Happy New Year everybody! My wild and crazy celebration last night included a bunch of my favorite small people, my best friend, oodles of food and way too much Chex mix! Both of our husbands were in Denver for the football game (my Christmas present to Josh), so it was a wives and kids only party.

Truth be told, we cheated…we put the New York news channel on and had the kids watch the ball fall at 10 p.m. our time…they blew some horns, wore silly hats, cheered and kissed their moms, and then all were in bed by 10:30 p.m.

Anyway, I am not big at making New Year’s resolutions, at least not of the “I am going to lose 20lbs and make a million dollars” variety (although that would be lovely…). But here are three New Year’s resolutions that all transracial adoptive families can and should make this year, and some tips on how to make them stick. :)

-Dedicate/find more time to have one on one time and conversation with your kids. Issues related to adoption and race are not issues that are ever “done”, or things that kids “get over”. They are always present, and tend to ebb and flow from a child’s mind, depending on what is going on in their lives.

Some kids really don’t have the desire or need to talk about things very often, and some kids need and want to talk about things a lot more frequently. The best thing you can do is to keep the lines of communication open between you and your children, and have regular one on one time where you can talk about whatever your child would like to. This will really help you keep in touch with how your children are feeling and what is going on in the lives (and in their heads).

Setting “one on one” dates is a good way to make sure that you get that one on one time regularly and it doesn’t get overlooked with the busy-ness of every day life.

-Find new ways to explore, enjoy and learn about your child’s culture. Find new books and/or magazines, get some new CD’s, rent some videos, take a culture class, attend a culture camp this summer, try some new foods or celebrate some new holidays. Let your child do some research and then teach a lesson to your family for a family night activity. There are countless ways to learn about and enjoy culture. Finding new ways to do it will keep things fun and exciting for your kids (and for you).

-Find more time to interact with people from your child’s culture and other adoptive families that “look like yours”. Especially if you do not live in a very diverse place, it is really important for your kids to be around adults and positive role models that are the same race as they are, and it is also important for them to see other transracial adoptive families. Kids take a lot of comfort in seeing families that look like theirs, plus it is usually a lot of fun for adoptive parents to visit too.

Look for cultural events, adoptive family groups and gatherings, culture camps, etc. There are lots of ways to connect with other families and groups online and find out about gatherings and events in your area.

Happy New Year!