“…or we can get old and do something.” -Kim Anderson WOW. Thank you Kim for opening your home, heart and family—and for choosing to do something. Chosen ones from preston gannaway on Vimeo. “That’s our God…He can take bad things (situations) and make them good…and that is what He has done in Job’s life…” Job’s […]
The Young Family Farm »
Author Archives: adminThen Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 I have never experienced fatique and the weight of burdens more in my life than after we brought home our newest son. Would he be okay? What would he be like […] your posts are always so encouraging! thank you so much for your research and heart! i am also checking because i ordered a t shirt i believe before xmas and haven’t received it yet and wondered if there was a mistake, i know that my card was charged though. thank you andrea. Very grateful, Sara Thank-you for sharing such a beautiful post… I am so glad to have stumbled upon your blog which is also beautiful! We have three littles (2 bios babes and 1 Ethiopian princess) and we are in the process of adopting again from ET… twins this time… I look forward to reading along on your blog! Praying for you, and all those involved in the making of the retreat, as you prepare in these final weeks. =) Oh this momma’s heart is just so excited!!! Can’t wait to “go to the well” and refill!!! Another beautiful post. I LOVE when you guys make post requests!!! I’m going to do my best to do a post for as many requests that come my way…so thank you for telling me what you would like more on! Because I This post is wonderful!! Thank you so much! Our son is 2 1/2 but he still loves these kind of games. He now talks in sentences and so something that I try to do a lot is having “My Favorite” conversations. I make sure he is sitting on my lap looking in my eyes and I ask, “What is your favorite…blue or green? Do you like dogs or cats better?” He loves it and we are having a conversation and I’m getting a lot of eye contact as well. Seems kinda basic but whatever works! 🙂 I can visualize you doing all of these games with ITY, Andrea, and it totally makes me smile. Have a great day!! I love, love, love to turn on music (any kind of music: veggie tales, irish instrumentals, tobymac) and dance with Naomi. She loves it. We just go “with it”. Sometimes she’ll stand and move on her own. Sometimes we’ll hold hands and sway. Sometimes I’ll hold her while we spin and bounce! It’s fantastic. These are great! We do a lot of this, as well. Some other things that have worked for us are rolling or bouncing a ball together, playing “Ride the Horsey”, having R run to me and then tickling her (you can keep this in your back pocket for later!). Sometimes when we tickle I build up the anticipation by saying “I think I’m going to tickle you on your _____” – that keeps her looking at me. Many times, I will also just touch my nose and say “look at mommy” (read that from another blog). Thanks for posting your ideas! Thank you Andrea. I really appreciate the dialogue and ideas on this topic. With our baby girl, now 14 mos, we have done most of the ideas you mentioned. Also, we do a lot of “where’s your nose? Where’s your eyes… Where’s Mommy’s nose, etc.” Or put a receiving blanket over both of our heads so we are looking at each other and giggling. And we dance together (with me holding her)… and of course, bottle feeding, even after the dr. said we could wean her. For our son, whom we brought home just before his 3rd birthday, we play catch, or roll a hotwheels car back and forth – we wait til he looks at our eyes before tossing/rolling the item back to him. Also, at bedtime, I give him a sippy cup as though feeding a baby (amazing to me, this activity was initiated by him at about the 2 month mark and we haven’t missed a night since.) He and my husband play “hug blitz” where they basically charge at each other, with eye contact, and then hug/wrestle. It’s loud and hilarious to watch. I’m sure there’s more; basically we’re just constant and intentional about eye contact throughout the day. These are awesome… sometimes I just can’t get my brain to be creative so these are awesome to have in your back pocket! Such good information you are sharing with us- love it!!! Thank you! Andrea- We are home 3 months with our son… he came home at 1 year old. It is so good to hear that some days you have almost no eye contact, and have to step back and refocus on connecting. I can so relate to that… (like just this evening). Thanks for the facts about infants and the eye contact in those early months. I can really see this having bio children. I so want those connections to happen with my little guys!  