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 I…

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 be…

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 recognize…

I recently learned that one friend of mine is getting divorced after ten years of marriage and another dear friend is hanging onto her second marriage by a slim thread. Both of these women are loving, nurturing individuals and wonderful…

Now that the election is over, one of the most chilling prospects of the future administration is the president-elect’s determination to sign the “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA). The implications of this — both financial and moral — are staggering,…

Watching Shadowlands with my husband one evening, I was struck by a line in the marriage vows of C.S. Lewis and American poet Joy Davidman: “With my body, I thee worship.” It was the declaration of a man and woman,…

I recently came across this article from ABC News (http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=9163584&nav=menu554_2_3), about an adoptive mother who has been sentenced to fifteen years in prison for the March 2008 death of her 14-month-old son, who had Down syndrome. The family had adopted little…

“How did you and your husband decide to become foster parents?” It’s a question people frequently ask me when they discover we foster-adopted our two children. Most often, their tone indicates that we have done something extraordinary, even heroic.

In reality,…

My birthday present to myself this year was a membership to Curves. I love their approach — 30 minutes (twice around a preset circuit), three times a week, in an environment where there are no oglers or “Barbie” types, decent…

The late, great Pope John Paul II proclaimed the family the “domestic church.” Within the loving embrace of family, strengthened by the sacraments of the Church and guided by her teachings, we receive the graces we need to make it…