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This Reality Show Called Adoption Life
“I’m thinking about adopting.” At least once a week I read a message like this from someone wanting information about adoption. I am open. I talk and write about adoption here often. Friends know I will always answer. And I do. I find them resources, or answer their questions about why, or how long, or where do I go? Sometimes I simply let them know that the wait is worth it. I answer the questions one by one and hope others will follow through and discover all that I love about adoption. There are many roads to parenthood. BOTTOM LINE. There will always be children in need of stable and loving…
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Seven Ways to Carve Out Time With Siblings of Special Needs Children
Having a child with special needs impacts family life in many ways. There can be extra financial and emotional stress. A Canadian study called PALS notes clearly that the mother in a family with a child who has a disability most often is required to adjust her work schedule to care for the special needs child. Finances and health are impacted, and so is marriage. But what about the siblings in families with special needs on deck? There are many rewards to parenting children with special needs, but there are also undeniable challenges, emotionally, financially and physically. Where there are other children in the family they benefit from having been exposed to a…
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When Hard Doesn’t Break – Special Needs Parents
Maybe your child has curly hair, or is slightly unique in some other tiny way. Small genetic blessings that somehow will turn to a source of pride. Over time. Maybe you think that parenting is hard, but your hard is a moment. Your hard is a glass of wine, some retail therapy, girl’s night out, and then you move on. Your hard breaks. There’s nothing heartbreakingly extraordinary that impacts the way your child moves throughout their Mondays, or Fridays – the way they approach their school day, year to year. Just a kid, potentially a great kid, maybe even an A student, going about their life sometimes trying new and fun things, succeeding,…
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Lindt’s New Gold Bunny Easter App Gives Back #GoldBunnyStory #Giveaways
Easter is a time for family, but not every child has a family to celebrate with, which is why I was thrilled to learn that Lindt has created a story-telling app that aims to help. The Gold Bunny Easter App, celebrates the legendary Lindt gold bunny and gives back to Children’s Aid Societies in Canada with every download. Lindt Canada is celebrating the launch of a beautifully written and illustrated storybook app entitled “The Bell that Rang in Easter” My family feels strongly about Children’s Aid. I’ve spent 14 years helping to co-faciliate the adoptive parent’s support group at our local Children’s Aid. I volunteer to help other families as they are transitioning to adoptive families…
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Adoption, Awareness and Advocacy – Why Are We Still Here? #adoption
This past week someone googled ” I hate adoption awareness month” and they arrived here on this blog which had me shaking my head at google. So I wanted to set the record straight. Here’s the truth. I don’t hate National Adoption Awareness Month. Quite the opposite actually. But I have gone on record many times over saying awareness is not enough. And I stand by that. I am an adoptive parent. Our family was built via adoption and it is a wonderful means of forming a family. I celebrate that all year round. I celebrate adoption awareness activities and fundraisers that raise the profile of adoption as a means of…
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Martial Arts and Kids #fitness #WordlessWednesday
My girls kick butt. Well, I think they kick butt. Our girls have been taking martial arts for many years now. The daughter on the right hand side started when she was four years old. If you visit this blog often then you know that she has special needs. As a little person, she also had a hip that did not function well. An orthopaedic surgeon at one point indicated to me that she needed extra help with gross motor movements. After she was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, a brain injury sustained from prenatal alcohol exposure, I researched a lot. I took several courses and…
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YOU NEED this – Caregiver Kick Start #specialneeds
There is nothing quite like attending a conference or a workshop and leaving feeling energized, validated and understood. You know that feeling, right? It’s like a giant sigh of relief and a reminder that this unique parenting is doable. But, then you leave that space and you return to your home. Maybe you maintain that zen approach for 3 days, or a week at most and something happens and you slide right back into that overwhelmed, exhausted state you were in before. How can you get back to that space where you are in control of your feelings and reactions? I have the answer: Caregiver Kick Start! A couple of…
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Adoption and End of School Year – Buckle Up, It’s Going to Be a Bumpy Ride #adoption
OH MAN! I have been sitting on this one for a bit so it’s likely to all come out in a big incoherent mess. But here it is. Life as an adoptee, or an adoptive parent at the end of the school year can be a mess of conflicting emotions. I get it. I do. It is hard and sloppy and somehow this is usually where I find my zen because when the kids come completely unhinged I shove aside most things and retreat to inner calm with purpose because they require it. I am not quite there yet this year, but I will eventually get there. Here’s what’s happening.…
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No Such Thing As Synthetic Children: On #IVF, Same Sex #adoption and Boycotting Dolce and Gabbana
Last night I was scouring twitter to check my messages when I spied a new friend talking about IVF, in vitro fertilization. She was clearly upset. I asked her what I had missed that had her so fired up and she sent me the link to the Dolce and Gabbana statement about IVF children being synthetic. The statement hit on same sex adoption as well. Did you Miss it? In an Italian magazine called Panorama Magazine Dolce and Gabbana, world renowned celebrity fashion designers, were quoted stating that IVF children are synthetic. They went on to add that they oppose same sex adoption. “The only family is the traditional one,” they said.…
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Why I Protect My Family With Vaccines #ONVaccine
Maybe it’s because it took almost forever to become a parent that I feel so strongly about holding my kids close and protecting them from illness, accidents and harm. Maybe it’s because I have a compromised immune system myself. I have Crohn’s Disease, an autoimmune disorder. I know I can’t afford to get ill. When I get sick, I have a much higher likelihood of ending up hospitalized than your average Mom does. Maybe it’s because our babies, both adopted as infants, needed more health care, more nurturing, support, and security, because circumstances of their birth were not what I would have wished and their fragile immune systems struggled…
