Lots of Reading Time...

Well, the CCAA only referred through 11-30-05 with this most recent batch...very disappointing. I'm sick of telling people, "another six months", but that is what is happening. There are 46 days of LID's in front of me, so if they continue to refer only 5-6 days at a time...you do the math!! My only hope is that with December being about 60% as large as November, we'll see more days being referred. We will learn alot depending on how December goes.

In the mean time, I've been doing alot of reading over the past two years. That has been one blessing with the extended wait. I try to alternate between adoption themed books, baby/toddler development books and China history/novels. I've learned alot! Probably the most profound thing I've learned, has nothing to do with adoption, but with Chinese culture and history under General Mao Zedong in the 1950's-1970's. The authors of two of these books are only about five years older than me, and to read about their childhood is unbelieveable. I watched an interview by the novelist, Anchee Min, and she recalls being told as a child to eat all the food on her plate because all the starving children in America would be happy to have her food!!

Here is the list of what I've read so far:

Adoption Related:

1. Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections (J. MacLeod,
S. Macrae)
2. Attaching in Adoption (D Gray)
3. The Out-Of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder
(C.Kranowitz)
4. The Post-Adoption Blues (K. Foli, J. Thompson)
5. Adoptive Parenting from the Groud Up (K. Sharp)


Chinese Adoption Related:

1. A Passage To The Heart (A. Klatzkin)
2. Finding Happiness: Single Mothers Share Their Chinese Adoption Stories (OCDF)
3. New American Families: Chinese Daughters and Their Single Mothers (OCDF)
4. Wanting A Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandoment, Adoption and Orphage Care
in China (K. Johnson)
5. The Lost Daughters of China (K. Evans)
6. ...And Baby Makes Two (J. Sheehan)


Baby/Toddler Development Related: Need to focus more on this!!

1. What To Expect: The Toddler Years (Eisenberg, Murkoff, Hathaway)

China History/Novels:

1. Wild Swans (J. Chung)....Highly recommend this one!
2. Red Azalea (A. Min)
3. Forever Lily (B. Russell)
4. Snow Flower and The Secret Fan (L. See)

And there's still more to read!!