In keeping with what has become an annual tradition, Fred and I, the kids, my sisters and brother-in-law headed up to PA to ring in the new year at our aunt’s and uncle’s lake house.  And as I sit here, on the third New Years Eve since we began our Salvadoran adoption, looking out at the geese and the humans moving about the frozen surface, it’s hard to deny that the scenery is a fitting metaphor for our adoption process this year.

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Happy Holidays to all of you who read, comment, and give me great food for thought on your own blogs!  Christmas festivities have begun here at our house, so I’ll catch you all after the weekend!

Much Love,

Kim and La Familia

Just some of the chatter ’round our house this week:

The Circle of Life

Heriberto:  Mama, how come you mostly don’t eat so much desserts?

Me:  Well, because unless I know I’m going to be getting some exercise, I don’t want to eat too many fats and sweets ’cause my body’s not growing like yours is.

H:  Are you going to get taller?

Me:  No, I’m done growing.  So I can only get bigger out sideways.  And actually, eventually, I’ll start getting shorter!  ‘Cause that’s what happens when you get old.

H (hailing back to the food chains and natural cycles we’ve studied this year):  It’s like a Life Chain!  First you grow, then you get shorter!  (dancing around and singing, now)  First you grow, then you get shorter, first you grow, then you get shorter, first you grow, then you get shorter… and then the decomposers eat you.

[Wow.  And, with that thought, NOW I need to go get some chocolate.]

__________

Single Hispanic Male, Seeking…

[During a discussion they initiated over lunch about who you can and cannot marry] Read the rest of this entry

Less than a week till Christmas, and we got to celebrate last night with the crew who are helping me legitimize the “Mamacita” in my moniker – our church’s Hispanic Ministry.  I had so much fun at the last big parties in June and in August, it seemed high time to host one at our house (many thanks to Fred for helping me pull it off!).  So I prepared my best attempts at Roast Pork, Spanish Rice, Baked Plantains – and a nod to my own ancestry with some Wassel that was clearly a foreign concept to the group, but oh well – and we were off and running.  Or eating, rather. Read the rest of this entry

A few good reads from this week.  As always, I don’t necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed but do appreciate that they were expressed and provided perspectives worth considering.

“Was it Destiny that Matched Me with My Child?” by Bonnie at Adoptive Families – pondering a common sentiment among adoptive parents that they and their children seem unexpectely well-suited to one another.

“Queing for Starfish“ at My Fascinating Life – addressing a popular metaphor used by agencies and adoptive parents… and the fact that the children most often adopted are the ones in high-demand, ones who if not adopted by one couple would be quickly adopted by another.  And using the narratives of “family building” versus “giving an orphan a much-needed home.”

“Totally Worth It“ at Rage Against the Minivan – on adopting from the Foster Care System. Read the rest of this entry

A month ago, I received a copy of Jessica O’Dwyer’s newly-released book Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir, and based on the other reviews I’d already read, I was ready to read it myself.

Like Fred and me, Jessica and her husband are adoptive parents of two children from Guatemala.  Mamalita recounts the story of their first adoption.  And yes, their first adoption was fully capable of filling a book.  Once I started reading, I had trouble putting it down.

The story follows Jessica’s and Tim’s experiences with a do-nothing agency that took their money and then failed to process their case while at the same time “setting aside” their daughter so she was unavailable to be adopted by anyone else, a corrupt attorney at the other end, the bribe-to-succeed state of the Guatemalan governmental adoption office at the time, and many of the ethical and moral dilemas adoptive parents face in-process and afterwards. Read the rest of this entry