The Year in Review, Part I

Just for the heck of it, I decided to look over my posts for the last year, and share some of them again.  I'm including some posts that got a lot of comments, or that marked an important adoption event of the year (Artyom, anyone?), or that marked an important event in our lives.  I'll do the other half tomorrow.  Happy New Year!


January 2010

Friends and Sisters Forever, a sweet drawing by Zoe

When the Family Business is Child Trafficking, an interview with the traffickers at the heart of the Hunan, China scandal

World's Oldest Mother:  Age and Adoption, looking at how the law treats age of adoptive parents in adoption

"An abduction, not an adoption," about the ten missionaries arrested in Haiti for child trafficking for the purpose of adoption.

February 2010

"Mama, What's an Orphan?"  Maya wants to know.

Asian Americans, Adoption & Jim Crow, looking at how Jim Crow laws treated Asian Americans and transracial adoption.

Conversation Starters, about taking the opportunities that present themselves to talk casually about adoption with our kids.

March 2010

From the Economist:  Gendercide, looking at several articles in the Economist focusing on the "international war on girls," including China's one child policy.

Race:  Are We So Different?  about a museum exhibit on race that we visited over Spring Break.

April 2010

Another and Another and Another. . .  recapping two years worth of adoption disruptions

. . . and Another, introducing Artyom, the 8-year-old Russian boy put on a plane alone by his adoptive mother who no longer wished to parent him.

Talking About Artyom With My Kids, raising that difficult topic so they hear it from me first, not from someone on the playground.

Perpetual Foreigners & Arizona's Immigration Law, why international adoptive parents should care about Arizona's "Papers, Please" law.

May 2010
 
China Adoption, Birth Parent Searches, Corruption Conversations, summarizing some articles on these topics from Adoptive Families magazine.
 
Names in Adoption; what should be considered in giving a new name to an adopted child?
 
Adoption-Competent Therapists:  how to select a therapist when you think your adopted child might benefit.
 
Zoe's Poem:  Whole Heart & Maya's Poem: Feelings Come to Me; the girls write about adoption and feelings.
 
June 2010
 
Another "What Would You Do" Story;  what would you do if your child's birth parents found you and said their child had been kidnapped?
 
"Thinkin' of the things we used to do," sitting with my dad in hospice in his final days.
 
Adoption & Anger, looking particularly at anger directed at adoptive mom by child.
 
Ashes to Ashes; adding Grandpa to our Father's Day tradition of burning notes to the girls' birth fathers.
 
Is Illegal Adoption Human Trafficking?  The State Department says no.
 
Adopted -- Past or Present Tense? Is adoption a single event that happened in the past, or a lifelong event?  (Includes a video clip from the terrific Adoption Mosaic website).