Although I had both good vibes and okay vibes from this article in a recent issue of Jewish Action, I still like to see the topic of Adoption, and specifically Jewish Adoption being discussed. The full text of the article can be found here. People often inquire about the subject of Jewish families and Transracial adoption. I've brought a small excerpt below:

But You Don’t Look Jewish

Parents who adopt a baby from overseas or a child of mixed race face the additional concern of communal acceptance. David and Sarah Feinberg [name has... more

So, I've posted in the past on the fun we have at my house in the middle of the night. If you've missed those posts, you're cordially invited to catch up.

Anna is now approaching 3 1/2 years old. When she came to us at 14 ish months, she would spend hours and hours screaming at the top of her lungs in the middle of the night - or frankly any other hour of the day. When I explained the situation to her doctor, he said to let her scream, and that eventually... more

So, Anna had her surgery yesterday and is doing fine. She was totally hysterical the morning of her surgery at the hospital - more freaked out after the actual procedure than before. They let me come into the operating room with her and then I had to leave after they put her to sleep. I cried when I left. She was so scared - it was so scary - and there was nothing I could do to help her.

The worst of it, I think, was that when she woke up, I wasn't there to comfort her. Even after they called me to come to her she wouldn't stop crying - sobbing and screaming - until we got home. She had slept so very little... more

As a whole, Judaism is changing, albeit more slowly than the general society - and I think that's fine. Something that has always kept me grounded was my religion - I like to think of it as a 'backbone' of sorts.

Anyway - I came across this article, from which I'll share a brief excerpt. You can read the article from The Jewish Week in it's entirety here, although be forewarned the author is writing about choosing a name for her unborn child. Here's the bit:

I wonder what it will be like for my children to be raised Jewish — indeed, in many... more

So maybe a few of you remember that I am a huge West Wing fan, which, sad to say, ended last night after seven years. Sigh. Are any of you TV show addicts out there? What do you look for in a series finale when it is time to say goodbye? Do you want all the loose ends tied up or should there be room to continue the story lines in our heads? West Wing was my one TV love for the past seven years - with my schedule (and because I'm a such news junkie as it is) I really only have time in my week for one show. West Wing ended with some of it's loose ends tied up, many implied or alluded to, and many, many, many... more

One of my early memories from growing up was spending weekends away at my well-off aunt and uncle's house. I loved listening to my aunt pontificate on how the world should really be run, and was always stumped for what to say to my uncle who was aghast at the fact that we traveled to Israel so often.

For the life of me, I really can't recall most of the topics my aunt discussed, but this one conversation sticks out in my mind. If my aunt ruled the world, she would have everyone "interbreed" - her word, not mine, by the way. She had this idea that everyone in the world should be light brownish - somewhere halfway between black and white coloring. We should all have slightly slanted... more

Yay! I opened the mail today and it came! Anna's birth certificate finally arrived! Anna's adoption was official as of the beginning of October 2005, at which time I was told it would be between 4 - 6 months until we got her new birth certificate. We are now in March - about six months by my count. I called the Bureau of Vital Statistics last week just to check on things, and I was told that it would be another six to eight weeks, as they were currently working on the September adoptions.

Normally, I wouldn't care about how long it takes to get the new papers processed. We know she's adopted and that's that. Except for when you are trying to plan for a vacation. We have plans to be... more

There are some couples who, when adopting, specifically look to adopt a child from the same background, religion, race or ethnicity. There are many reasons to argue in favor of this philosophy - it's what you know, what your comfort level may be, or what you are prepared to deal with. Some - understandably so - are so burnt out from dealing with the hardships of infertility that they don't want to put themselves in a position of more difficulties that come with certain kinds of adoptions.

Just yesterday, we had someone from the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) come to our house. It seems that they are developing a new system of matching kids to "resource families" (foster/... more

I wanted to continue the discussion on adoption language and talk today about another issue of language that we need to be mindful of, especially in the case of a transracial adoption like ours.

A few weeks ago, we spent Shabbat at my aunt and uncle's house. While they are about the same religious level as we are - modern orthodox - they live in a much more insular, homogenous and wealthy community. Anna was having a wonderful time running around with my little cousin, and we were sitting down with them having a conversation about whatever it was when my... more

A while ago, I posted about choosing your words carefully. Jan, over at the Adoption Search blog, posted today about not using the word 'unwanted' to refer to children who are adopted and instead to substitute the word 'unplanned.' You can read my comment to Jan's posting at the link above, but here's a bit of what Jan said:

I also know how it pains us birth parents to see people throwing out that term when referring to our children. My son was not "unwanted", he was "unplanned". There is a huge difference.... more