Changes...

You might notice a few changes around here...first off, my blog list is changing. I'm adding many new blogs and dropping a few old ones. The new ones reflect my changing interests in adoption, mainly adoption ethics, adoptee voices, and transracial adoption.

In addition, I'm changing up some of terms I used to use. We will no longer celebrate "gotcha day" in our home. The term is a bit offensive, our children aren't things to be gathered and kept (gotten), after all. So, now we'll celebrate Jacob's Day, Sara's Day and Tessa's day.


I am an adoptive mom work in progress. I am always reading and learning and trying my hardest to do everything I can to be the best mom I can to my three amazing kids. I'm currently reading, "Outsiders Within, Writing on Transracial Adoption." And, I just finished, "Inside Transracial Adoption." Both books are very good, and if you're a transracial adoptive parent, I urge you to read these books.

I have so much more to learn, but I feel like I have come a long way. I have learned a lot from my social work classes and other blogs from adoptive parents and transracial adoptees. I will continue to read, read, read and absorb all I can. I owe it to my kids.

Sara got her ears pierced!

Adoption Loss

Sometimes, it's incredibly easy for us as adoptive parents to glorify adoption and all that it is. But the reality is, adoption is an act created from a very, very difficult circumstance. Our children have suffered a great loss, one that no amount of bandaids, ointment, hugs or kisses can heal.

Sometimes, love is NOT enough.

I've been reading a blog of a young woman adopted from Taiwan. She has searched and found her first family in Taiwan and spent three months overseas with them. She loves her adoptive family, but writes a blog to help adoptive parents understand her perspective.

I'll warn you, parts of it are hard to read. But I think we owe it to our children to open our minds to some of the darker aspects of adoption.

Here's the blog:
http://sisterheping.wordpress.com/


Please read it, and let me know what you think. I'd love to dialogue more with adoptive parents about this.

One Year Ago...

One year ago my life changed for the better. One year ago our family grew by one big heart. One year ago the little soul I never knew was missing from my life was placed into my arms...she grabbed a hold of my heart and I hope she never lets go.

I feel so blessed. Three amazing kids. Three amazing personalities. Three beautiful faces. I am blessed.

Tessa Mei has put the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of what was already a very good life. We all adore her and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. She is a gift, a Godsend, a true angel from above. We love you Tessa...happy Tessa day.

Weekend in Chicago

We spent the weekend in Chicago, with hopes to attend the Dragon Boat Festival. Well, unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and the festival was canceled due to flooding in the park. Still, we managed to have an interesting weekend anyway.

Friday we arrived and checked out Shedd Aquarium. Todd and I had been years ago, but it was the first time for the kids. Unfortunately, it was terribly HOT, and the aquarium was absolutely PACKED. I mean PACKED. So much so that you really couldn't even seen the aquariums, much less move. We'll have to try that another time I think...so the kids can enjoy it more.

After the aquarium we ventured into Chicago and found Las Tablas...an awesome Colombian restaurant. We were so excited...there are virtually no Colombian restaurants anywhere near where we live, so we were salivating just thinking about it. It was a super popular restaurant...so popular that the wait was 2 hours for a table. Well, our little ones couldn't wait that long, but the restaurant was super kind and let us get an order to go. So, we enjoyed an Colombian picnic in our hotel room complete with empanadas, arepa & chorizo, and plantain and beans and rice. Yum, yum, yum!!

Saturday after finding out that the Dragon Boat Festival was canceled, we headed over to Chinatown to explore. We had a BALL shopping in the little shops and feasted on some delicious Chinese pastries. My favorite were the red bean moon cakes...the rest of the family thought I was nuts. :)

For lunch, we met five other families that had adopted from Taiwan! We met Lisa and her beautiful family (Destination Taiwan blog) and Sarah and her family (My Little Lantern blog) and Katie and her family (Around the World to Danny blog). It was so neat to finally meet these wonderful families in person and to see our beautiful Taiwanese kids together. :)

After lunch we headed to Millennium Park to play in the fountains and to see the bean sculpture. Unfortunately, it was still burning hot outside, and CROWDED, and at the fountain we had two mishaps. Sara fell and cut her foot, then Tessa fell and I could actually HEAR her head hit the concrete. Scared me to death!! So we hightailed it out of there and spent a nice peaceful evening at the hotel.

All in all, the trip was worth it to meet the other families. We're glad we went...and hope to meet other adoptive families in the future!

Where have we been???

Sheesh, summer is FLYING by. I've been a bad blogger, but I do have an excuse. I had a 20 page paper due for the writing class I'm taking this summer. Whew, that was a doozie, but now it's done, thank goodness.

Well, otherwise, we've just been enjoying the summer and our wonderful kids. Yesterday, we went to our annual Colombian Connections fiesta down state. It's so fun to see all the beautiful Colombian kids and boy, is our group growing! There were many, many new kids and babies there this year, including our Tessa (okay, she's not Colombian, but hey, she's part of our American/Colombian/Taiwanese family). :)

Of course, being the wonderful mommy I am, I totally forgot my camera. You'll just have to trust me that it was loads of fun.

One of the best things we did this year was buy a pool! It's an above ground, nothing fancy, but definitely fun for all of us to swim in. We've really, really enjoyed having it. And while we're incredibly lucky to live in an area full of lakes and beautiful beaches, it's SO hard to lug all the kids and all their gear to the beach...especially sweet Tess who's not a huge fan of sand. Ha! So, hanging at home by the pool has been great for our family.

In other news, Tessa turned 18 months old on the 4th! I can't believe it. How did she get that old? No...seriously? I'm finding her babyhood is just flying by...probably because we're so busy with three kids now. She is now 31" tall (40th percentile) and 19 1/2 lbs. Poor baby, she fell right off the charts for her weight. But, the doctor didn't seem concerned. She'll just be a petite little thing all her life. She is learning so much right now. She runs like crazy all of a sudden. She is doing a lot more pretend play (holds two stuffed animals and makes them "talk" to each other), she likes to help clean (throws stuff away), and she is learning more words now. She says mama, dada, ball, book, up, good girl, thank you, and is making attempts at many more words. She wears size 3 diapers and size 12-18 month clothes.

Here's a few random pics of late. Next weekend we are going to the Dragon Boat Races in Chicago...we are SO excited to meet up with other Taiwanese adoptive families!

And so summer begins!

We are in our second week of no school here, and so far we've had lots of fun. Waterpark one day, ice cream lots of days, pool another day, and baseball and t-ball in between. Tomorrow I have a sitter coming for the day. She is going to come every Wednesday for six hours through the summer months, mainly so mommy can get some "me" time and get some shopping and errands done. I admit, I'm really nervous about leaving Tessa all day. We've had sitters twice since Tessa has been home from Taiwan, but they were after Tessa had gone to bed for the night. I'm sure it'll be easier on her than mommy. :)

Anyway, here's a picture of my three...