Beth Wise

Tag: Adoption

Dear Baby: Upside Down

Hey cutie- I think upside down is a good way to describe how you came into our life. What a whirlwind! I have a feeling that you are going to make the rest of our lives very interesting. You are just perfect. You have the sweetest fingers, the cutest ears, the funniest facial expressions. Your…
On Doing the Damn Thing

The Kid has these recurring doctor’s visits that require a parent to come up every three weeks and sit with the doctor to discuss treatment plans. I hate them. The doctor is so old that he must have been a contemporary of Moses. He shuffles in, limply shakes your hand, talks to a wall…
Whoa, Baby

This might be the weirdest baby announcement ever. Our family grew by one this week (and no, I don’t mean chickens, fish, or dogs). We became parents to the sweetest little baby with the longest eye lashes and blue eyes and a sassy left hand. We were planning on adopting again in 2016, but this,…
Shooting Nerf Guns at Moving Cars

Truth: I would not have wanted to parent my father when he was a child. He was a complete mess. As a toddler, he climbed over the fence and started to walk towards the circus. As a teenager, he rolled the car out of the garage and took it on a joy ride. He replaced…
Don’t Mother-Teresa Me, Bro

I have a confession. I have a big head. I mean, physically, as in my head is ginormous for my relatively short, apple-shaped stature. In high school band, I always had to take the walk of shame to the boy’s line to get my already nerdy marching band hat (in case you’re counting, that would…
29 for my 29th

Did you know that, in some countries, you are considered 1 year old when you are born? It’s true. Sometimes, refugee families come in to my work and they tell me that the child with the pacifier and the diaper who is barely verbal is three years old. So, then we have to get the…
The Reason I Got Pinterest

I resisted getting a pinterest account for years and I had a good reason, too. I spend an inordinate amount of time wasting my life on the internet already and I knew that Pinterest was like a great, sucking hole that would drag me down into the depths of the DIY internet for the rest of…
How to Have Your Very First Family Adventure

The local library had an amazing children’s program with live birds scheduled at 2:00 today. I’ve been talking it up all week. 1:40pm– The kid and I had gone to the dog park this morning and his shoes were dirty. So, he and Alex were out on the driveway smacking them on the concrete to get…
For the Teachers Who Rock

Dear teachers who rock, I come from a long line of excellent teachers who also rock(ed). My paternal grandfather was a Methodist minister. My maternal grandmother and aunt both taught high school English. My mom was a high school chemistry teacher. I remember spending summers up at school in her classroom, while she cleaned and…
What to Expect When We’re Expecting (a 9-Year-Old)

1. I will cry all the time at the drop of a hat. I cried at church. I cried after watching a viral video of a high school student doing a Michael Jackson dance at a pep rally. I cried in the parking lot of a homeless church. Hopefully, after I meet him, I will cry…
You Guys Make Me Feel Normal

Even though I have always wanted to adopt and I know that this is the right decision and the beginning of a great adventure, I have mourned basically throughout this entire process about the loss of being able to experience the “normal” celebratory parts of having a child. When we told people we were adopting…
Dear Child(ren): Home Base

Hey there- Finally being licensed is a little crazy. Like we look at pictures on our computer screens and think, “Could we be their parents?” and then we send our home study into the great void and hope that it will cough a “Yes” back up at some point. I don’t know how many we’ve…