Want to get your kids outside in the fresh autumn air, but aren’t quite sure how to coax them away from the lure of computers, video games and DVD’s? How about having a nature scavenger hunt with them? Kids love finding things, they love games, they love hunting as well as collecting so getting them involved with nature will be a breeze once you make it a mission for them to complete!

Save your egg cartons to use for the hunt, either one per child, or one per team. Then select twelve different items that your children should go out and look for, these can be specific items like a stone, or a twig, or you can get a little more creative by giving your child(ren) categories instead of specific items, like something soft, red, old, delicate, and so forth.

Dear Adoption Maharishi,

My husband and I have been married for ten years. I am 49 and he is 52. We didn’t want to have children up until now, but have recently decided that we would like to adopt a toddler from Ethiopia. Some of our family members and closest friends we have confided in have told us that we are too old to start. We feel that we have the energy and desire to parent, what do you think?

Confused

Dear Confused,

As a 55 year old parenting a toddler, I’m going to tell you right off the bat that you are not too old to parent. If you are in relatively good health, energetic, and don’t mind giving up on sleep and free time for several years, you are good to go. I’ve known people who have adopted children well into their sixties as well as people who are fostering children at those ages as well.

The phone rang absurdly early on Monday morning. I waited for the Caller ID to identify who would be calling at 7:00 a.m. When I saw who it was, I said to myself, “Oh, that’s Y,” and picked up the phone. My adopted child heard what I said and thought that I said T instead of Y. T is my adopted child’s birthmother.

We had a semi-open adoption with T. She asked for pictures and letters every other month for the first year and then twice a year thereafter. We followed through with our end of the agreement.

Unfortunately, when my adopted child was three years old, T moved away and left no forwarding address, which effectively closed our adoption.

Just how bad can life be with an adopted traumatized child? After all, it is just a child, right? For most people a picture comes to mind of a sweet cuddly child, who is just looking for love, understanding, and positive reinforcement. With enough love, any child can be turned around. Those people who fail, they just do not try hard enough or they are just too critical. Before I began more than a decade of foster care, I might have said these things myself. Before I began fostering older children, I believed these things myself. After years of attending support group meetings, providing respite care to desperate parents, and mentoring foster, and adoptive parents I know a different truth. If you have not parented a child like this, then you have no clue what it can be like living 24/7 in the same house. I bring this up because of the recent abandonments of teenagers in Nebraska. 

I belong to a yahoo group for parents who live with children exposed to alcohol before birth. Without giving too much information, I would like to share some pieces of a recent plea made on the group for help. This is an extreme situation involving a very young child. Many will have trouble believing a child so young is capable of such extreme behavior. I am sure that is why this mother is having so much trouble getting the help for her child even though she has been begging for help. Even her husband is doubtful. Apparently, the child does not misbehave when Daddy is present.

Take Hormones: Oestrogen, Progesterone, This works well for those who have been matched at least three to four months before the baby is due. Adding Domperidone can help to stimulate more milk production. While these drugs can help to stimulate your milk flow, as always stay under the care of a doctor, as all medications carry certain risks when taken.

Pump: Rent or buy a good breast pump. A duel pump lets you get twice the work done in half the time, the more stimulation that your nipples get, the more signals will be sent to your brain saying ‘we need to produce more milk!’ Pump as often as you can handle, but keep in mind you will most likely have to build up your pumping sessions over time as your body becomes accustom to it.

Go Natural: There are plenty of natural herbs that claim to help with inducing breast milk, Anise Seed, Fenugreek, Goats Rue, Hops, Milk Thistle, Nettle Leaf, Red Raspberry Leave, and Shatavari are all supposed to help with the production of breast milk.

**Update -- A reader told me that the video link was not working. I have fixed the issue. You can now view the video **

I recently posted a powerful video on organized pedophilia. I don’t know how many of you have watched it, but I cannot get through it without tearing up.

The same person has put together a shorter video (under four minutes long) on dissociation and dissociative identity disorder (DID). If you are parenting a traumatized adopted child, you need to watch this video. It will help you understand how your adopted child’s mind works.

The video is intended for people who do not understand DID and dissociation. The video is not graphic, so you do not need to worry about having horrible sights burned into your brain.

Please let me know what you think. Does this help you understand DID and dissociation a little better?

Birthmothersunite is a wonderful resource for mothers of children being raised by adoptive parents. The founder of the site a reunited birth mother herself, Lucy Franklin C.P.A.C, has dedicated more than 23 years of her own life to helping both birth mothers as well as adoptees during their life long journey of adoption.

The site is packed full of resources for both birth mothers, as well as those who are pregnant and considering adoption. If you are looking for support, you can find a birth parents support group that meets near you, you can check out the Birthmother’s Survival Kit, read through some adoption poetry, strike up a conversation in the chat room, or stop by Lucy’s Corner and learn the inside tips on what Lucy has learned about reunion.

In the autumn, our state is absolutely beautiful. We have so many species of trees that the colors of the changing leaves are varied and breathtaking. So given all the natural delights around us this time of year, I packed a picnic lunch the other day and took my energetic daughter to a state park. I'm embarrassed to say that she had not been there yet; it was long overdue. Where has the time gone since I brought her home from Guatemala?

Linny and her husband have adopted several times: Internationally; through the foster/adopt system; and transracially through domestic adoption. (Five infants, three older child adoptions)They have known the joys and disappointments of adoption, having placed one child into residential (with no help from the state system) ; reversing/dissolving another adoption, and having one child re-adopted. She and her husband have three little ones at home now and are hoping to adopt one more.

I recently responded to a blog concerning the controversy over the Nebraska safe-haven law and what the state systems consider 'abandonment'. I'd like to take a moment to give a perspective of what it can be like to deal with older adopted children who choose (or cannot) change their behaviors in order to live in a safe traditional home. 

Children are so funny. Their antics can keep a parent laughing most of the day if you run everything they do and say through your sense of humor. I work every Saturday for about nine hours. Saturday, one of our sons turned nine years old. About 10am, he called me on my cell phone. I put it on speaker so that my coworkers could overhear the conversation because I figured it was something about his birthday. He definitely did not disappoint me. My two coworkers got as good a chuckle as I did.

“Hello, is this a birthday boy calling?”