Tonight I watched "The Pregnancy Pact" on Lifetime Television. With one in six teenage girls becoming pregnant before age 20, the main premise of the movie – that the expectations of pregnant teenagers seldom turn out the way…

It’s an unfortunate fact that each generation must uncover for itself: Love is a battlefield. Except for those who marry their first love, and early in life, most of us carry on our hearts the scars of broken, often ill-advised,…

This is a true story.

A supersized black kid wearing shorts and a polo shirt, carrying a plastic grocery sack, wandered aimlessly in the frigid night air.  He had run from multiple…

I rushed through the house, fixing dinner and straightening the house. The babysitter would arrive any minute, so my husband and I could attend a school fundraiser. As I swiped the bathroom mirror with a cloth, I caught my…

The word “salvage” is not a pretty one. It always involves someone making the best of an undeniably bad situation. We salvage valuables after a fire, flood, or natural disaster. The Lost and Found Family reminds us…

Call me Booster Mom. My official title remains to be seen – President, Vice President, Chief Bottle Washer and Cookie Dough Pusher. It all boils down to the same thing: For the next school year, a sizeable chunk of…

In her most recent novel, Handle with Care, Jodi Picoult explores the intimate sufferings of family life, and brings into sharp focus the unique challenges of parenting a special-needs child. It also engages the reader with questions both…

Sometimes when I speak or write about adoption, people approach me and ask me what to do when one half of a couple (usually but not always the husband) isn’t open to raising an adopted or foster child. Usually…

One day listening to a Jeff Foxworthy “You Might Be a Redneck If…” routine, it occurred to me that — just as rednecks can blissfully scratch through life without recognizing their “red-neckiness,” so many potentially wonderful foster parents could…

One of the most challenging aspects of parenting, I’ve found, is striking a balance, being “in the world, but not of it.” Certainly we want to protect our children from evil, at least until they are old enough to…