You like singing, don't you? I do. It's part of why children are fun. You get to sing without feeling all self-conscious about it.

Here's a song you know, although you might not recognize it at first - this is how you sing it in Mandarin. With your kids, if they'll settle down long enough to do it!

...One by one, glittering bright, Yi shan yi shan, liang jing jing,

'EE shan EE shan, lee-ang jing jing (the "jing" is said almost like "cheeung"... more

Things I've been reading worth passing along:

* How to foster attachment.

This is a page of great suggestions, one of many pages on a site filled with great suggestions. I'm not so sure about the business with singing goofy songs, but I have recollections of playing the Cheerio-passing Cereal Kisses game and it working on her.

Reader, she married me, and then... more

Traditional Manchu papercuts

So, you're stuck with this strange, bawling, squalling, puling creature in a hotel room in a country where they don't even use an alphabet to spell the words you wouldn't be able to understand anyway even if you could read them.

All you want to do is make this infant feel even remotely more comfortable. The baby has never heard "Hush, Little Baby" and saying, "There, there,"... more

Quick note to prospective parents (and some folks "enjoying" the long wait times): the fees for filling out I600 & I600A forms are going up. You can read the new fee schedule on this pdf from our beloved Homeland Security office.

I read about this in a ... more

So, yesterday we just had our post-placement. This is the last of our home studies, when a social worker (other than the one to whom I am married) comes and evaluates your family to make sure you're all, like, not going to toss a baby in the crock pot for dinner or something.

(We have been tempted.)

The post-placement gets done at the end of everything, a year after the bundle of joy is plopped in your arms at the Social Welfare Institute or Civil Affairs Office or hotel conference room or wherever and you're wondering, "Is this it? When... more

Chinese - or, I should say, Mandarin, the official spoken language of China*, has a bad rap as being a Very Difficult Language. I'm not sure this is entirely deserved - after all, more human beings speak it than any other language, and people are more or less the same wherever you go.

It's actually quite simple for most English-speakers to get a few sentences of Mandarin together - enough to a/impress people that you're trying,... more

"lingyang"="adopt"

My fellow Floridian Dave Thomas seemed like an interesting guy, as far as CEOs of fast-food giants go (no, not this Floridian Dave Thomas, but the one with the daughter named Wendy). His was the first burger joint to offer a salad bar. And he was the founder of the Dave... more

One of the Big Things about adoption - especially with kids from Social Welfare Institutes in China - is the need to promote attachment. They call it "bonding," which has a nice, solid construction/oath-taking sound to it. And one of the best ways to do this is to leave behind the bulky old stroller and tote a new tot around in a sling.

Bonding, you see, is fun. Slings are a great invention, because they let you hug little children for long periods of time while still leaving your arms free... more

The Been-There-Done-That families are no doubt happily forgetting about all the paperwork that goes into the wacky process of adopting from China -- especially the paperwork you have to wait for from the US government. (That's assuming some of the people reading this are Americans and not our noble friends to the north or those... Europeans, who have arcane bureaucracies of their own.) Some have suggested renaming this the WOO! BABY!" form, which would be easier to remember, if nothing else.... more

Detail of an 18th century fresco by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

I've been thinking lately about the idea of maintaining my kids' heritage, and what "heritage" means, and the extent to which an American of recent Euro-African descent can actually somehow embody Chinese culture. My conclusion: I can't. I can only embody international adoption as its own culture within America, and... more