April 17, 2008
April 17, 2008
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Sign the Petition for Domestic Violence Prevention Funding

Please join me in helping women and children stay safe by signing this petition, which is in support of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act. This act that provides important funding to domestic violence shelters and training programs — something that has been gradually losing funding under the present administration (more money for bullets). For more information about the FVPSA, click here. To sign the petition, click here. Blessings–Heidi
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April 13, 2008
April 13, 2008
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Let There Be … ORDER!

Yesterday the kid switched rooms. I was grateful that, despite the fact that they had different shaped windows in each room, their curtains still “fit” (with a little fudging). Now Christopher has the “big boy” (queen-sized) bed and large room, and Sarah has a little hideaway closer to us. There was a time in my life — right before I moved to Michigan, in fact — when nearly all my earthly possessions could be packed up and moved in the back of my Toyota Tercel. A few boxes of books and kitchen utensils, a suitcase full of clothes (I was living in California at the […]
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April 10, 2008
April 10, 2008
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“Just Yell Fire!” Stay-Safe Video for Teens

Yesterday’s USA Today (9D) ran a story about this year’s recipients of the National Caring Awards. According to the article, founder and director Val Halamandaris founded the Caring Institute and created the awards in 1989 after meeting Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who asked him to do something about the “poverty of spirit in America.” This year’s award winners — including both adult and young adult categories — are listed here. The recipient that caught my attention was sixteen-year-old Dallas Jessup who as a sophomore at St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, Oregon, raised $500,000 from donations to produce a movie entitled Just Yell Fire, which […]
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April 10, 2008
April 10, 2008
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Have you ever considered foster-adoption?

Today at “Sunflower Days” I found this post, which describes the harrowing story of an extremely courageous mother who decided to expand her family through foster-adoption. Christopher and Sarah came to us through foster-adoption, but (unlike this family) they were our first and our last placement. It also took three years from the time they entered our home until the adoption was finalized. It doesn’t always work out that neatly for everyone, as Sharon’s post demonstrates. Although foster-adoption is not as financially risky as some other types of adoption, it can be infinitely more emotionally taxing, as this post will show. Still, I share this […]
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April 2, 2008
April 2, 2008
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Addiction in Children: A review of “Beautiful Boy” by David Sheff

Standing in line at StarBucks for my weekly vanilla steamer, I was preparing to fortify myself for the “parent guidance” meeting when I spotted beside the cash register a shelf display of David Sheff’s Beautiful Boy. Something made me pick up a copy. Like many adoptive parents, I frequently think about the whole “nurture vs. nature” conundrum. When all is said and done, how much will we be able to influence our children and the choices they make … and how much is genetically predetermined? Will they be forced to pay with their own lives the tab for the choices their first parents made? According […]
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April 1, 2008
April 1, 2008
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Chapters of our Lives

Speaking of capturing those family moments, Bryan Murdoch has posted this week’s Catholic Carnival … dedicated to his father, who died fifteen years ago. Go check it out! Today over at “Connecting Moms,” you’ll find a familiar face in the “Featured Moms” channel. I was flattered … and delighted … when Sandy (one of the co-creators of CM and author of “Momisodes”) asked to interview me about Raising Up Mommy. They also posted a review here.During the interview, her questions about the writing process got me to thinking about how our lives are very much like a book … so many chapters, so little time. […]
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March 31, 2008
March 31, 2008
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Are you feeling connected?

We just arrived home after more than ten days on the road. Whew. For all our “togetherness,” I confess Craig and I didn’t have a great deal of uninterrupted time together. Family vacations are like that, I guess. So I was happy to come home and find Sarah’s “The Loveliness of Staying Connected” carnival. It was a happy reminder of how feeling connected can take something as simple as a box of bathroom soap “crayons” to keep the love alive. Do YOU have a secret for staying connected?
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March 27, 2008
March 27, 2008
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“Learning to Love”: A story of hope for children with attachment disorders

This month (April 2008) in Reader’s Digest, Vince Beiser tells the story of the Solomon family, who adopted seven-year-old Daniel from an orphanage in Romania — and months later found themselves parenting an angry, violent, and broken little boy. It took him some time to discover what he had been missing in the institution … what it meant to have a family, and parents who loved him. And when that realization hit him, he lashed out at Heidi Solomon, the woman who had adopted him. She had not given birth to him, had not abandoned him — but she was the most convenient target, and […]
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March 19, 2008
March 19, 2008
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Tips for Traveling with Kids…

On Friday, the kids and I load up into the car and head for my parents’ home in Georgia. Friday we get as far as Kentucky, and Saturday we head for Cartersville. By my kids’ definition, this will be a “real vacation,” as in “involving at least one overnight in a hotel with a pool, wireless Internet (my husband’s idea), and waffles.” Sadly, Computer Guy will not be with us. So … I need to come up with ways to keep them entertained without turning on the video player that has remained silent for the duration of Lent (insert back pat here). Since Good Friday […]
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