Adam - our foster child - is fifteen months now. It is the middle of August. By Rosh HaShanah - just a month away - Adam will have been with us for a year. And while it is my gut feeling that the state will make a decision on whether he will be eligible for adoption or whether he will be reunited with his birth family, things are still up in the air.

Last night, my husband was asking me what I thought about a future four year old Adam finally adopted, finally undergoing circumcision in preparation for a Jewish conversion. Wouldn't that be traumatic? he asked. I told him that no, Adam would be under anesthesia and probably wouldn't remember anything and anyway, I explained, I'm sure... more

My grandmother made me get a haircut. I know to many of you, getting a haircut is not a big deal - but for me this was my first real haircut in a salon in about a decade. Why? First a little background on the topic of hair.

Hair, I have noticed, is for some reason wrapped up in Jewish traditions and stories. There is the custom among many - if not most - married Orthodox women to cover their hair. Then there is a custom in many circles not to cut a boy's hair until he is three years old, and then to hold an Upsherin... more