The boys and I picked up a couple friends from the Hispanic group we’re in on Sunday nights and took them hiking at Patapsco Valley State Park, this afternoon.  And besides being an excellent friendship-builder, this afternoon also proved to be one of expanding our Spanish by immersion.

Stand-out words of the day:  former slur terms that are now used as national identification slang (often with pride) by the various people of Central America.

Happy to share. Read the rest of this entry

While “helping” me with garden-edging, “we” got a little distracted by all the cool creatures we dug up.  [Note to Mamacita:  next science unit = "How Most Effectively to Use Magnifying Glasses."  On second thought, nah... this is cuter.]

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I was having the boys write the date on some of their schoolwork today, and it hit me that we sent our paperwork to El Salvador nine months ago this week.

Nine months.  So if I had gotten pregnant at that time, I’d be giving birth right about now.

But I didn’t get pregnant.  No, “all” I did was send a huge dossier to El Salvador.  Many in the adoption community refer to that as being “paper pregnant.”  Read the rest of this entry

 Being home with the boys all day, every day, I sometimes can’t see the big picture of what it is I’m doing for all the dishes, laundry, handwriting pages, cleanup, and playtime.  But tonight as I was changing to go for my Post-Chico-Bedtime Run, I overheard the twins in their room and had to grab Fred AND my camera.

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Adoption has everyone’s attention this week, it seems, with the stories circulating that Russia has suspended adoptions by U.S. citizens.  Or that, no, they haven’t.  All because one mom reached her limit and made the choice to send her son away alone on a plane, with a note, to return him to his birth country (unclear if it’s actually his country of citizenship any longer, since his adoption was completed and he may be a U.S. citizen now).

All the usual reactions are out there: outrage, blame, accusations of mental unhealth (child and mother & grandmother), hints at abuse, suspicion… Read the rest of this entry

Many times, while we’re in our first adoption process, parents-to-be get caught up in the details of the paperwork and forget that the adoption placement is not the end but rather the beginning of the adoption journey.  The recent story – currently all over the news – about the Hansen family from Shelbyville, TN, who sent their adopted son back to Russia because they couldn’t handle him any longer, points to a lack of wide-spread knowledge about the ramifications of adoption, its potential effects on the children, and where to turn for help.

We in the U.S. have become so accepting of adoption as “a good thing” and “normal” that it seems like we (and maybe those in other highly-developed countries) have forgotten a foundational truth: Children available for adoption are only available BECAUSE something has gone wrong.  Read the rest of this entry

Cherry blossoms, daffodils, post-Easter Spring weather, and the twins and I are getting our butts kicked by allergies.  I had to stop school mid-session today because MY brain was too foggy, and the boys sounded worse than I did.

So instead of doing Math and Social Studies, we watched The Princess and the Frog.  (Reason # 13467 why I love homeschooling, by the way – we’ve long-since hit the Kindergarten requirements, so if we need a sick day, we’re in great shape to take one)

As if I needed more confirmation that the boys were JUST the kids God meant for Fred and me to parent, every Spring and Fall, they become every bit as debilitated by seasonal allergies as I do.  Couldn’t have done “better” by passing my own Dna down.  (So sorry boys.)

Please pass the tissues.  x 3.

photo credit: http://psychonappy.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/the-princess-and-the-frog.jpg

I’m trying to place a greater emphasis on Easter with the boys this year.  Christmas gets more cultural attention and it’s a “happy” story, so that one’s easier, but having spent that season really reflecting with the boys on the origins of our faith, I wanted to do something similar with Easter.  So every day this Holy Week, we’re reading sections of the Easter story from their various children’s Bible story books (we have 4… people keep givin’ ‘em to us!).

And today’s reading is the one that catches me every time.  I’ve told Fred I want to see if he can read it to the kids without choking up.  I can’t.  It’s from The Jesus Storybook Bible: Read the rest of this entry

…two small outfits require their own trip through the wash…