I have a surprising amount of terms/issues/words to discuss in our "Transracial Adoption ABCs" that start with the letter "F". (And sorry about the lack of photo...I am having some technical difficulties tonight!)

Family - Adoption is about family. It is about parents wanting to grow their families, and it is about children who have lost their families. It is about two separate pieces joining together to create a new family.

It is overwhelming to me to think about how many children in this world do not have a family...how many children do not have a mom to brush their hair or kiss them good night or tell them they can do it when life gets hard...how many children do not have a dad to play with or to learn from or to get piggy-back rides from. What will happen to all of these children that are growing up alone? What sort of adults will children become, when they have not been able to grow up with love and security?

There are many ways to build a family, and transracial adoption is one of those ways.

Transracial adoption challenges the way that the world traditionally views "family". Transracial adoption forces people to look past the image in their mind of a mother, father, sister and brother, all with like skin color, hair color and features. Transracial adoptive families say to all who see them that a family does not have to be made up of people who look alike to be a strong, loving family. Transracial adoptive families are walking billboards for racial equality and the fact that we all need to see past the color of one's skin and see their character. Transracial adoptive families demonstrate that love is stronger and bigger and braver than race or color.

Fathers - If you spend much time in the online adoption community, you will find that as a whole, the adoptive moms are much more vocal and active (and well represented) than the adoptive fathers. My husband is just as invested in our transracial family, just as big of an advocate for adoption and just as dedicated to parenting our kids to the best of our ability as I am, and yet he could care less about email groups, forums and blogs. He'll listen as I read him posts I really enjoy or as I ramble on about a ridiculous argument on one of the groups, he reads all of the articles that I send him and often sends me some right back, and he will discuss with me the issues that arise on the forums, but will you ever catch him signing in and discussing the merits of traveling versus escorting? No.

That being said, there are some dads out there that are involved in the mom-dominated online adoption communities, and I really enjoy the voice that they bring with them. Men often see things and think about things and worry about things differently than women, so getting "the guy's" spin on adoption is valuable to me.

Here are some blogs written by adoptive dads that I enjoy. Happy Reading! (And feel free to add one to the list by leaving a comment).

The China Adoption Blog

Our Big Crazy Family

On the Fly

No More Counting the Cost

Leave it to Avery

The Long Road Home

Swerl