My writing has been a bit slack for a few days. I’ve got so many projects I’m working on right now they all meld together and nothing gets done.

I keep saying I’m going to stay up late and work till midnight - or later in the quiet but it hasn’t happened yet.

K has been going to bed late. I mean really late.

Sometimes I can’t get her down and asleep until after ten and by then I’m laying down next to her, and then next thing you know it is morning!

That would be ok with me if she then slept in until ten and let me get some writing... more

Continued from previous……

I knew K was starting to attach when she reached for me when she heard my voice. Her head would turn and she’d look toward the sound of my voice. Everything I was doing was working!

In the meantime, there was a reunification process taking place with birth mom and K. They would see an attachment specialist every two days during supervised visitations.

K, birth mom and the therapist would meet in a room... more

K has great language skills. I’ve written about her being way ahead because of the signing she learned as an infant.

Usually she’ll talk up a storm anywhere and everywhere we go. Checkers at the supermarket always ask, How old is she? They are obviously thinking she must be a small four year old. Two and a half I reply, which usually launches me into the benefits of signing as a baby and, how we did it. I'm probably beginning to... more

Rachael Coleman from Signing Time is an idol of mine. I look up to her because of how she handled her personal sorrow when she unexpectedly gave birth to special needs children. Her story is one of inspiration. She has truly turned lemons into lemonade!

Her first child, Leah, was deaf, and Rachael had been a singer and performer. (God has a unique sense of humor and funny way of getting us to follow our paths). It took a while, but at six months Rachael figured out Leah... more

We took the long drive up to Denver yesterday to have fun with three thousand of our closest friends and go to the PBS Kids Club event. It was mostly outdoor with booths and bouncy houses and things for children. Clifford was there and so was Arthur. If you waited long enough you could even have your photo taken with them. Inside you could see the PBS studios and watch yourself on TV with Clifford, or Dragon Trails or Big Bird. The whole deal was a lot of fun.

The... more

(This is from a phone call a few months ago)

Matthew called me today. “I want to come over right now” he said.

My heart was already breaking. Where was he? What was going on?

“Where are you?” I said, “Is your mommy there?” “Can I come over” he said.

Matthew was a foster child we had a few years ago. He was eight years old, with Down Syndrome and sexual abuse from a day care place. His extended bio family all wanted us to adopt him, and we might have considered it, but at the eleventh hour his mom got clean and sober in time to see the judge. He... more

I love NPR, (National Public Radio.) I listen to the podcasts while I work out. During my walking and running on the treadmill - trying not to let a middle age belly develop, I get caught up on all my news and bits of entertainment gossip. Every morning Quirks and Quarks, The Unger Report and E-mailed Story of the Day are just a few of the stories that I listen to over my earphones.

Just this morning I was getting caught up and heard a story NPR did last week on Sign Language - ASL - and early childhood development.

Since I taught K sign language at nine months, I was interested to hear this has gone a bit mainstream. Everybody... more

.....Continued from part III

Kids with all types of abilities and disabilities benefit from signing. Other foster mom’s I know have started using sign to work with their kids. If they are developmentally delayed or have speech delays they can learn to sign before speaking and it helps the frustration level for everyone. I’ve had foster kids with all kinds of delays -you can bet I’ll use signs with all my foster kids in the future, and I hope you do to.

Sidebar #1 Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn, the authors of the book Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk - have conducted over two decades of academic research on the... more

.....Continued from Part II

I’ve bought the whole series of Signing Time DVD’s and we'd watch one every morning. Sometimes I’d do dishes while she watched, and she’d come to me to demonstrate a new sign. I'd have to rush back to the TV and learn the sign so she didn'tt get ahead of me!

At eighteen months we were already ‘talking’ together as her verbal skills were ahead of others her age. In her playgroup she was signing with non signing children aged 2 and 3, and somehow they all manage to communicate well.

Encouraged by how easy it was to learn... more

.......Continued from Part I

By one year old, K was signing rain, light, drink, and a whole lot of animals that I consistency signed as we went through a zoo book together. .......Some of the signs were American Sign Language, (ASL) some Baby Signs and some made up signs that seemed to represent the animal in the book. (touching neck for giraffe, touching nose for pig).

I started to get excited by the results - K could actually communicate things she was seeing. Soon I found a series of signing DVD’s made especially for kids. I purchased the first DVD called ... more