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The outside of our current home is not nearly as impressive as the feelings were inside the most humble place our family has ever lived. Neither Amy nor I came from money.…
Teaching kids responsibility: My grandpa, Merlin D. Simmons, picking seed peas on the family farm with his father, uncle, siblings and cousins. Circa 1920 My grandpa thought teaching kids responsibility was easy. In his…
Our International Family An international family, like ours, needs to consider how to turn differences into strengths rather than allowing them to be weaknesses. As we prepared to bring our first…
Emily with her sister, Annie, Dyedushka Bill, and her new mother, Amy First time I never saw my sisters, because I abused them and I went to jail. Mom and dad come…
We need to find homes for orphans to go home to. Alright, maybe “orphans” is the wrong word. Heaven knows that word has been brutalized for monetary purposes. There are “children of…
I first learned to cope with death as I walked away from a Russian orphanage with my new daughter, shrieking in my arms. Of all the places I could have been when the door…
Emily's house on Sofkhoznay (Community Farm) Road in Fralovka, Russia. First I went with my dad from Russia and I am helping to my Russian dad like put bucket in the wail.…
There almost always seems to be a trigger when my wife and I see bad behavior in our adopted children. When two of them get milk, they turn disobedient obstinate argumentative feral. Feral…
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Emily on a beach at Golden Horn Bay, near Vladivostok, soon after leaving her orphanage. First I came to Amarica, first I make bad choices. And when I come to Amarica I…
It wasn’t Emily’s fault that she needed compassion in court. Oh sure, she committed the crimes against members of our family; but it still wasn’t her fault. My daughter had committed felonies…
Western society was shocked in the mid 1990s when we heard that there were 132 million orphans in the world. As good hearted people took this number at face value, many rushed…