SOOO…we were snowed/iced in for yet ANOTHER day on Friday!!! SO–the kids missed 5 days last week and it JUST SO HAPPENS Monday is a holiday (MLK Day!) SOO…we are hope AGAIN! Being stuck at home last week without being able to leave and drive…we had get creative. By Friday I was out of paint […] I’m excited to hear some of the good stuff at the retreat about attachment. We definitely need to get reading on it. I followed the discussion on th listserv last week about how to tell people that you will be initially parenting the adopted child a little differnently and I am already dreading trying to explain it. The problem is, the people who will have the hardest time understanding are the closest to us, parents, grandparents. I know they’ll think we’re just being nuts! But I suppose it’s better to hurt their feelings than overwhelm our child with a bunch of strangers. my husband and I are EARLY in the process of considering adoption (well, beyond considering, but not quite starting) … as I’ve been reading several books, I haven’t found a lot of specific information about attachment. Just that it’s something REALLY important to be educated about. So … thanks for the timely post and great resources in this area! Hi Andrea, This is a great post! I am coming to the retreat and wondered if you could give us ladies any advice on how to help our children while their mommies are gone for a few days. This will be the first time that I leave our adopted daughter (we’ve been home almost 9 months) and I’m a little worried about it attachment wise. If you or anyone you know might have some helpful tips or things to say/do to help reassure would be wonderful! Allison Would love to hear the exercises. We adopted B at 2 1/2-now almost 4. She is doing really well (still crawls into our bed in the middle of the night, needs mommy and daddy when she gets hurt, etc) but I think we can all benefit from attaching. I think of it as putting money in the bank because weare starting the process for another little one. Thanks for the reminder and the info. I also loved reading everything while waiting for B:) This was so helpful to read today, as I am right now sitting in a hotel getting ready to head to the airport and get on a plane to Ethiopia. We get to meet our son!! I have not walked this road before, but I think prayer is a huge part of this. We have been praying for months that God would begin the healing process in our little guy’s heart and prepare his heart for us and our heart for him. I love, love that you are touching on these important yet often ignored issues! After reading adoptee forums in researching adoption I have been shocked by how many adopted teens/adults feel detached & like they are “outsiders” in their own families/lives. Helping parents understand attachment, the brain, & the importance of building identity is going to help so many families. God is definitely working through you to be a light for so many families who are on this journey together! Would you mind tweaking the section you wrote here about attachment and reposting it on We Are Grafted In? Our readers are always looking for information on attachment and I think your words here would be helpful — Let me know! On transracial adoption…a video I found that I think has value…(notice I said VALUE–not very exciting or “touchy/feely”…and this momma loves touch/feely…but I DO think there is some value in this one)… These were ALL things we took very seriously when adopting transracially… How would our family handle forever looking different (and how would be […] I would love to read more about bonding/concooing etc with adoption. I have 5 bio children (2-11yrs) and we hope to adopt toddlers/babies (siblings 0-3) next year. Thanks for this post! I’ve seen the second video before and loved watching the young man and his mom. Speaking of funny looks or comments from strangers… My kiddos are 8 months apart and are very close is size but um…well, not in looks. 😉 I’ve had several people ask me if they were twins…I wasn’t really sure how to answer, but at least they are looking past the color of their skin! 🙂 Andrea – Thank you so much for writing this!!! My husband and I have just received our referral for a 5 month old baby boy and are trying to figure out how to put so many of these things in place while we are waiting to bring him home. The first 2 books that I pick up have to do with transracial families and totally see how important it is to have a “transracial community” in place for them. Unfortunately, we live in a very Caucasian area of town and I am wondering if you have any suggestions on how to create this type of community. Moving, of course, not an option. We are slowly meeting other families that are also adopting from Ethiopia which is a start. I would love your input! Thanks for sharing! I look forward to hearing more from you attachment entry!!! Thank you for posting this. It was an amazing read and totally inspiring. Great video!! We are in the process of adopting our second child, which will make this child #7 and our state requires classes and the woman on the 2nd video with her son, was the instructor. She is amazing, and just a wealth of information, she really has some wisdom going on! Thanks for posting, I’ll have to show my hubby. I too would love some info on starting a transracial family fellowship in a “seemingly” white town. Any suggestions?? |
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by admin
Amazing. Beautiful. Love.
Amazing stories. Thank you for sharing… my world seems pretty insignificant when I’m consumed with what’s just happening right here in my own little circle…
I have been reading your blog backwards.. (It’s just how I roll) Just wanted to say that I am all the way in WA and go to church with those sweet boys in that video.