Siblings Missing Siblings

Continued from Part Two... It was very upsetting for Tim and I. Now we're wondering what we could have done differently to avoid her having to ride the emotional roller-coaster right along with us. We hardly ever talk about the girls to the babies. We do have photos here and there. They have seen the videos. They have been told we are leaving to visit Georgia and Talley. But we really don't talk about them very much. In fact, it seems like the kids talk about the girls more than we do. Should we have never said a thing about them until they were coming home? Never shared photos or videos? Then again… [more]

Continued from Part One... An excerpt from my online blog: December 1, 2006: Something sad happened tonight. Don't worry, it isn't anything terribly bad. Let me go back a few months. One day I was shopping at Walmart and saw a cute little black baby doll with a basket and bottle and other accessories. It was right before we went to Haiti for the first time. I wanted that doll for Georgia, and so I bought it. It was inexpensive and all plastic. I thought it would be a great gift for her to have in the orphanage. We ran out of room in the suitcase, and I decided to hold onto it for the next… [more]

A fellow adoptive mom was sharing her terrible day with an email-list I frequent. Her little daughter had had a dream that her new siblings were home. When she awoke and realized it wasn’t true, she was traumatized. It became clear to her mother just how much her daughter was missing her new baby brother and sister (who are still in Haiti). She emailed the list asking for advice. It reminded me of a few experiences I have had with our kids when we are in the middle of an adoption. When Sahara was three years old, we were in the process of adopting Ryland. We told Sahara all about Ryland. We had his photos up in our… [more]