Noteworthy Links

Love Without Boundaries is doing a fascinating series on the changing face of Chinese adoptions.
The Changing Face of China's Orphans is the first part
followed by Changing Attitudes
The Adoption of Boys
Domestic Adoption on the Rise
and Birth Defects
I appreciate the chance to learn from people who are in China's orphanages what the realities are, as opposed to what they used to be.  Many people think of adoption from China as healthy baby girls, but it's time to update that idea a bit.

Do you know someone besides me who is adopting?  Please read this blog post on how to support an adoptive family.  I loved it.  I found myself nodding in agreement as I read.  My only minor issue with it is that she refers to the newly adopted child as a baby, and that's not always the case.  Still, her tips are awesome for families adopting any age child.

Adoption Magazine has a piece Age In Adoption that is a reminder I could have used one recent morning!  Instead of berating Hannah for not getting her coat on when I told the kids to get their coats on, I should have acknowledged that her Family Age is only a little over 2 years.  2 year old mess up sometimes.  It's okay.  I need to stop expecting her to be "almost 6" in every way.  They also have a post up with a variety of links for people interested in reading more about adoption and foster care.

The Bergey Bunch is doing a long series on Grace Based Parenting.  Wow.  I started my parenting career as The Law Based Parent, and have devolved into The Lazy Permissive parent over the years.  But grace is not a concept I normally associate with parenting.  This has been a good read for me, and I'm going to encourage my husband to read some of them, too.

This article was very validating for me.  Whatever the opposite of Helicopter Mom is, that's me.  It's not that I'm lazy or that I don't care, it's that I've made the decision to let my kids be kids.  Especially Hannah.  I have to really remind myself not to hover (too much) with her.  Because I don't want to give her the impression that I think she can't do it.  I'm pretty sure she can do anything she sets her mind to.  I'm sorry not everyone sees what I see in her.

My kids are pretty good about understanding that life isn't always "fair" but I found this blog really spoke to ME on a day where I was feeling like the adoption world wasn't fair because I saw another family go zooming past us in pursuit of their child, when we started at the same time.

I've noticed that my blog reading seems to be heavy on adoption and foster care.  I'd love some links for parenting teenagers, if anyone has some to pass on!


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