Home is a Sister...

I know I have been neglecting this blog, but I have done a little bit of writing this month.

I have a new column HERE about what home means for Meazi and Melese.

I wrote about the Tesfa Teen runners HERE (page 28).

I found Melese outside the other day. It was windy. He was wearing his turtle costume and a pair of butterfly wings. He was moving his back around trying to see if the wind would lift him so that he could fly. 

This pretty much sums up what we are doing around here, trying hard to give our kids wings so they can fly.

Back to School- New Column

New Column up...Here.

Regrets-New Column

Recently I checked a online community board that I follow. This site is great for pediatrician recommendations, ideas for fun things to do with your kiddos, information about schools, and all sorts of other good stuff. I read a post from a woman there asking about the best fertility doctors in town. This is what I wanted to post in response:

Dear Infertility Patient


Disclaimer: I know plenty of folks took this route and ended up with a family. I ended up broke and broken- financially, emotionally, physically, and mentally. I got cancer (yes, I believe it was related-I was artificially manipulating my body to grow things that weren't already there). In no way am I judging you if this is your way to family.

 I just really wish I had started with adoption.

Not What I Expected-Everything I Ever Wanted.

 For the two people who read this blog and are not on Facebook, I wrote a new column for InCulture Parent. It's not all Wordless Wednesday people! Well, mostly. Thanks for reading.

Degmen Tegenagnen - We Meet Again.

Photo by Tanya

Tanya’s car pulls into my parents’ gravel driveway. She is honking the horn, and waving her hand out the window. Meazi, Melese and I have been outside waiting for them to arrive from their five-hour drive from St. Paul, Minnesota. Peeking in her car, we see her boys Mintesinot and Tesfaamlak sitting in their cars seats, identical to ours, one with a cow pattern and the other with a butterfly pattern. My children have met lots of other kids adopted from Ethiopia. We have a large Ethiopian-American community in Los Angeles with whom we get together all the time. This August morning, at my parents’ lake house in northern Wisconsin, is the first time my kids are seeing kids whom they knew back in Ethiopia two years ago. They have come to spend the day and night with us....

Read the rest HERE.

The Privilege of Primary School

I wrote something for InCulture Parent this month. Here it is.

Family History

I wrote something for InCulture Parent Magazine. You can read it here.

November

So, anyone attempting the NaBloPoMo? Yeah, me neither. Considering I spend the forty minutes a day I have to myself eating corn chips and reading Facebook, I don't think I can succeed at a post a day for a whole month.

I love November. It is such a great month. The air is crisp. The sun is strong. Did you know that November is National Adoption month?

"This year's National Adoption Month initiative targets adoption professionals by focusing on ways to recruit and retain parents for the 115,000 children and youth in foster care waiting for adoptive families."

Adoptive Families Magazine has a printable calendar that suggests ways to celebrate adoption.

And speaking of magazines, I am so excited about this magazine that launches today. I think it is a fantastic idea, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. I should have an article up here if I manage to use the aforementioned nap time minutes more efficiently.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween. Here are the bee and the tortuga...