Parenting After Adoption

One thing I will never truly know is what is like to walk in my children’s shoes. This is true of them all. I can usually empathize with them, though, because I have been through similar experiences. I can tell stories of my own childhood and we can connect over shared emotions through similar experiences.

What I will never know is how it might feel to be adopted, how it might feel to be the lone dark-skinned child in family where everyone else has very light skin, or how it feels to be judged solely upon the color of my skin? Nor for the latter to be the source of being pre-judged by those around me. (more…)

Now that Lucas has been a member of our family for two and a half years, we receive a lot of inquiries regarding his adjustment and growth.

In many ways, he is doing great. His height and weight are well within the normal range for a boy his age, he is active in baseball and soccer, and he is improving academically by leaps and bounds. His English is nearly fluent for a child of his age. He states that he is truly happy here and has no regrets regarding his move from Haiti to America. (more…)

I am often asked the following questions so here are my answers regarding my family’s experience:

As an American, why did you adopt a child in Haiti? Why not the U.S.? Children here need homes, too.

Simply put, why not? There are children all over the world who need families. For my family, Haiti is where we were led. We were not even planning to adopt at the time we adopted Lucas. Circumstances placed us in a the right place at the right time to learn about Lucas and feel a strong desire that moved us into action. We returned to Haiti because we did not want Lucas to be the only Haitian-born child in our family. (more…)

Do to lack of time to research books on Domestic Adoption, today’s planned Tuesday Top 5 is postponed. In the meantime, here are the top five adoption websites I read on a regular basis.

1. The Chronicles of Munchkin Land
2. Transracial Adoption
3. Rainbow Kids
4. Open Adoption
5. Birth-First Parents

Copyright © 2007 Becky Wilson. All Rights Reserved.

It’s time for another Tuesday Top 5! I simply could not narrow my favorites down to only five book choices. There are so many wonderful, worthwhile, informative books on the market for the adoptive parent demographic. Likewise, there are so many unique situations in adoptive families. If I choose only five books over a broad range of situations, I would have to leave out other important books. Yes, I have that many favorites!
(more…)

I met a wonderful woman while we were at Crater Lake National Park. “What was so wonderful about her?” you ask? Simply put: she was genuinely interested in my family; not as a freak show but as a family with an interesting story to share. She was wonderful, and also happened to be a mom with six children. She asked a question that we’re often asked, and I imagine you are all wondering the same. Well, those of you reading who don’t already know my family’s story. (more…)

When I first started the adoption process, I saw an article similar to this. Then I wrote an entry like it for my personal blog a few months ago. But, I think this is an important topic, so I am covering it again. (more…)

So, this is my first official week as a SAHM. (I am loving it, by the way!!) Cameron and I have been going out and doing stuff already. Mostly errands… Yesterday we went to the post office (an errand I usually ran during my lunch break) and to the library (an errand I never had time for). For some reason, everytime we went somewhere I felt like we stuck out. I felt like people were staring at us trying to figure out if I was the mom or the baby-sitter. (Because my husband says I still look like a teenager on the days I wear a T-shirt and no make-up…) (more…)

My son’s adoption is a transracial adoption. This means he is a different race than my husband and I. We are Caucasian. Cameron is biracial: African American and Caucasian.

When we began the adoption process, we had no idea what we wanted. We attended an informational session with an adoption agency. They had different “plans” for adoption. One plan was for international. One was for Caucasian and Hispanic. One was for African American. They went in great depth about the difficulty they had finding families for African American children. As a result, the fees were slighlty lower and the wait times were significantly shorter. We left there feeling like we finally had a reason for why we were unable to get pregnant. We had a purpose! We were supposed to adopt African American children. (more…)