You have to love a China adoption story that starts with an Alaskan grizzly bear attack. Global adoption an answer is really not as much a news article as sort of a taster for an hour-long radio documentary about adoptions in southern Indiana. Even so, it's loaded with thinkfood (in the form of statistics and brief interviews) for people from anywhere who're considering following this path to making a family.

The documentary, Internationally Born, Indiana Raised, has even more to think about, whether or not you live in Indiana. There are transcripts and audio files at the link, as well as a link to The Toddlers' home page, which is as good a way to spend a few slow minutes as any (they're the band that did the music for the documentary). Of special interest is the third segment (pdf transcript here) that takes one into a Chinese culture class hosted by a locally active adoption agency. You ever wonder what one of those classes is really like? Kids play a Mandarin version of rock, scissors, paper.

I want to learn, too!

School, for us, is becoming a thing, as Daughter starts preschool today. I remember in one of her pre-preschool classes helping assemble a family tree. It was rooted in a big map of China, with us parents and siblings higher up the trunk and branches.

Family seems to be a theme in school for little kids, and can start to get a little bit confusing if you don't have Mommy's eyes or Daddy's hair. There are some interesting ideas for dealing with this stuff over at Educating the Teachers, which is basically what we have to be doing for the rest of these kids' academic careers, I suppose. Links there lead to brochures and books about educational issues, resources for telling teachers about adoption, and why that "bring a baby picture to school" assignment might not go over so well in your house. (Note: some links there are outdated - the article itself is a couple years old - but in general, the information just as useful now as then. And the best stuff, a guide from EMK Press, is still there. They've also got books at the adoptionshop.com, if you want to read more.)

So, why adopt from overseas? Lots of reasons, I suppose. Read around, find your own.


Of course, the best reason has to be the charm of family life. Especially shopping trips.