For those of us privately adopting infants this is rather scary news. A new study showed a connection between a mother suffering from severe stress during the first trimester of pregnancy and her child developing schizophrenia later in life. The study identified death, or severe illness that could result in death, of a close relative as a severe stressor. The study did not identify the stress of making a plan for an unexpected pregnancy as a severe stressor. However, the stress involved in planning... more

Raising a special needs child can offer quite a challenge to parents. Last week, in a town nearby, a 28-year-old woman went missing from her family home. The family described their daughter as very intelligent and loving. Many people from surrounding areas are diligently searching for this young woman. Our temperatures here in Michigan have hovered around a bitter zero degrees Fahrenheit over the past week. It definitely is not safe to spend much time outside unless... more

Part one

We didn’t end up sending our daughter away to boarding school after she had killed so many of our 4-H chickens, but the dream kept us from disrupting through a couple of difficult years. She became an enjoyable girl to have around in her high school years. Unfortunately, our relationship was really damaged as a result of those chaotic preteen years before we decided to try medication. During those early years when we should have... more

We certainly knew that our nine year old daughter had behavior problems. Of course her favorite reply was always, “I didn’t know I did that,” and she always spoke so adamantly that people tended to believe her. We were fairly new foster parents at the time so we believed her, for maybe a year. She was so quiet and sweet to people outside of our family that everyone assumed she must be a real joy to us and a really big help with the younger children.

The real truth was that she hurt other children by “accidentally” shutting their fingers... more

Last week we were living in the North Pole for the entire week so I figured at any minute we would be heading south. My daughter was actually “giddy” last week. I can’t think of a better word to describe her near euphoria. She was laughing and her mouth was running during all of her waking hours.

Having lived with her for nearly two years now, I knew this long lasting excitement was an ominous indicator of a fall. Yesterday the south came crashing in on us. My daughter was asked to leave work after only an hour on the clock for insubordination.... more

Is this a photo of a Purple haired Samari or outrageous teenage daughter? She likes to make sure everyone knows exactly what she thinks and they’re going to hear what she has to say about it whether they’re interested or not. Why, because she is loud, outspoken, and opinionated. She doesn’t want anyone to figure out what she plans on doing next, so she’s liable to do the unexpected. That’s why she decided to dye her hair from blond to black the other day. Only when she read the box of hair dye she only read the black part and ignored the... more

Today is my baby sister's birthday. I never seem to remember in time to send a card that isn't from the "belated" section. In fact, I sadly don't think about my baby sister very often. We live such differing lives.

She is my baby sister, though...to be distinquished from my other younger sister, because this one I can clearly remember actually being born.

It was August 1969, a month after the first lunar landing...one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. I sat glued to the old black & white TV that July, watching history... more