It’s happened to me several times. Someone in my world describes a child they find comparable in some way to LuLu. And without realizing it, invariably they end up telling me the child was internationally adopted.

“The other little peanut I had once,” says LuLu’s OT yesterday, “who reminds me so much of LuLu, was this sweet girl with Tourettes adopted from Russia.” I suspect the therapist’s comparison was focused on the fact that both girls had the diagnosis of Tourettes and had perseverative vocal tics that were very interesting. As she continued to tell me... more

As we wade through the ocean of diagnoses LuLu has received, one thing keeps haunting me…how much of a role did her first 20-months in the institution have in “causing” all this.

Early on, I understood the potential psychological ramifications of her orphanage neglect and abuse in causing her PTSD and RAD. But as new diagnoses, such as PDD-NOS and Tourettes came in (and now pyroluria and PCOS), I began wondering how many problems she would be exhibiting if she had been born to us, or placed with us a birth.

As I dug deeper into the leaky gut syndrome... more

A commenter posted on my school blog from yesterday how different she and her Chinese daughter were treated at school than she and her Russian daughters had been. She hypothesized that it was because school personnel could “see” them as an adoptive family.

I agree. In some ways having LuLu look so much different than me has been a blessing in that it sends out an immediate visual signal that “something is different” about this family. I truly do believe that... more

Have you checked out adoption:the movie yet? Part of the many YouTube videos that are associated with this film project are interviews of Dr. Ron Federici and Dr. Jane Aronson, both well-known medical professionals in the world of international adoption.

Dr. Federici’s videos focus on PTSD issues. He links PTSD and post-institutionalization as the same, which they aren’t, but no one here is arguing that... more