Myanmar

Generational Trauma and our kids

Sprout These Days Sprout is doing remarkably well. I’ll start with school academics. She’s getting retested for speech and OT services but likely won’t need either going forward, and her father and I wholeheartedly agree with those services being dropped. While she continues to be in a 12:1:1 classroom, she’s thriving in it, and weContinue reading “Generational Trauma and our kids”

Travels with Sprout

Sprout and I have spent the last week adventuring. Sunday morning I attended the memorial service for my beloved friend, bonus father figure, Buddhist Monk, and author Terrence Keenan. It was at Hoenji, which is the Zen Center of Syracuse. After the service was over my husband and Sprout joined the gathering for lunch, andContinue reading “Travels with Sprout”

Hidden Burma

Today we had a visit with Sunny and Sprout’s family. Instead of being cooped up in an apartment they suggested we meet at a park nearby. It was a gorgeous day, so why not? We put the address they gave us in the GPS, then got spectacularly lost. Eventually Sunny saw something she recognized andContinue reading “Hidden Burma”

The Exhaustion of Being Othered

I just started a book this morning. I’m 1/4 of the way through it and can barely put it down. I didn’t expect to feel this way about it. I picked it up because there are so few books about Burma/Myanmar or written by authors from there, and I want to understand more about myContinue reading “The Exhaustion of Being Othered”

It’s a Birthday. Brace for Impact.

Birthdays for foster kids can be unexpectedly full of strange emotions and events. It’s Sunny’s 9th birthday today, and she’s suuuuper excited. For one thing, her family didn’t really celebrate birthdays so this is an exciting new “English” (non-Muslim) tradition for her. For another, like all kids, she wants to be the center of attentionContinue reading “It’s a Birthday. Brace for Impact.”

Religion is Tricky

The Backstory I was raised Catholic. Seth was raised intermittently Pentecostal – i.e. Pentecostal when his parents weren’t getting kicked out of churches for pushing limits. We both walked away from our childhoods abhorring organized religion and its exclusivity. About 22 years later, when Kiddo had been with us for about 6 months, we realizedContinue reading “Religion is Tricky”

Food Fights

One of the many challenges of foster parenting revolves around food. It’s an exhausting problem because there’s no escaping it – we all need to eat multiple times a day. When kids first come to us I make it clear they can ALWAYS have a snack from a particular tray in the pantry. It’s currentlyContinue reading “Food Fights”

Valentine’s Day Excursion

A dear friend of Seth’s and mine, who we actually met because she was PB&J’s therapist, offered to come play with Tiny while Seth and I went out for a (*gasp*) actual date! It all turned out pretty classic, for us. Seth and I went to the new Salt City Market, which we’ve been dyingContinue reading “Valentine’s Day Excursion”

Tiny’s Tale

Tiny’s transformation with us has been pretty amazing. When she came to us she was literally starving to death. She wasn’t eating or drinking, and at almost 2 years old she weighed only 15 lbs. We now believe she’s a Little Person which accounts for how small her frame is, but she was still soContinue reading “Tiny’s Tale”