Haiti's Street Kids--continued from Part One...

Children participating in the project aspire to one day enter the Village, a residential program on the outskirts of town with space for 50 kids who have proven themselves responsible and committed to excel. There, children are offered a wide variety of vocational training, including sewing, driving, welding, woodworking, and tailoring.

"This program is evidence of one person making a difference against incredible odds," says Paul Carrier, a chaplain at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Father Carrier encourages Fairfield students – including... more

Tomorrow I will celebrate my birthday. As I contemplate my life thus far, I have also been thinking about my actual birth day. Today as I pulled weeds from our backyard, I thought about the privilege I have in knowing the details of my birth. It is not a luxury most of my children can claim.

Whenever my children have a birthday, they ask me questions about their birth. They want to know what time they were born. They want to know what day of the week they were born on. Together we imagine what things might have been like for their birth and their birth mother. For one of my children, I know everything about her birth. For two of my children, I know a few bits and pieces of... more

Continued from Part Five...

My personal philosophy is to let a newly adopted child eat as much as they want in the beginning. You do have to be careful that they not gorge themselves to the point of vomiting and/or physical discomfort. Maybe many smaller meals all day long would work better, but do not limit them. It might make them feel more insecure. In the beginning let them eat, with very little restrictions. (Obviously you want to get them to eat healthy food as much as possible.) I remember a story once about an adoptive mom who was upset about the daycare her son was in. He had recently... more

Continued from Part Four...

An older child will have his or her own issues. They could exhibit one or all of the symptoms below:

Gorging—the child will eat until they can hold no more. They will often vomit or be in physical pain.

Hoarding—the child will hide food in the rooms, or in school backpacks, or random places around your home.

Stealing—the child will steal food and either eat it right away, or hide it somewhere they deem safe.

Lying—the child will be dishonest about stealing food, or about how much food they have or haven’t eaten.

Extreme pickiness—the... more

Continued from Part Three...

Most children adopted internationally will not be used to the abundance of their new home. One of the biggest changes for them might be food. For children who are used to small, scheduled meals, or always feeling hungry, or the same meal for every meal, life with their new family will most likely create quite an array of emotions and adjustments in the food department. They might be over-stimulated by the choices and quantities of food placed before them at meals. A simple trip to the grocery store could send your new child into sensory overload. Even a well-stocked... more

Continued from Part Two...

Then we adopted three kids from Ethiopia—a nine year old, a four year old, and a seven month old. In the beginning we didn’t think our 9 and 4 year olds had any serious food issues. They did not hoard food like some children do. They ate the things they liked, and refused the things they didn’t like. All seemingly normal. As time passed, we began to notice that we were wrong. Our 9 year old daughter was extremely picky. She hated nearly everything we gave her, unless it was loaded with sugar. She would throw food away and lie about it. She would fain illness in restaurants,... more

Continued from Part One...

In my experience as an adoptive mom to internationally adopted children, I have noticed that food seems to be an issue for nearly every internationally adopted child. At least I have seen it in all of my children that we have adopted or are adopting (from other countries), whether they were adopted as babies or as older children.

Our first child was eight months old when we adopted her. She was living in a foster home type of setting with a few other babies to be adopted. She was small, but also of a healthy size. The first night we had her with us, she ate and... more

The first time we met Georgia in Haiti, she would eat anything we placed in front of her. She was shy and wary of us, but when it came to food, she was all business. She would take any bite we offered with our forks, without hesitation. When she was eating, she didn't care what we were doing. It was a good time to take her photo or video her.

Between the first and second visit, Georgia was moved to Talley’s orphanage. We wanted them to be together, so that they would get used to each other’s presence.

When we went to Haiti for our second visit, we could see a noticeable change in Georgia. She looked a little heavier and was much more at ease with us. Another thing... more

We have spent the last week cleaning, packing and organizing our house. It has been exhausting work. It is times like these that having a lot of children is very obvious. On one hand, we have so much stuff, because there are so many people in our family. On the other hand, there are a lot of extra hands to make the work lighter. I have been so impressed by the hard work even my six year old has been able to accomplish, let alone my older children. Most of us are feeling very excited about this new adventure in our lives. We looked at our hopeful new home again today, and it was fun to again imagine what our life will be like if everything goes through and it becomes ours.

One... more

Continued from Part One...

When we were in Ethiopia, Beth told us that she was older than the orphanage claimed she was. We adjusted her birth year, making her 5 months younger than Sahara.

Adopting three kids at once was an event in and of itself, nevermind having three new kids of varying ages blend into our family. Our adjustment issues were more about our new kids fitting into our family, more than age-related problems.

Then we decided to adopt again. We found out about our daughter, Georgia in Haiti. We did not know what her birth date was at first, only that she was about... more