We’re on the road again … tomorrow morning, bright and early, we head to Providence, Rhode Island for the ATTACh conference. I have spent all day packing for me and two lovely young girls, as well as amassing all the ATN booth stuff and newsletters and beanie babies and booklets for sale, and … and … and … As I was gathering clothes for the three of us, Dora and I made an “emergency” run to Target for some last minute fancy duds. Beth did such a great job of working the exhibit hall at the NACAC conference … I’m certainly... more

Following on the heels of the previous post about our realities vs. the realities of the “average family” … my morning started off a bit badly …

Beth has choir before school on Tuesdays. The neighbor girl does, too. My neighbor has repeatedly offered to drive Beth at any time for any reason and we are not on a “tit for tat” schedule. Since Dora has been here ever since choir started, I have yet to drive the girls to choir. I never know how... more

In my recent blog about Why do placements disrupt?, a reader commented … I miss the confident, optimistic, minimally cynical person I used to be.

I didn’t have a chance to address the comment immediately, but that thought has been washing around in my head, much like Pat Johnston’s comment that I answered in the previous... more

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kyle and Marie spent the weekend with us. Kyle is on the receiving end of communication from Amy, although he is admonished not to share some of what she tells him. She doesn’t want us to know the location of where she lives, but did tell him to tell us she is “safe” and she is living with a friend and the friend’s husband and their two-year-old son. She is apparently paying rent and contributing to grocery money. The location is... more

Kyle and Marie, my son and daughter-in-law, were here this weekend. We spent Saturday at a unique kind of reunion … folks who had adopted Border collies through the rescue group where we found our dog Ben. It was a sea of black and white, with one Golden Retriever pup running around as well. I was talking with one gal who was talking about her dog, and when she mentioned the electric perimeter fence she used to contain her dog in her yard at home, she lowered her voice. “Is that a no-no around here?” I inquired. “Yes,” she said. “Most folks around here don’t like any... more

Continuing with some of the ideas mentioned in the article The correlation between sense of humor and mental health, the following paragraph really grabbed my attention:

People with great mental health have a high self-esteem, strong sociable encouragement, and are members of warm, compassionate families (Zeman, 2003). Maintaining mental health over time is extremely important; however, risk factors exist for mental illnesses. Preserving mental health can be accomplished by three characteristics.... more

Did you know that a sense of humor is a sign of good mental health? Amy has NO sense of humor. She doesn’t get jokes; she doesn’t make jokes.

An article entitled The correlation between sense of humor and mental health. states that:

Individuals with a greater sense of humor are more motivated, cheerful, trustworthy, and have a higher self-esteem. They are also more likely to develop close, social relationships (Kelly, 2002).

… humor corresponds... more

Following on the heels of my warm and fuzzy tribute to my warm and fuzzy daughter, tonight I’m going to tell you a story guaranteed to make you sick. My hubby and I wrapped up a couple of hours of serious dialog about serious matters and managed to get the television on in time for the news. The feature story tonight was incomprehensible. Seems a 20-year-old “female” (my husband... more

As I am frequently in the elementary school these days, I see various class projects and art masterpieces displayed on the walls and bulletin boards. One of those class projects was a “newspaper” prominently displaying a photo of the person whose “Exclusive Story (was) Told Here for the Very First Time!” I looked for Beth’s on the wall yesterday but I couldn’t find it. So imagine my surprise when I sat down for breakfast this morning after she had caught the bus and found some of her papers left for me to see. One of them was her newspaper.

In... more

Once again the comments and respectful debate over disruptions and how they should be handled has been quite prolific in the last couple of blogs. Regarding private, “underground network” placements versus agency involvement, my long-time friend Pat Johnston had this to say:

The problem is that this is nearly impossible when things are done between families, independently, rather than with the guidance... more