Parent Extremis

November is National Adoption Month.  Adoption is the means to which many people create a family. Adoption awareness has grown since 1976 when Michael Dukakis, then-governor of Massachusetts proclaimed Adoption Week. The idea gained popularity throughout the nation and in 1990 the week was expanded to a month in many states. Across the nation this month there will be recognition dinners, public awareness campaigns and recruitment campaigns to spotlight the large number of children who need permanent families.

This year’s theme for National Adoption Month is adopting teens from foster care.  If you are interested in adoption click here to learn about being a prospective adoption family.  There are many types of adoptions, domestic and international.  Laws and requirements vary by state.

451 Press has several blog sites dedicated specifically to adoption and foster parents.  Parenting The Adopted and Foster Parents Online.

Greetings!

I’m the new writer for Parent Extremis. I’m no more qualified to write for this site than I am to care for my own seven week old baby. So it should be a fun ride! No, really, I plan to use this site to evaluate and discuss a variety of parenting issues. I hope you will stay tuned for some potentially riveting, or at least mildly interesting discussions of all the issues I can dream up including breast versus bottle feeding, sleep issues (co-sleeping vs. crying it out), the effect of pregnancy on the family, dealing with pediatrician visits and vaccination controversy, dealing with toddlers, heading back to work, discipline methods and much more.

I recently became a stay at home mom, or a work at home mom who does some freelance writing, to Noah, born December 21, 2007. He is almost eight weeks old and I love him more than life itself. We live with my hardworking and devoted husband, Marc, four cats and a yappy little dog.

My wife has been talking about contraception with some of her friends from church. She thought she would lose them as friends simply because she pointed out that the Pill can work after conception - the birth control pill can be a form of abortion.

The assumption is that children need to be warded off, like vampires. I understand that many mothers pay for their daughter’s first prescription of birth control pills (at least, I hope it’s the first one - maybe not) as a wedding present.

Our childbirth instructor recommended a great book, an intelligent book, a thoughtful book, a funny book, about our attitude toward children, called Full Quiver by Rick and Jan Hess. They include chapters on how large families can affect elections (eventually), how many world-changing people were not the first or second born (sorry, no Beethoven for you), and what the Bible says about where babies come from.

I realized that most American couples must think that God told Charlton Heston, “Lo, because you have rebelled against me, behold, I shall send children upon the land!” But he didn’t. He said the opposite.

Amy’s Humble Musings reminds us that children are not obstacles, not even to the simple life we want.