I doubt I could honestly say that my parents were bad at taking pictures of us as kids. Back at my parents' house, there are albums upon albums of photos of my sister and I - baby pictures, pictures of us at school plays or family trips to the zoo.

And although I cherish looking at pictures of times gone by, and do indeed remember many events pictured in the photos, it's the memories that were not photographed that come to mind when I think back on my childhood.

My strongest memories of growing up cannot be found in the... more

So, how superstitious are you? Historically, Jews were stereotypically superstitious (say that three times fast), but then again so was the rest of the world. Nowadays, I think it's safe to say that the majority of the modern world has moved away from getting worried about black cats or bad dreams or what-not.

And yet. And yet I am superstitious about some things. I will not buy someone a baby present before they have actually had the baby. I will not wish someone a "mazel tov" (congratulations) before something has actually happened. And as much as we treat Adam as our own kid, I have a hard time referring to him as 'our son' when, at the moment, he is not ours.

The other... more

Most people I know are pretty open about their adoption, the process, the ones that fell through. They talk openly about it alone or in front of their children - all who are aware that they are adopted and that this is part of their story.

One adoptive mother in town told me about some mistakes they felt they had made with their first daughter, in telling her early on details of her birth mother's full name and I guess some background information. She - a young girl at the time - then went around to many of her friends and told them. I guess it put the adoptive parents in a weird situation.

With us, we've tried as much as possible to keep the details of Anna's history private.... more

The topic of "Adoption in Israel" can be summed up with one word: hard. If you thought adopting in the United States was difficult, adopting in Israel is even harder.

People have often asked me why we don't look into adopting a child from Israel. The answer: We can't. Israel, like many other countries, does not allow their children to be "adopted out" to foreign countries.

So what if you live in Israel or move to Israel? If you have recently moved to Israel, all the sources I have spoken with state that you must be living in the country for a minimum of three years before you are allowed to formally look into the issue. For probably the same reasons that there are relatively... more

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I found a good article at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism site that I want to share with you. Some of you may be aware of the issues facing converts to Judaism from denominations other than Orthodoxy (for more information on the details of that please see my earlier posts "Sticky conversion issues parts I and II). This article from USCJ touches on those issues without making it the focus of the article. It's a nice overview of the idea of adopting as a Jewish family, looks at different angles of the subject,... more

Going through the adoption process can be is exhausting and time consuming. At times it may seem like you're drowning in paperwork with no end in sight. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! I promise! But there are a few things you will have to survive first. We - like all adoptive parents - had to have a homestudy as part of the approval process. And, becuase we are an open foster home with the State, we have a renewal inspection yearly, and (theoretically) monthly visits by our resource worker and case worker because we currently have a foster child in our care. And each time someone comes, I remember back to what we were doing in preparation for our homestudy.

How... more

I've talked before about how we teach Anna about being Jewish. Something that I know other observant parents grapple with is how to teach - or not to teach - their kids about different observance levels. For example, when we are walking to synagogue on Shabbat and a car passes by, Anna will sometimes ask why they are driving (we don't drive on the Sabbath). Instead of the easy answer "they are not Jewish," I try to remember to say "maybe they aren't Jewish, or maybe they just don't keep Shabbat the same way we do."

Anna has seen my father drive on Shabbat, and other relatives come and go by car on holidays. Instead of hiding these things from her in order to keep her in a bubble,... more

If you have never been to Israel - what are you waiting for? If it's been years since your last trip, but you have yet to go as a family, it's something to think about.

When we officially adopted Anna in the fall of 2005, the first thing that I started to work on was getting her a passport. For adoptive families, especially if your adoption was very recently processed, this is the first step. In order to leave the country, Anna obviously needed a passport. In order to get a passport, we needed her birth certificate - a new one with her new... more

I don't talk about Israel much on this blog. Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. I'm a very political person in my real life - I used to work in politics, I have very strong opinions on issues, and I enjoy a good debate on any topic. But here on the blog, I try to stay apolitical. Israel tends to be a hot button issue for a variety of reasons, and most people tend to have opinions as far as what Israel should be doing about this or that. So I try not to get into it.

However, I do think that wherever you stand on issues relating to politics, all American Jews - all Jews worldwide for that matter, should develop a strong connection to Israel. We should all make the effort to visit Israel,... more