You won’t be hearing from me as much in the next few weeks. Life is absolutely insane here and the thought of trying to write forty-three blogs a month is overwhelming, so I am toning it down a bit.

I will continue to keep you updated on our home study and adoption of Hannah. Right now we are in the hurry up and wait stage. It takes time for all the background checks and other various legal paperwork to come in, so we sit and wait for everything to happen. For us it’s not a big deal since we already have Hannah in our home, but for most waiting parents this... more

When I lost my dog earlier this week, I thought I was going to wait far longer to add another pet to our family. I could not handle the emptiness of not having her here, and today we added Caleb. At least I think that’s going to be his name. He is an eight week old Corgi and who knows what mix. He was “adopted” from the Humane Society, as most of our pets have been.

When you have a foster or adoptive child, you have to put a little bit more thought into adding a pet to your family than you do with a biological child. One of the things we don’t know is our child’s... more

I recently received an e-mail from Kids Are Waiting to alert me to an upcoming news conference. I’m sure everyone on their e-mail list received this e-mail but it is worth sharing.

On Tuesday, January 29, at 9:30 AM Eastern time Kids Are Waiting will be holding a press conference to reveal the results of a the study by Prevent Child Abuse America and Kids Are Waiting. They will discuss the financial cost to the country of child abuse and neglect.

The numbers are shocking. In 2007 the financial cost was a staggering... more

I have been writing this blog for a year now. In some ways it seems much longer, especially when I look at the fact that I have written nearly 500 blogs in the past year. Isn’t that amazing? Who would have thought there would be that much to discuss about foster care and adoption?

Besides the almost 500 blogs, a lot has changed in the past year. Hannah had been in our home for less than a month at the point that I started blogging. She joined us in December of 2006, and I started shortly here shortly after that.

One year ago, Sammy was in a residential... more

Do you have anything that makes you scared just thinking about it? Do you have things that you are afraid of? Does the thought of heights make you queasy, or the sight of snakes make you want to run?

This is how our kids live most of their lives. There is something that causes them to panic, and you may not always know what that something is. In fact, they may not always know what it is, or they may not be able to put words to their trigger.

Here is an example. When I was still working and Kory was in day care, the day care had nap time. Kory wouldn’t... more

It is a cold, rainy, foggy and gray day here in Wisconsin. It doesn’t exactly put anyone in a good mood. In fact it causes many people to suffer severe depression or to have mood swings.

It used to be called cabin fever, but now there is a real diagnosis for this and it’s called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

It’s far more than being cooped up in your home, the cold weather, or not having energy. The lack of sunlight causes changes in people’s moods. I am one of them. It’s only recently that I’ve figured out the correlation between the two.

... more

I picked up this CD by Steven Curtis Chapman over the weekend. The songs are beautiful and joyful for the holidays, but song number four, “All I Really Want” is a touching song.

I’m not talking about the old song of wanting your two front teeth. This is far more poignant than missing teeth. The song is written as a child talking to Santa about the most important wish for Christmas – a family. You can listen to the song here. Have your tissues ready.

Here is the chorus:

All... more

It’s December and everyone is knee deep in holiday shopping. This is a light hearted look at some gift giving ideas for families in our situation.

Have a child who doesn’t like to bathe? How about this bar of money soap from a fun website, What On Earth? There is money inside each bar of soap. Anywhere from $1 - $50. Maybe this could motivate your unclean child to use some soap.

Have a teen that you hope will be leaving home some day? I found a fun book titled “1001... more

With foster care rates not keeping up with inflation money is tight for many foster parents. There are a few who are lucky enough to receive WIC checks if they have younger kids. If you’re a parent with older children of teenagers in the house, trying keep your grocery budget in line can become nearly impossible. Some foster parents have to get food from food pantries in order to... more

I picked up this book by Brian Schulenburg at a church sponsored event. It is an incredibly fun book. It is a Christian based book, but does not have to be used this way if you don’t want to.

Sometimes our kids can be very hard to reach, and nearly impossible to get them to open up. This book helps that. It is designed to be used for teenagers, but Hannah loves to “play” along with it, and often asks if we can do the... more