

A reader of my blog recently left me this question:

We have 9 & 10 year-old bio kids. Would you recommend them traveling to Ethiopia to bring their adopted brother into the family? Do you think whether or not they travel with us will make a difference in their long-term bonding with their new brother?

There are good arguments... more

Today I am continuing on with answering transracial adoption questions from some of my blog readers. You can go on over to this post and leave a question of your own if you have one you would like to ask or if you have a topic you would like me to write about.

The question I am going to answer today is:

I now see the AA Santa's, AA Nativity sets, etc. How do you balance the holidays?

First off, while the holidays may seem a world away right now as we prepare for back to school and are cramming in a few more weekends at the lake, reality is that the holidays... more