Pros and Cons of Sibling Travel List—the Pros
If you’re trying to decide whether or not to bring your child or children with you to their new sibling’s country of birth, you might find this list helpful: The Pros • Your child will get to see his sibling’s country of birth. He/she will be able to tell his/her sibling about their country from personal experience. • Your child will be able to bond with his/her new sibling without the distractions of regular life. • He/she will be able to understand exactly where their new sibling is coming from. It may enable them to treat them with more love and patience, and possibly feel less threatened by their arrival in the family. • Your child will get to see what another country is like. • He/she will be able to experience another culture—the sights… [more]
Pros and Cons of Sibling Travel List—the Cons
If you’re trying to decide whether or not to bring your child or children with you to their new sibling’s country of birth, you might find this list helpful: The Cons • Traveling might be too intense for your child. • Your child might get sick (Ryland did. We gave him Cipro, and thankfully he recovered quickly. However, it was worrisome for us at the time). • Your child will most likely be bored on the trip. This can be draining; trying to keep him/her entertained when you are busy with your new child and adoption arrangements, too. • You quite possibly will have to deal with siblingitis much sooner than you’d care to. This could make a stressful situation unbearable as a parent. • Emotions run high when in another country, especially when adopting a child… [more]
The Pros and Cons of Sibling Travel–Part Two
Continued from Part One...
Last July (2006), my husband and I went to Haiti to meet our two new daughters. While we were there, we decided that it would be great for our older children to experience Haiti. Haiti is like nothing I have ever personally seen before. It is the perfect description for extreme poverty. Around the same time we went to Haiti for the first time, our son, Ryland was constantly complaining about his “rough” life. He felt that nothing was fair. The entire time I was in Haiti, I kept thinking to myself, “Ryland needs to come here.” One of the very first things I did upon our return home, was… [more]
The Pros and Cons of Sibling Travel–Part One
In the beginning of this blog, I shared an essay that my 8 year old son, Ryland had written after visiting his sisters in Haiti. I mentioned in that post that I would discuss the pros and cons of bringing children along on adoption trips in a future post. Over the last few days, my thoughts have heavily been on this subject.
Way back in 1999, I lived in Viet Nam for three months while I worked on getting Ryland’s adoption completed. My 3 year old, Sahara, was at home with my husband. I missed her terribly. For much of the time in Viet Nam, I was without Ryland… [more]
