The last few weeks have been quite busy at our house. My two youngest turned sixteen and are driving (with a permit). Johnny was asked to escort a pretty young classmate to the Navy Ball for NJROTC, and John took him to buy a new suit since he’s grown so much over the last year. Dara signed up to go …
The Year We Missed Easter
Eighteen years ago, we missed Easter. Twice. On Sunday, March 27, 1999, we met Mira in Kazakhstan for the first time. All the next week we came to visit her, driving up a long and curvy, still snowy road from the capital city of Almaty to Esik, a journey of about only 40 miles but over an hour by car. I …
The Perfect Gift
November and December are my kitty’s favorite months. Our tree goes up November 1. It might take a week or two to get all the ornaments up, but that red velvet skirt goes around the base right away, and she loves to lie on it. It’s also about nine feet tall, which means the base is about six feet wide, …
Gotcha!
I always think of adding my kids to our family in terms of the holidays. Emma was born on Christmas Eve. Mira was born on December 21, but we met her on the day we celebrate Easter in the west and brought her home on Orthodox Easter, one week later. And Dara and Johnny we brought home two days before …
Tyranny, Time and Trust
So it’s 9:53 pm and I’m writing tomorrow’s blog post. I procrastinate. A lot. Or maybe I just have four children. Everything that is not bleeding, hungry, crying, yelling, or broken gets pushed to the bottom of the list, and a blog post tends to be very quiet. Invisible, even. Until I realize it’s Thursday night and something needs to …
Bringing Up … Daughters
Life with three very daughters is, to say the least, interesting. When the kids came home from school yesterday Dara was wearing her volleyball jersey because they had a game last night. I mentioned that I thought it looked a little tight across the chest, even though it seemed to fit everywhere else. She said it was because she was wearing a regular …
I Am Not A Child Trafficker
This is how an anti-adoption activist replied to a tweet of mine saying a quarter million children from around the world had become part of American families through international adoption since 1971. I (stupidly) responded, asking if I should have left my daughter in a baby house without enough food. He replied with a link to his website, which was basically pages and …
Memorable Day #6: Ciao, Italia
If you read this blog regularly (all six of you), you know that my oldest, Emma, went to Italy last fall to study. You also know that when I “sent her off” to college I didn’t really send her very far—only about 40 minutes away, and that we saw her an average of three times a week. So putting her …
Defending Catelynn
I cannot believe I am going to do this. I am going to defend a Teen Mom. You know, not a normal teen mom, an MTV Teen Mom. I don’t follow this show, although I’ve watched a few episodes. But this story has blown up all over the internet, and I heard about it. So here it is: In 2009, Catelynn …
Why Would You Want to Do That?
A case in Qatar this week made international headlines. An American couple of Asian descent has just been released after being trapped in the tiny middle-eastern country of Qatar for almost two years. In 2012, the Huangs were relocated to Doha, the capital of Qatar, by his employer to work on a major infrastructure project for the 2022 World Cup. …