Traditional gifts are chocolate but girls don’t have to give the gifts, boys do. Sounds right, eh?

Want help with the Cyrilic text for a card?  I ftranslated this online for you.

Счастливое Valentine’ день s. с влюбленностью и поцелуями

Post from: Blisstree

How To: A Russian Valentine

It is important to take into consideration your child’s medical circumstances, health history, early care, current nutrition, genetic heritage (if available), and emotional trauma. Sometimes, however, children may no make significant progress and parents will need to look at parasites and allergies, both of which AJ has.

Use these Vietnamese and Asian growth charts to see the percentages for your child. There are also China charts.

Post from: Blisstree

Asian Growth Charts for Adoptive Children

Now, for a great Christmas gift for the grandparents have your children make them. The most detailed site that I have come across is LearnPysanky.com and a more simple version is The Ukranian Easter Egg. Both have great information on how kids can create a beautiful gift.

photo courtesy of stock.xchnge.com

Post from: Blisstree

How To: Ukranian and Russian Faberge Eggs

Our judge has requested additional paperwork: a home study update on two specific lines on our faults. He wants them clarified and explained in detail to make sure he knows that we are psychologically sound. I do think that this is a step in the right direction with all that is going on in Russia…extra screening by the judges.

But…kind of stinks that it has to start with us.

Post from: Blisstree

Judge’s Request

“Good news is that court is on the 22nd!!!!! Bad news is that we have the tough Judge!”
All smiles today!
Marcie

Post from: Blisstree

The Tough Judge

African, Caucasian, Chinese, Guatemalan, Vietnamese, Korean, Ethiopian, Nepalese, Russian, Ukrainian, Haitian, Kazak, and more…

Race always matters, right?

But in adoption race matters more, especially when parents adopt children of another race. Should adoption agencies be allowed to discriminate by race or even a couple’s racial preference? I know that when we filled out our Home Study papers we were asked to also fill out a questionnaire indicating what children we were comfortable accepting in our home.

But, according to the law since 1996 it has been illegal to consider race when determining whether or not families are able to raise adopted children. That particular law was intended to increase the amount of black children adopted.

Has that happened? No.

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute recently conducted a study on transracial adoptions that indicates that race should be a factor in adoption placement and that agencies should be allowed to screen “non-black” families for their “ability to teach self esteem and defense against racism or for their level of interaction with other black people”. The authors’ recommendations reflect the findings that transracial adoptees report struggling to fit in with their peers, their communities and even with their own families. The study also says that minority children adopted by white parents are likely to express a desire to be white, and black transracial adoptees have higher rates of behavioral problems than Asian or Native American children adopted transracially; they also exhibit more problems than biracial or white adoptees, or the biological children of adoptive parents.

All good on paper and great in statistics (but provisions have not been adequately enforced…like recruiting same race adoptive parents?) but is it better to leave children in foster care or hopping from one foster care home to another than to give them a permanent home? The problem then lies in the support adoptive parents are given but that just may be my opinion (or is it?)

Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute makes a fine point regarding transracial adoption when it actually defines the term: Transracial adoption – defined as occurring when a child’s race/ethnicity is different from that of both parents when a couple adopts, or from that of a single parent when only one adopts – adds an additional layer of complexity to the issues faced by many adoptive families. While transracial adoptions can provide much-needed homes for boys and girls who may not otherwise have them, it is important to address the potential challenges in this growing practice in order to best serve everyone involved, especially the children.

Do we, as parents learn to be color blind? Do we become immune to the pure and simple fact that our children are a different color or do we just tune it out, making choices every day to ignore the looks, grimaces, and comments people make about us and our children?

Should we be colorblind because we love our children or should we recognize that children need to be with their own race to have a more fulfilling life?

This is hard for me because one of my sons is Caucasian/Russian and another is/will be Guatemalan. There will be an obvious difference between the two and some bystanders may only recognize that Gus is adopted. In our community there are plenty of Hispanic and South Americans so Gus will have access to a part of his culture. In fact, several Hispanic community members have already told us they are very excited that he is joining our family.

