Question 1. - Why is the least ethnically diverse city in Canada (and possibly North America) home to the greatest number of Chinese adoptions?

Because it is, you know. Quebec City. Where they speak French. And, per capita, adopt more Chinese kids than anywhere else... more

Book Review: D is for Dragon Dance, by Ying Chang Compestine and Yongsheng Xuan.

Like C is for China (as reviewed previously on here), this book is a Chinese-themed abecedarium, but... more

So, if you've been wondering what's been up with this blog over the past couple of days, your humble typist was on the other side of Florida, having packed the kids and My Sojourning Spouse into our minivan (of all things) to drive 230 miles and hang out with two other families we met over the computer.

We were all in the same DTC group - not with the same agency (in fact, three different agencies), and not adopting from the same city or province, but all with the same paperwork going in at the same time. We... more

No, not this kind of mandarin!

Faithful readers may recall my prior concerns over the upcoming Iron Man movie, as directed by Jon "Dinner for Five" Favreau, in which children will... more

So, this has been a weeked of breakthroughs and milestones, not just because it's been Father's Day and son (son!)'s birthday. Witness the warming of the state of affairs I've been referring to as toddler detente.

It's been gradual, but Daughter now seems to genuinely enjoy doing things with that strange creature we showed up with just over a year ago. Like helping bake him a birthday cake.

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I wasn't actually present during the following vignette, but I got to hear about it afterward. Backstory: Daughter knows she came from China. She knows we went to China to pick up her brother, she knows there are Chinese things in the house and that sometimes (although not terribly recently) we've gone out for Chinese food. We go other places to eat and have plenty of things from Florida/South Africa/Germany/Mexico/India/the Caribbean in the house, but still - she knows Chinese things. She can find China on a map. She may (possibly) even have ... more

Lately, I've been looking at this "Trips" application on Facebook. I don't know how well it works in reality, but it's designed to be a way to organize a trip to anywhere with whoever else is interested in going (and who happens to be on Facebook, which seems to be everyone nowadays). So, if, for instance, you're interested in, say, taking your kids on a trip back to Chongqing to see the place where they were born, you could conceivably hook up with other... more

One of the things that people seem concerned about with transnational adoption is the idea of respecting a child's birth culture, or incorporating elements of that culture into your family. This is, of course, important (witness that category just off to the right of these words labeled "Chinese culture"), but I tend to follow the reasoning of Cheri Register when she talks about international adoption creating a culture in and of itself. Neither entirely here nor there.

What's... more

Book Review: The Empress and the Silkworm by Lily Toy Hong.

This is a book that spills the beans on a process that was a fiercely guarded secret for 3,000 years: where silk comes from.

Young Chinese empress Si Ling-Chi is enjoying a hot cup of tea in her imperial garden while sitting under the imperial mulberry bushes, and a little coccoon falls in her cup. Being one privileged lady,... more

Going to China, but running around in a panic trying to figure out how and what and where? Journeywoman.com's "GirlTalk China" presents a big list of tips for women traveling in China.

Topics include: what to pack (and how), where to shop, how much things are worth, the etiquette of dinner invitations, and a whole bunch of other stuff. As the name implies, it's all geared toward woman travelers, but men can learn a thing or two, too.

There are also some sweet anecdotes (I like the "Will my adopted granddaughter remember?" series.)