A full week of fulltime foster parenting. Survived! Enjoyed! Endured! I feel muddle-headed, daunted, overwhelmingly thankful. Jay says it sunk in when they asked him to sign the “parent” line for a school form, and he thought “What? Sign as … Continue reading
What a crazy system! I’m not sure I know a better way, but having “visits” and “overnights” and then taking the kids back to their current foster home just seems to upset them, and us. Change is hard, but now … Continue reading
How do you explain the brutal and unexplainable? Can emotion, intuition, and love help us heal from things that should completely crush us? Those were some of my thoughts when, her first night here, our daughter-to-be burst into uncontrollable sobs, … Continue reading
The placement date was set, about 3 weeks away, and we are set to do our first overnight tonight. Hooray! Oh wait, the placement date needs to be moved up two weeks. They’re moving in next weekend, unless they’re not. … Continue reading
I’ve been in a happy shock, as well as a whirling-dervish of childproofing and preparation. We’ve met our kids! It’s been a blur, but here are the high points. The same week we celebrated freedom from bondage at Passover and … Continue reading
What a lovely bittersweet feeling to dig out the camping box before our recent, disastrous camping trip. The charred cookware, chipped plastic plates, and other musty survivors of outdoor adventures past are like a little hope chest. The wishes and dreams of … Continue reading
After wading through a couple very earnest books on adoption and parent-child attachment, what fun to come across Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. I love this book! It makes the French seem … Continue reading
It feels like Spring, and I’m thinking about love. One thing I like about yoga is that there’s lots of talk about the human condition. It’s a little philosophy chat during your workout. Years ago a yoga teacher said “if … Continue reading
The Oakland Museum White Elephant sale was just the ticket today: an exciting crush of people stomping through a giant warehouse, celebrating great finds, pawing through toys, furniture, clothes, Christmas decorations, artificial flowers, sporting equipment, and more. I’d never heard of it, … Continue reading
A knockout essay in the NY Times by Hanif Kureishi about the Value of Distraction got me thinking about how our obsession with diagnosing, regularizing, and “optimizing” kids. I’m sure treatments for ADHD have helped plenty of kids, and I’m not against … Continue reading