by: Jane Ballback
...This month’s theme has to do with the effects of adoption on the adoptee and the adoption issues that most people in the adoption community don’t want to talk about. Sadly, adoptee issues are real, and the tragedy comes when adoptive parents do not understand what they are really facing as they make the all-important decision to adopt a child. Like everyone else, I enjoy the hardcover adoption magazines full of adorable images, arts and crafts, and “my baby is the cutest” photo contests. But every time I look at one of those magazines, I have to think to myself, “Please tell the other side of the adoption story.” Adoption can be full of happiness and joy, but it can also be full of loss, grief, and in some cases... read more.
#2 10 things adoptive parents wish their friends and family understood
...These are 10 of the things I wish friends understood about what it's like to adopt children. 1. The right vocabulary to use: Just to get this straight from the start. I am my children's real mum. The people whose genes they share are their birth family. Clear? Good. Because making up bedtime stories, mending grazed knees and remembering which one hates tomatoes make me just as much a real parent as anyone else 2. Our parenting style will almost certainly be different. Yes, I know you'd put yours in a time out on the naughty step and withhold a sticker from her chart. But if my daughter has misbehaved as a consequence of believing she's had so many sets of parent figures in her short life because... read more.