If you have a family anything like mine, you’ve likely been praised for “giving a child a home” or “taking on these kids” or some similar sentiment. Most adoptive parents I know bristle at such comments, even though they’re usually well intentioned. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’ve found that the well intentioned, albeit ignorant, comments are the most difficult to deal with because it can be so hard to know how to respond. It’s almost easier when someone is blatantly rude, but the rude comments and questions come far more infrequently.

Nearly without exception, every time our family goes out in public, my husband and I have people tell us how neat/wonderful/loving we are... more

6:45 I holler at Joshua, Ethan, Jonah, Lulu, Maizie, to hop into the Suburban and remind them that I can’t be late. Our second counselor just had a baby, so it’s just the president and me. We stop briefly at Zoe’s dance studio to retrieve her, and as luck would have it, I run into a lady with whom I’ve never had a conversation shorter than 3 hours. Or 20 minutes, anyway. Miraculously, when I let her know I have somewhere to be, I’m able to escape in under 5 minutes.

6:55 We pull up to the church parking lot and everyone spills out of the car.... more

3:30 When it becomes apparent that Ethan is just stuck, I suggest that we take Poppy for a walk. Jonah opts to stay behind and write, but Lulu, Maizie and Ethan jump at the chance.

3:45 After locating the leash and getting everyone’s shoes on, I get the older kids watch the babies, and my fellow walkers and I start out down the street. I intend for it to be a fairly short walk, just to get Ethan’s mind off his writing woes, but it’s so nice outside that we end up walking all the way to the hospital where my husband’s practice is.

4:15 We... more

2:00 I holler at Ethan to get practicing because I start hearing definite non-music sounds coming from the living room. I shift Jonah to the kitchen to work on schoolwork.

2:05 I start moving piles of clothes from the window seat in the dining room to the dining room table. I sort everyone’s clothes into piles, add a few stray toys, and make a big pile of towels and blankets that need to go to the linen closet. I notice again that the glass on the window seat windows and French doors (those darned kissy marks!) are in desperate need of cleaning.... more

11:50 I mill into the kitchen and ponder what we’ll have for lunch. I consider homemade pizza (nixed because I don’t want to take time to make the crust), cheese tortellini (scrapped because I have no salad and no garlic bread – both musts) and finally decide on an old standby: chili, rice and cheese, and strawberries. (Say what you will. It’s one of the few meals everyone likes!) I start the rice and chili on the stove, fold a load of laundry, put the next load in, and set the table.

12:10 We eat.

12:15 Joshua finally decides to join... more

9:40 The morning’s healthy breakfast underway, I sort and start the first of three loads of laundry. Jonah and Ethan empty the dishwasher.

10:00 I summon the big kids (who’ve already eaten) from the recesses of the house for a little family meeting. We talk for a few minutes about tweaking our school schedule a bit this week, and I also tell them that the middle kids are going to have to do school in the dining room today so I can get some baking done. I send the big kids off to do school (the first half of their day is spent on three courses... more

I’ve been wanting to do a “day in the life” post for quite some time, and for a while, I considered just writing about what we do on an average day. But, I decided that might be a little too boring and not reflective of the wrenches that get thrown into our lives – pretty frequently, I might add. ;)

I’ve said before that our large family subsists on routines. If it weren’t for routines and rules and expectations, we’d constantly be in a flux of chaos and I doubt we’d be able to get much accomplished. On the flip side, though, I think we strive... more

I came across this beautiful letter today and wanted to share it with all of you. You can read the introductory information and comments on the letter here. It was written by a woman named Karen, who I gather used to write for the LDS blog, By Common Consent.

Dear Birth Mother,

I don’t remember meeting you, although I’m sure that I made quite an impression on you 31 years ago. I know it must have been hard to make the decision to put me up for adoption. But I wanted you to know that I consider it to be the most admirable selfless act that... more

I’ve become a pro at dossier assembly, and I think I could easily get everything done in two months (minus our I171H, which may or may not show up in that timeframe). But even though it goes against my nature, I think I need to take it slow so I don’t risk having documents expiring during our wait. We also don’t want a referral too soon, because we want to make sure we have at least a year between our Haitian kids’ arrival and the new child’s first appearance.

Once I get our dossier off, I’ll be researching our plans to (hopefully) make a side trip... more

I haven’t mentioned our current adoption much over the last couple of month because, well, there hasn’t been much to mention! Other than having our first of three homestudy visits, there’s been little movement. Our agency has one of the more popular and stable Ethiopia programs, and therefore has one of the longest waits. We were instructed when we applied that it would be a few months before we could really even get going on our dossier, and this was fine with us since it was only October when our three new Haitian kids came home.

The other day,... more