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Adoption. Is. Trauma.

I got a note from Sprout’s teacher on Friday saying Sprout had a rough week. She refused to do her work unless an adult helped her (she is in a 12:1:1 classroom so that help is thankfully available). She was sometimes uncooperative. And the work she did do was not her best. Let me startContinue reading “Adoption. Is. Trauma.”

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”

Brown skin is beautiful, but my kid doesn’t believe it.

My gorgeous brown-skinned Asian kid just told me she wishes she had white skin because “it’s prettier.” My heart broke. It’s something I heard before from Kiddo when she was about 4. I asked Sprout why she thought white skin is prettier, and she said “all the pictures are of pretty white-skinned girls.” This kidContinue reading “Brown skin is beautiful, but my kid doesn’t believe it.”

Food Insecurity Fallout

Sunny has taken to complaining that we have too much food in the house. It’s making me think about childhood food insecurity and how much it messes with people. Sunny grew up food insecure for her first 8 years. Her pantry was always absolutely bare except for bulk bags of rice. Everything else was purchasedContinue reading “Food Insecurity Fallout”

Acting up in public

Last weekend my husband was working, but I fearlessly plowed ahead and took Sunny and Sprout to the Finger Lakes Chapter of Little People of America’s holiday party. Let me start this by praising this organization. I’ve written about them before regarding a baseball game we took the girls to during the summer. Being surroundedContinue reading “Acting up in public”

Hair Day Catchup

I’m sitting with Kiddo as she gets her hair braided professionally by a Black woman for the first time. I screwed up to start with by not buying enough hair for braiding in, and Seth had to rescue us by going to the store to buy more. But aside from that glitch, it’s going great!Continue reading “Hair Day Catchup”

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”

Gorgeous Brown-Skinned Girls

Yesterday, I prepared everyone for the parade by demanding they apply sunscreen in case we were facing 3 hours of unabated sun. It didn’t go well. I had picked up a spray-on sunscreen by Babyganics, but dayum. It’s the most whitening mineral sunscreen I’ve ever applied. I put it on myself which was fine. NoContinue reading “Gorgeous Brown-Skinned Girls”

The System is Broken

I hear this phrase all the time. Hell, I use this phrase all the time. But what do I mean by it? My short answer to people is always about overloaded and underpaid case workers, but there is so much more to it than that. It’s corrupt judges, state laws that discriminate against families withContinue reading “The System is Broken”