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Listen: An Adoptee Tells Her Story

By Thursday December 15, 2011

Changed Life

There she was, with her beautiful long hair, lying all alone in the uncomfortable, hospital bed.  She was dying of HIV/AIDS and unable to speak to me, I felt so much sorrow as I watched her lose weight because she could not eat.  In 2003, in Mekelle, Ethiopia, I was a six year old, second grader when this all happened.  Himonnet is my mother’s name and she was the best mom. Not because I say so, but because others also said so.  My mom used to laugh all the time and was good at comforting others.  This was the most difficult year that I ever had, that no one also could imagine.

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Circle of Friends

By Monday February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I am in Seattle today for Honeybee and Dimples’ appointments.  My friend, Tonggumomma, at Our Little Tongginnator, wrote this beautiful post and it seems perfect for a day when we celebrate love.  The love of a good friend is a rich gift.

Circle of Friends

Sometimes life just really throws you a fast curve ball. Sometimes you feel so lost and alone, you don’t even know where to turn for help. Sometimes the noise of this world drowns out God’s voice so much, you forget that you need to listen more carefully and instead you simply stop listening altogether.

That was me almost six years ago, while spring gradually eased into summer.

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Answered Prayer

By Friday January 14, 2011

From Learning Patience

The other day I was driving to the library.  I’d had a bit of a frustrating and discouraging morning.  It had been raining all morning, and as I drove the rain was splattering all over the windshield.  I was imagining myself walking into the library (which is not a short walk from the parking lot) at the pace of a snail my three darling children, carrying the monstrous library bag that had like a hundred books in it, and trying to keep my sanity.  It wasn’t looking good.  But then this thing happened; I thought, “Why don’t I ask God to stop the rain.”

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Hope Lives in Us

By Thursday January 13, 2011

My guest today is Life with Mamita

“You bit off a big chunk, didn’t you?”

“Wow.  You’ve made quite a commitment.”

“Oh…well… I don’t know how much I can help…”

“I can’t offer you much hope.”

These were words that professionals spoke to me as I looked for help in the months after Cupcake came home.

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Sweet Time

By Sunday January 9, 2011

By Tisha at Deutschland.

“Don’t be hard on yourself, it takes time to acclimate.” That’s what a friend told me soon after we returned home with our two children.

Desperately I wanted to believe her words. Caught in the grip of a downward spiral which included a cycle of shock and guilt that was ushered in with the entrance to Our New Life, I was unsure if they would ever be true.

I wondered what I had done to myself, to my family, to my husband (this was my big idea after all!) to our kids. I grieved the end of life as we knew it, the way things once were, when it was all so much easier, when I felt like a mother to all of my children.

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Come Home to Us

By Saturday January 8, 2011

From Jillian at Rooted in Love.

Deployment is an ugly part of the military life, but somehow it makes you stronger-if you let it. If you face the emotions and hardship, if you sway with the tide of feeling independent and wanting to be dependant. It is hard not to get pulled in to the undercurrent of devastation and negativity. However, deployment can also be a gift, if you face it for what it is… a stronger sense of time, a reason to unify stronger….

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Degaje

By Friday January 7, 2011

From Kristen at Rage Against the Minivan.

In Haitian Creole, there is a word called “degaje”, which basically means to “make it work”. We are in serious degaje mode right now. I have always scoffed at the idea that there is any manual that can teach a mother how to do things the right way. When you are parenting four small children, one of them who speaks another language, there is NO MANUAL. We don’t know what the heck we are doing.

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Guide Dogs: Attachment Version

By Thursday January 6, 2011

Hello there! I’m Coffeemom. I’ve been asked to be the guest blogger today here at A Bushel and A Peck, by one of my heroes and main sources of inspiration and encouragement: Lisa. So she kinda made me into one thankful mom too… which I should be more often and am typically not, not nearly enough at any rate. Anyhow… I am honored and a little nervous to be here again, but also thrilled to be connecting across the blogosphere.

So, that all said… In the spirit of this blog, I’d like to put up some thoughts on a topic near and dear to my heart and home: attachment. This is about a different attachment tool;

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Snowflake Crafting with Kids

By Wednesday January 5, 2011

My guest today is Pajama Mama – one of those crafty mothers I admire so much.

Hi there! Kristen here, fellow AAI (Adoption Advocates International) and homeschool mama. I blog over at Pajama Mama about crafting, and doing life with my kiddos in my pajamas.

My kids, like most, love crafting with me. (and without me.) And these early days of the year, before the rush of activities start back up again, are perfect opportunities to pull out stuff we already have and make something new together.

Today we did just that.

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Honoring Grief

By Tuesday January 4, 2011

This guest post was written by Jodie from Sun Breaks in the Rainy City.

Before our 5 year-old son came home in July 2010, I devoured blogs about adoption (including this one!), attempting to glean wisdom and encouragement from other families that had been knit together through adoption. I read blogs and articles written by both waiting families and blogs written by adult adoptees and I talked with close friends who were adoptive parents. Since we were adopting an older child with special health needs, our adoption agency required lots of hours of training on issues like attachment and helping children heal from abuse and neglect. I even had a few meetings with doctors in our area.

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