I mentioned a while back that I've recently reconnected with my best friend from high school. I even posted the photo I took of myself to send her for reference to the now-me, since the me she last laid eyes on had had thirty-seven years or so less sun, stress, gravity, exposure to pollutants, and so on. (I know ... excuses, excuses.) Well, she managed to set some sort of there-to-here record getting photos ... the non-digital kind that had... more

Continued from here, where we've been talking about spoiling ...

As older parents, and specifically older adoptive parents, we all, I suspect, teeter on the brink of over-indulgence with our kids. Many of us come to parenting late after years of longing ... a recipe for spoiling if ever there was one. Plus, it's said by many that we have more patience than we did when younger, and that may translate to putting up with a lot more guff than we should.

Easily... more

This article, "Has Generation Y overdosed on self-esteem", has me wondering if we Boomers haven't done more harm than good in working so hard making life the easy and comfortable passage between birth and death it now is for so many in the Western World. It was, after all, our generation that took it on board to do everything within our power to level playing fields, even the odds, and strive for as close to some guarantee of 'normal' for as many as possible.... more

Because I was so young when I had my first set of kids, most of my contemporaries then were childless. Although there were a few of us caught in the pre-available-contraception web, most of my friends didn't start having children until mine were heading toward the tween years. My circumstance set me apart, and my twenties were tough. While others worried about finals and getting into the classes needed to satisfy a degree program, then began the climb up corporate ladders, I struggled to get myself and my kids ready for work/school every morning,... more

Once again, I'm coming across the published results of research, much of which just seems like a silly waste of money. Of course, just how much money or resources of other sorts has gone into the 'science' that is studies isn't mentioned anywhere I can find ... it's only the 'results' that get the fanfare. With that in mind, prepare for ta daaaaaa!

Starting with stating the obvious, here's a doh! for you:

Advertising... more

Okay. It's been a bad week.

I'd be TGIFing all over the place if I had any confidence that Friday would see an end to the spate of frustrating non-compliance on the part of just about every bit of machinery that powers my life, but I don't. That would create a jinx, you see.

Just yesterday I was thinking that things were on the verge of getting better. A trip into town proved that my router had not been fried by lightening ... Gay's had, unfortunately ... and that all of my Internet problems come from elsewhere and therefore need fixing by others who were assuring me today would be the day when my local issues would be rectified.

I was as close to being hopeful as... more

I've been having them. Down days. Days when everything I touch turns to waste matter, not one single thing works the way it should, and piles of little things add up to an unassailable mountain range of huge proportions that defeat me with their mere presence.

Every day has been starting the same, with a frustrating battle I lose between me and the cyber-power that rules these blogs. Slow loading leads to not being able to upload photos at all, to having nothing work, to having me screaming, to tearing my hair out, to wanting to never blog again.

An electrical storm on Sunday made things ever so much worse by knocking out power to everything for hours, then having lingering... more

Continued from here ...

I started to find that tone in the word that now defines the parties to adoption: triad.

This is what I wrote in the preface to the book:

The core group, essential to every adoption, is commonly called a "Triad."

Triad is the word used in the Adoption Community for the intimate grouping of child / PBP / PAP (or after adoption, child / birth parents / adoptive parents) that has in past times been known as the triangle. This term is no longer in favor.

Yes, a triangle has three sides, but that's the problem in using it to convey... more

While looking around this morning for something completely unrelated, I found that the book I wrote is now available. It's an e-book written for the company that does these blogs, and it's for sale now in the Adoption Shop.

It's called, "The Adoption.com Guide to US Infant Adoption", and writing... more

Today is my father's birthday. He was born on the 4th of March in 1924. His time was so very, very different from this age, even though it's only been fifteen years since he died, and I've been thinking a lot lately of how much he would have liked 2007.

Although he grew up milking cows by hand and could vividly recall his parents' first Model T Ford ... he had a story about having to drive backwards up a steep slope because the old... more