making the world a better place

GUEST BLOG: Making a Difference in Your World and a Child’s World Through Adoption

Submitted by GuestBlogger on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 09:15

Snafu Suz has blogged for us in the past and after she “disappeared” from the face of the earth temporarily, I finally found her and voila, here is an update on her life and the adoption of her two children. 

Susan Metters (aka Snafu Suz) is a 40-something writer, cancer survivor, and adoptive mom. She and her husband were in the process of adopting two children through the foster system [the last time she blogged for us]. First-time parents, they found themselves going from zero to sixty at lightning speed when they brought a 5-year old boy and an 8-year old girl into their lives. Admittedly, Susan is completely winging the mom thing and parenting by the seat of her pants. You can read about Susan’s life adventures by visiting her two Seattle PI blogs: Lemon Margaritas and Adoption Adventures. Her adoption blog can also be found at SeattleMomBlogs.com.

Riding Out The Storm

Things have been getting rough lately. Really rough. And I mean really really.

The week before last started out with five meltdowns in two days. Five! In two days! The kids, of course, not me. Although by the fifth one I swear I nearly had a meltdown myself.) Then we had a couple of good days with some drama and at least one more meltdown sprinkled in. Then we topped the week off with a sibling spat that ended in a split lip, one kid screaming bloody murder, the other one swearing it wasn't their fault, and two frazzled parents at their wits end.

This past week has been only slightly better. Seems like at least one of the kids has a tantrum or meltdown at least every other day. And the fighting between the two of them is an every day occurrence.

GUEST BLOG: Making a Difference in Your World and a Child’s World Through Adoption

Submitted by GuestBlogger on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 11:13

Snafu Suz has blogged for us in the past and after she “disappeared” from the face of the earth temporarily, I finally found her and voila, here is an update on her life and the adoption of her two children. 

Susan Metters (aka, Snafu Suz) is a 40-something writer, cancer survivor, and adoptive mom. She and her husband were in the process of adopting two children through the foster system [the last time she blogged for us]. First-time parents, they found themselves going from zero to sixty at lightning speed when they brought a 5-year old boy and an 8-year old girl into their lives. Admittedly, Susan is completely winging the mom thing and parenting by the seat of her pants. You can read about Susan’s life adventures by visiting her two Seattle PI blogs: Lemon Margaritas and Adoption Adventures. Her adoption blog can also be found at SeattleMomBlogs.com.

Zero to Sixty

I bet by now you've started thinking I've dropped off the face of the earth. I haven't, although my world has turned upside down.

After 5 months of waiting and wondering (which in the adoption world actually isn't that long), we found our children. We're parents! YIKES!

We first received info about them from our agency on July 14th; an 8-year old girl and 5-year old boy. (C'mon, admit it. You're relieved we didn't end up with 3 kids.) Their social worker had read our home study report and asked about us specifically, wanting to know if we might be interested. Their description sounded good (and as an added bonus their pictures were pretty cute), so we said yes, we were interested in more info. Our agency sent along a summary of their foster files.

Now we didn't think much of it right then. We'd gotten to that point with other children several times and they didn't pan out for various reasons. So having a social worker interested in us and getting to read a foster summary didn't necessarily mean anything would come of it.

But then we read their summaries. There wasn't anything that jumped out at us as something we couldn't (or weren't willing) to deal with. They sounded like good kids who had been dealt a bad hand. And with a bit of curious wonderment we looked at each other. Could these be our kids?

We called our agency and said we were still interested, and from there things started accelerating much more quickly than expected. We talked to their social worker and then their current foster mom, and before we knew it we were driving 3-hours from home to meet them.

Making the World a Better Place

Submitted by LisaS on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 09:15

I’m starting a new series on Adoption Under One Roof, called “Making the World a Better Place.” An eternal optimist, I’m convinced that each and every one of us can make a difference in the world or in someone's life. So in this series I’m going to focus on people who have done just that, but not made the front pages of the newspaper or been interviewed by Oprah.

I’m going to start with the contributions of one humble but highly energetic and kind hearted young woman. Tricia is a wife and mother to two precious daughters, one of whom was adopted from Guatemala. Not unlike many of us who adopted a child from Guatemala, Tricia adopted the country of Guatemala as well. 

Devoted to her children and her husband as well as handling a full time job, Tricia started making a difference in the lives of children in Guatemala. On her website  “Sisterly Shenanigans,” she told her readers about sponsoring children in Guatemala who could not afford to attend school. Within a short time readers had donated enough money to sponsor four little girls so they could obtain an education in a country where illiteracy among the poor, especially  girls  (52.9% of the female population over age 15 is illiterate) is tragically high. 

Adopt, Change the World or Both

Submitted by LisaS on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 20:02

 

143,000,000. That is the number of documented orphans worldwide, so probably a conservative estimate.

Anti-adoption rhetoric, particularly concerning intercountry adoption, claims that the money we spend adopting (often up to $30,000+- for services to adopt one child) would be better spent on the families  that are placing children for adoption, so the children could remain with their birth parents.

Here is the inherent weakness in that theory:

1.    Poverty is not the sole reason children are placed for adoption, even in third world countries. Rape, incest, pregnancy out of wedlock, no desire to raise another child, no access to birth control or safe abortion are some others.

2.    Giving money to needy families without simultaneously making dramatic changes in the social, economical, geographical and political fabric of the area they live in is just a short term fix with no long term effect.

3.    Without education, equal rights, and the ability to control the number of pregnancies they have, women are powerless and will continue to give birth to children they cannot care for. The birth rate in Guatemala, for example, is one of the highest in the world.

4.    Throwing money at a problem does not work. Pockets of the corrupt are often fattened by donations, and even though trillions have gone to third world countries from the U.S. alone – the results are minimal in some of the most destitute of areas.

5.   Should the existing orphans, who have no families at this point, have to suffer their whole lives (if they survive beyond childhood) because someday, maybe in another generation or two, life will improve in their country, or because UNICEF and other "well meaning" organizations have decided that they are better off starving and destitute in their own countries? That is sheer arrogance in my opinion.