Several leading welfare groups are now calling for an overhaul of the federal laws that were put into place in 1996 to create the so called “color blind” system that created so many white-parent/black-children families. The recommendations can be found in the report by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute (but the key revision is to prohibit race from being taken into consideration about adoption from foster care, meaning race is a factor when selecting parents).

So, hypothetically, if a white couple wants to adopt a black baby and race is now a factor…that couple can not adopt that child until (or if) a black couple does or does not come forward, right?

Detroit Free Press 

 NPR

 Washington Post

Time

Post from: Blisstree

Should Race Matter?

The patronymic is formed by taking the father’s first name and adding a -vich if one is male and -yevna, -ovna or -ichna if one is female. For masculine names ending in a vowel, the ending changes to -ich or -inichna. The patronymic is the official part of the name.

For example, if a father’s name is Viktor, the son’s patronymic will be Viktorevich and I believe that the daughter’s name will be Viktoryevna (but correct me if I am wrong, please).

According to this format my patronymic would be Jamesovna.

What is yours?

Post from: Blisstree

How to Create a Russian Patronymic

Now, I know all the transracial adoption experts say that these kinds of dolls are not authentic (obviously they don’t look Spanish or Guatemalan or even Asian) but sometimes in our sheltered lives we have to do the best we can with what we have. And if this is the only way on an every day basis that we can give a toddler access to hearing some Spanish or Chinese language than I say try it.

However, we do have an obligation as adoptive parents to make an effort to give our children part of their heritage.

Ling Speaks Chinese Doll

Lizzie Speaks Spanish Doll

Ricky Speaks Spanish Doll

Jolie Speaks French Doll

Sophie Speaks Italian Doll,

Sophie Speaks Italian Doll,

Emma Speaks German Doll,

Anna Speaks Russian Doll,

Yumi Speaks Japanese Doll

Post from: Blisstree

Multicultural Monday: Language Littles

2 small red cabbages, quartered
1 onion, peeled and sliced thin
6 McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 cups chicken stockPlace cabbage, onions, and apples into a baking pan. In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and chicken stock. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour the liquid over the cabbage mixture. Cover and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour, until cabbage is soft.

Post from: Blisstree

Braised Red Cabbage and Apples, Russian Christmas Recipe

Chocolate Babka Recipe

Sponge:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 ounces cake yeast
2 cups warm milk

Dough:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
10 egg yolks
2 eggs
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour, as needed
1/2 cup butter, clarified

Filling:
14 ounces almond paste
5 egg whites
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Make the sponge: Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, and warm milk; then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature 1 hour.Make the dough: In bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together the sugar, vanilla, salt, egg yolks and eggs until well blended. Fit the mixer with a dough hook, add the flour and sponge, and mix until combined; then drizzle in the butter. Mix with the dough hook until incorporated.

Place it in a greased bowl, covered, and let it rest and rise until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and mix together the almond paste, egg whites, and butter. Add the chocolate and mix until combined.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly flour a work surface, turn out the dough and punch it down to release the built up gases. Divide the dough in 1/2. Cover 1 piece with a damp towel as you roll the other
piece into a rectangle 8 by 14 inches and 1/4-inch thick. Let the dough rest while you roll the other out. Spread each with 1/2 of the filling, then roll them up jellyroll style and pinch the seams to seal them. Flatten the dough slightly with a rolling pin, then twist the dough 6 to 8 times. Allow the dough to rest a few minutes. Make spirals with the dough and place them in 2 greased 8-inch cake pans. (Alternatively, lay the dough straight out in 2 greased tube pans.) Cover each pan with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, about 30 to 60 minutes.

Bake the cakes for 45 minutes; then let cool in the pan.

Post from: Blisstree

Chocolate Babka Recipe, Russian Christmas