The Christmas season is officially here and many people are in the midst of their holiday shopping. While I am guilty of buying in to some of the consumerism of the holiday season, I also try not to overspend, put a lot of thought into what I buy and try to, when I can, give gifts with meaning, and gifts that "give back" in some way.

Since becoming a transracial adoptive parent, I have become very convinced of the necessity for us all to look beyond our own lives and remember others who are less fortunate, especially around the holidays.

You can read all of my posts on this topic below.

My gift idea for today is Kiva. Kiva is a wonderful... more

To advocate for adoption for children other than young, healthy infants, I have been writing about some of the benefits of adopting toddlers, older children and teenagers, and now I am going to share some of the benefits of adopting special needs children.

Many adoptive parents... more

One of the comments I get the most when people hear about my family is, "I don't envy you when all of those kids are teenagers!" Now we will never have all of our kids teenagers at once, but since our kids are pretty close in age, we will teenagers in our house for a long time once our Mercy turns 13 next year and officially brings us into the realm of "parenting teenagers".

Teenagers have a bad reputation. Many parents "dread" having teenagers. It is the time period of parenting that it talked about being "survived" instead of enjoyed. Teenagers are often depicted (sometimes accurately... more

A few days ago I started to write about deciding what age child to adopt, and then I wrote a post sharing some of the benefits of adopting a toddler. To continue on with the theme of advocating for children who are not young, healthy infants, today I am going to write about some of the benefits of adopting older children.

While many adoptive parents do not consider adopting older children... more

(Please remember that this is just a piece of my definition of adoption. For my full definition of what adoption is, you can read this whole series of posts here.)

Adoption is necessary.

While adoption is not perfect and is indeed complicated, it is also necessary. I say that it is necessary because I know how very many children there are in this world who do not have anyone to call Mom or Dad. I have seen a teeny tiny percentage of those children and they have forever touched my heart.

I have stood in an orphanage in Vietnam, and looked at babies with their names written on their legs in black... more

(Please remember that this is just a piece of my definition of adoption. For my full definition of what adoption is, you can read this whole series of posts here.)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Today for my definition of adoption, I am going to say that to me, adoption is something to be thankful for.

I am thankful that adoption was an adoption for Josh and I as parents, and allowed us to expand our family after having biological children was no longer an option.

I am thankful beyond words... more

To continue on with my holiday "gift ideas with meaning" theme, I want to tell you about a beautiful book that is now available, with the proceeds benefiting orphans in Ethiopia and families who choose to adopt them.

"Faces of Layla: A Journey Through Ethiopian Adoption" is a beautiful, large, hard-cover book that is full of stunning photographs of life in Addis Ababa and of Ethiopian orphaned children living at Adoption Advocates International's Layla House orphanage. The photographs are by photographer Emma Dodge Hanson, the foreward is by author Melissa Fay Greene... more

In my last post I started discussing the fact that most of the children awaiting adoption are not young, healthy infants, while at the same time the majority of adoptive parents desire to adopt young, healthy infants. While I do not judge parents adopting babies (and have adopted babies myself), in my next few posts I am going to advocate for, and discuss some of the benefits to adopting children of different ages and special needs children.

Today I am writing about toddlers. Toddlers are interesting people, and despite their challenges, are some of my most favorite people. It is definitely my favorite... more

O.k., let's stir things up a bit. I still have a few more posts to complete to have my full definition of what adoption means to me, and I will have those before the end of the month. I will also be choosing a winner for the Curls National Adoption Month giveaway on Nov. 30. Good luck to everyone, and if you have not yet participated, make sure you visit this post and enter the giveaway.

Today I... more

(Please remember that this is just a piece of my definition of adoption. For my full definition of what adoption is, you can read this whole series of posts here.)

This past weekend in Seattle was an important one for me in a lot of ways. I wrote about the wonderful conference I attended for AHOPE for Children in this post and that was the point of the trip and the main focus, however there were... more