Category - Resources

24
Apr

Six Precautions to Take When Traveling with Cash

While traveling internationally to complete your adoption, carrying cash is often a necessity. Credit cards, while an everyday convenience here in the United States, are not always practical when traveling to third-world countries. We recommend our families carry cash both in American dollars and local currency. Here are some tips for traveling internationally with cash. ...
16
Apr

Take Care When Completing Your Adoption Dossier

One of the first steps in the adoption process is to gather and complete several documents that will become your dossier. Your dossier gives all the authorities involved in your adoption process a “window” to analyze your family, your home and your life. The purpose of the dossier is to show that you meet all ...
19
Mar

Top 100 Adoption-Friendly Workplaces

Would you consider your workplace to be an adoption-friendly workplace? The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption releases an annual list of 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces, in which they recognize companies that provide the best adoption benefits to their employees. The companies are ranked based on two basic requirements: the amount of financial compensation provided and ...
3
Mar

Why an Adoption Playgroup?

I remember sharing with some moms about my struggle with leaving my daughter in the nursery at church. Their response was she would be fine, just leave her, all kids go through that. I tried to explain to them that my daughter still had fears of abandonment. Additionally, the nursery looked very much like an ...
16
Jan

Investing the Adoption Tax Credit

It feels like perfect timing that the adoption tax credit arrived in my bank account right before Christmas, but ultimately my plan for the majority of it will be invested back into my child in more important ways than gifts. After paying off my adoption loan, I will be saving to ensure I can provide ...
7
Jan

What Type Of Visa Will My Internationally Adopted Child Receive?

If you are adopting a child internationally, it is likely that your child will arrive in the United States after receiving one of four types of visas. The type of visa that your child arrives home on depends on two factors. First, it depends on your child’s country of origin. Second, it depends on whether ...
19
Nov

Early Risk Factors for Sensory Deficits

Sensory issues are hard for many people to understand. You may not immediately recognize sensory issues in your child, but sensory deficits often lead to behaviors that adults find problematic. For adoptive parents, it can be confusing to recognize sensory issues and not know if they indicate prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol, lack of ...
5
Nov

Hydration, Blood Sugar, Behavior, and Learning

Physiological Strategies: Hydration/Blood Glucose Seventy-five percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated. When I teach Nutrition: Nurture, Health & Behavior, I generally admit that I am likely a part of that 75%, but when I review some of the major impacts of dehydration, I always reach for my Nalgene bottle. Proper hydration:   keeps metabolism at ...
24
Oct

Why do we have to do International Adoption Post Placement Reports?

In the past week, I have had several conversations that reinforce the significant important of post placement reports in international adoptions. My first conversations were when I was in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and talked with two of their government entities involved in the international adoption process. The Social Services department and Family Court ...
10
Sep

Six Money Saving Tips For Adoptive Families

As people consider adoption and growing their families, one big concern is its impact on the family budget. Raising children is definitely not cheap, but there are ways to reduce expenses even in larger families. There are a few basic categories where your family budget will feel the effects of additional kids — food, travel. ...
5
Aug

Why Do I Need Adoption Education?

When my family went through our first adoption, there were no adoption education requirements. We were given a list of books and it was suggested we read one or two. Eager to know all that I could, I did read one of the suggested books, Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s Craft by Mary Hopkins-Best and it ...
19
Jun

Friend and Family Donors Can Receive Tax Deduction

What an encouragement when generous family and friends want to join you on your adoption journey! However, you need to have a plan regarding the acceptance of donations. If your donors are not concerned with a tax benefit, then I suggest creating an adoption sub-account at your local bank and saving all funds raised until ...
13
May

Children’s Books About Race and Diversity

Race and ethnicity, is an issue that parents of children who were adopted internationally face daily. Often it is very obvious to children who are adopted that they do not look like the rest of their family and they may struggle with forming their individual identity. Families who have adopted internationally may receive stares or ...
6
May

Book Review: Proof of Heaven

With my work obligations, I struggle to find time to read a book for pleasure. Recently, however, one title caught my interest: Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, M.D., teased my curiosity due to the subject matter. Dr. Alexander, a neurosurgeon, describes his near death experience, while he lay in a coma for 7 days ...
30
Apr

Garage Sales As Adoption Fundraiser

My family may or may not be addicted to garage sales. We may or may not plot a “garage sale route” every Saturday morning on our GPS. We may or may not set the alarm for 6:30 and enthusiastically hit the road by 7:00, coffee and power bars in hand. So you can kind of ...
3
Apr

Education Opportunities Continued

A continued list of adoption conferences for 2013! We will continue to update the list as more conferences approach. MLJ’s Crossroads of America Adoption Conference will return to Indianapolis in 2014. Until then, here is a list of upcoming adoption conferences around the US. These conferences give adoption professionals and adoptive families a great opportunity ...
28
Mar

Education Opportunities: Adoption Conferences for 2013

Adoption education is something we take very seriously at MLJ. We are constantly learning new and important things about adoption. Our dedicated staff is always eager to learn more, and share that knowledge with others.   Before bringing your child home, MLJ provides Adoption Preparation Education to prepare families for the entire adoption journey. But ...
4
Mar

The Oppression of Women and Girls: Why You Should Care

I watched a program with my husband recently, one that we are still discussing—Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The four-hour-long compelling and often hard-to-watch documentary ran nationally (in the U.S.) and in two two-hour segments that originally aired on October 1st and 2nd 2012 (the film will be will be ...
26
Feb

Read Across America Day, Adoption Style!

March 2nd is celebrated every year as a way to inspire people to read. Read Across America Day is a great way to encourage children and young adults to stop what they’re doing and read – whether it is books or magazines, fiction or nonfiction, novels or comics. Many schools across the United States take ...
19
Feb

Bulgarian Culture in Indianapolis

More and more families that are considering international adoption are looking to the country of Bulgaria. This isn’t just happening here in Indiana, but across the United States. There are two main reasons these families consider Bulgaria: a stable, progressive process and the appeal of Bulgaria’s culture. To begin: Bulgaria has a relatively progressive standard ...
15
Feb

Iguanas In The Snow

My family often spends time in northern Minnesota during the holiday. And I mean really far up there-12 miles south of the Canadian border. We see snow here in Indiana and even have accumulation sometimes. But the fact that we are still talking about the Blizzard of ’78 tells me that as Hoosiers, we really ...
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