I am packing Beth up this morning for a week at YMCA Ranch Hand camp. I retrieve her next Saturday morning. She’s excited, and I think she will do fine. It is me I am worried about!

While she has been apart from me for this long before, it has been with me away and her at home. Last year she attended K State Equestrian camp, but it was for 2 nights only. One week was Western and one week was English. She was homesick the second week.

The YMCA stipulates no cell phones at camp and they encourage the kids... more

While all the controversy was swirling around Sandra these past few weeks, I have been spotty in my blogging and certainly not controversial. Not that I can’t be … it’s just that most of my energy has gone towards getting through the day. I’m still not 100% well. I called the doc today about my productive cough and general inability to completely shake this whatever-it-is. Hopefully I’ll be operating at full throttle here shortly—thanks for your patience!

We did manage... more

Stephanie is a waitress this summer, at the same restaurant she has worked at in Illinois and even Minnesota, where she is in college. It’s a chain, if you haven’t figured that out …

Kyle also waited tables, as did my husband (in college) and I, in high school and college. In fact, I worked at … are you ready? … Farrell’s fantastic fabulous fountain of fun! Just for jollies, I Googled it tonight, and was surprised to find it is making a comeback. I guess some old things still... more

Beth has swim practice three to four nights a week. The location of her practices just changed for the summer … they are at a high school further north. As we were driving there tonight, I wondered out loud about whether there were some other families we could carpool with …

Beth informed me she isn’t comfortable in other people’s cars. “I guess I still have some trust issues!” she said.

When she first brought this up early in the conversation, I said she would probably be fine if she rode a few times with the... more

After driving all day, we returned Thursday evening from Colorado. It was 34 degrees, windy and very winter-like when we left in the morning. It was 88 degrees driving across the prairie.

I just had to share these chipmunk pictures with you. This is a tradition in my family. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say this is a tradition for me … I have loved photography for years and I always take the kids to ride a tram to the top of this mountain in Estes and feed the chipmunks. If you go in July, the critters are so fat... more

In this post I mentioned the fact that Deb Hannah’s daughter framed her time in college by the events surrounding her troubled adoptive siblings. She started college at the peak of a family crisis, and graduated the day after the last of five troubled children left the family. The fact that Deb’s healthy children’s lives were so affected by the unhealthy children is one of... more

Hey, all, I'm going to make a shameless plug for my entries in the adoption.com photo contest. If you go here and search for "halfpint" you can see some of my favorite photos of Beth and some of Beth and Stephanie. A couple of them have generated some interest... so perhaps you might be willing to mosey over there and put in a vote or two? If I can manage to win some money from this I can pay someone to clean my house while I blog and hold the hands of parents...!!

When Beth came into our lives, she was not a healthy child. We had her assessed by an attachment therapist, but we could easily see her manipulation skills and many of her issues without needing a therapist to point them out to us. We had already spent considerable dollars on the mental health issues of our other adoptees, so we were reticent to sign up for significant unknowns in terms of our financial (or emotional) future.

To that end, we attempted to facilitate the adoption of Beth through the social welfare system.... more

All this talk about false allegations of abuse has brought up so many fond memories. One of the readers asked how many times I had been accused? So I thought I would try and remember those momentous occasions.

The first time was when we still lived in Indiana. Amy was a preschooler. She played the victim quite effectively. I can’t even remember what the complaint was specifically, or even how it evolved. I think we received a call from social services but it died pretty fast. But of course, it was scary and very stressful.

Another... more

I wish I had some guaranteed, magic advice to give those of you who live under the constant threat of being accused of child abuse … advice on how to avoid such a painful and horrible experience. Been there, done that … repeatedly. Fortunately each of our many investigations pretty much went nowhere, but not for lack of trying on the part of social services.

However, I have heard countless stories from families who were not nearly so fortunate. I have seen families financially, emotionally and physically destroyed from... more