Deb over on the Open Adoption Blog mentioned in a recent post that she's not sure she's done yet with adopting. Although she's been feeling like her family is complete, her 40th birthday happened to combine with some baby shopping for someone else, and those little pings of ooooh and ahhhh were making a bit of a comeback.

She's concerned, however that her back is against the wall, time-wise... more

It's the end of the month, so time for me to clean off my desk and dish out the information I've been hoarding lately. For starters, if you've been thinking about adopting from China, but now will no longer qualify due to their upcoming new restrictions, there's a new Yahoo group for you.

Here's the description from their home page:

Ineligible to adopt from China? Welcome. Already have Chinese children but no longer... more

Hi everyone. I feel like I’ve awol for two weeks. Actually I have been. Between being sick, two blizzards in Colorado (meaning spotty internet service) and family visiting I’ve hardly had time to keep up with reading my favorite blogs, never mind writing!

Still, it is a New Year, and I’m slowly getting back in the swing of my regular routine. Getting up, drinking coffee, reading and writing blogs until K gets up and we have breakfast. If I'm lucky I'll get thirty or more minutes in before she gets up.

There is a lot I want to write about in the next few weeks. I still have the survey to tell you about, a follow up on the difference between parenting boys and girls, and... more

Over the weekend, Hubby and I went to a very nice Christmas party where we know just about everyone. Most of the people there followed our foster to adoption journey, and helped us celebrate when the adoption was finalized a couple of years ago.

We talked and laughed with one married couple and told kid stories.

I mentioned that we would like to add a child to our family. I don’t remember exactly the working I used.

Maybe...? I’d like to add another child to our family.

The couple we’d been talking... more

Someone help me!

I’m getting cold feet.

How do you know if it is time to adopt again? I really thought our family was done with one.

Then I really thought our family needed two.

Now I wonder if one is right for us.

Now the home study supervisor comes on Wednesday and I want to back out of the whole deal.

“Look” I’ll tell her, “I thought this was the right thing,... more

Haiti is one of those countries you hear about where children live in extreme poverty living on the streets, but I didn't know if children got adopted out to other countries so I did a bit of research today.

Here's some stats about Haiti adoption visas issued to USA residents:

Fiscal Year Number of Immigrant Visas Issued FY 2005 234 FY 2004 355 FY 2003 248 FY 2002 186 FY 2001 192

The number went down in 2005, but I couldn't find out why.

Currently, 200,000... more

Those of us over forty are primed to adopt older children. We've got wisdom, money, and age on our side to raise children already in school.

Heck, maybe you don't want diapers and potty training in your forties and beyond...

.....but some of us still want cute little babies or toddlers.

I know I did.

For me, it was because I was a first time mom, and I wanted the whole experience, and now that I have a child, I want to adopt another one younger than K.

Yet if I'd been a mom in my twenties, and then... more

Disclaimer: As I wrote this post I realized I’m mostly talking about older waiting children who’ve been in the system a while. Most younger children won’t come with these issues.

Last night in our CORE training class, there was only one other couple who looked to be ‘older’, maybe in their forties.

The night before, I was talking to a woman who wanted to do respite foster care, and she is seventy three, but I... more

This question is on a forum for older adoptive parents:

I'm 45 and my husband is 46. I keep wishing we'd had a third child (we tried without success). Are we just way too old to try to adopt? Would the addition of a baby throw our lives into chaos? Has anyone done this? Just wondering

Here on the older parent blog we've talked a lot about adopting as 'older parents', but I'm still convinced that at least in my case, I'm a better parent than I would have been twenty years ago.

Now, thirty years later, it's almost in style for mothers to whine about what a miserable lot mothering can be at times, not to be confused with, miserable all the time. In less extreme circles, it's okay to admit that mothering is neat, but it just ain't all that it has been made out to be and there are drawbacks. I think as a society we are less inclined to shove mothering off onto young women like we used to and we are more inclined to encourage them to think long and hard before making that leap.

I think older parenting, in the community... more