Children Available for Adoption: Behind Magic Doors
There are children available for adoption. They probably aren't where you're looking, unless you happen to be looking behind magic doors. I spend a lot of time in the online adoption community…
Category
Russian Adoption
Russian Adoption
The n Word: He Might Have Lambasted her. Instead, he Welcomed her to America
I was exhausted as we landed in New York. It had been almost a month long trip to Russia, dealing with Soviet style bureaucracy, when we finally succeeded with the adoption. I was bringing home…
Mercy or Justice? A Story of Orphans: You be the Judge
To me, it wasn't initially a question of mercy or justice. It was just what should have been done. I was shocked when the judge said that our adopted children had done…
Reactive Attachment Disorder, Punishment Escalations Would Never Work
Raising Emily was so much different. The whole game changed. Even though one of our other children had RAD, until Emily came home, we never understood that with Reactive Attachment Disorder, punishment…
Adopted Children Feel Secure Loving More, Not Less
It has been said that love is the answer no matter the question. Right or wrong, I can tell you this: In our family, adopted children feel secure loving more, not less.…
On Memorial Day I Remember Veterans and Happy Birthdays
Today, the Friday before Memorial Day, happens to be my daughter, Annie’s birthday. Though it may seem strange to you, I associate those two days. Annie left Russia to join our family…
Reactive Attachment Disorder Therapy: Five Signs That Your Child has the Wrong Therapist
You-are-not-crazy. You weren’t crazy before you brought this child into your home. In fact, before you did that no one ever thought you were crazy. No one else caused you to question…
Better off Without International Adoption? Not Hardly.
Oksana lived in half of this "Duplex" with her five children and three other adults. Of course there are days when I am ashamed of some of the people on my side…
When Mothers’ Day is Hard for Children
Mothers Day Hard for Children My adopted daughters struggle with all of the conflicting feelings that come with a Mothers’ Day fraught with memories of a birth mother who brutally abused them,…
Reactive Attachment Disorder Diagnosis for Your Child
Reactive Attachment Disorder diagnosis isn’t like Down syndrome or Muscular Dystrophy in that the condition (as others that are mental rather than physical) is far more obscure. You can’t just stick a needle…
Reactive Attachment Disorder World: Life is Never Boring
Emily Simmons days before leaving Russia for her new home in the U.S. Several of my children live in Reactive Attachment Disorder World. We're trying to teach them how to live in…
How to Soothe our Pain When we Can’t Help who we Want to Help
Some of my little friends from Far East, Russia Marina was seven and Jula was five, like my daughter-to-be. I don’t know how old Jenya, Maksím, André, Dasha, Ksenya and Natasha were,…