February 04, 2018
Adoption and Parenting Reads of the Week
Happy Sunday!
We’re closing out the weekend with our favorite adoption reads from the past week. There are some excellent ones in here, and especially prescient reads given February is Black History Month and there is a lot to explore there regarding transracial adoption.
Have a read or many, and enjoy the rest of your Sunday. We hope it’s an excellent one.
See you Monday!
How to find hope when everything on this journey is so hard. “Ever wanted to throw in the towel, call the agency, your case manager, or even your kid’s birth parent, and say, “Yeah, I quit?” If so, you’re not alone. Me too. It’s okay, you can be honest here. Say it out loud if you need to.”
How to throw the perfect adoption baby shower. “The first thing you need to do is consult the adoptive (or adopting) parents to determine when is the best date to hold the shower. Do they want it before their baby’s birth, just like other mothers-to-be, or after the revocation period, once they’re confident that their baby is there to stay? Whatever you do, don’t surprise them! And since adopting a baby is a team effort, don’t forget to get the adoptive father’s input and have him join in too.”
If you’re a birth mother with an adoption plan, here are 20 questions you should ask during your hospital tour.
An interesting study says that kids who spend time with their grandparents are less prone to ageism.
And the 2018 Black History Month theme has been announced! “The 2018 theme, ‘African Americans in Times of War,’ commemorates the centennial of the end of the First World War in 1918, and explores the complex meanings and implications of this international struggle and its aftermath. The First World War was initially termed by many as ‘The Great War, ‘The War to End All Wars,’ and the war ‘to make the world safe for democracy.’”
Five confession from the foster and adoptive journey. “It’s broken but beautiful. Yes I know, I just used the word broken, but for good reason. Show me one person in this world who isn’t broken in some way, and I’ll retract this confession. All of life and humanity is broken in some way. We spend so much time denying this fact that we miss a bunch of beauty in the middle of it. Think about this — while we never want bad things to happen in this world, they do. They happen because we human beings are broken. In fact, we’re a mess. But, if it weren’t for that brokenness, we wouldn’t know our kiddos. That’s the beauty in this mess.”
6 annoying things people say to birth parents.
Thinking about Black History Month and transracial adoption. A transracial adoptee shares her powerful perspective: “…without this, there is room for another generation of transracially adopted children and young people that may struggle with identity formation because their parents were not asked the tough questions and given transformational preparation for becoming a multi-racial family. While some promising programs and practices exist and some parents do get it right, there is not nearly enough being done to educate and train parents about the fundamental differences their conspicuous family will experience.”