Thanks to Holly Richardson, I now know that breastfeeding is recommended for HIV positive women in many parts of the world. As Dr Hoosen Coovadia, a pediatrician in South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal, told the 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, instructing HIV-infected mothers in developing nations to breast-feed would result... more

I normally post "Love Thursday" blogs on the Older Parent page, since I write that, too. Today, however, something strange is going on and that site won't let me in. Boo hoo, and drat! That being the case, this week's Love Thursday is going International, which is fine and dandy because it is ... international, I mean ... Chamroeun Jada & Vathana

This is not a photo of great love. In fact, Cj's face shows that it's barely even... more

Continued from the previous post. Pioneers they were, the Dosses, but still victims of their times. This bit of conversation between two of the Doss kids is typical of 50's thinking.

“I’m going to be a minister and have babies,” Laurie chanted, as she pushed by with her doll buggy.

“Girls aren’t ministers,” Donny decreed. “Would you like to marry a minister and have little... more

With international adoption being the headline-grabbing topic it is today, and half the known world assuming that it's a new-fangled idea that's taken a gaggle of celebs to bring to the fore, it seems a good time for a history lesson. Do the name "Doss" ring a bell?

Fifty plus years ago, Carl and Helen Doss were Mom and Dad to "The Family Nobody Wanted" ... although just about everybody did. The Dosses were the hottest thing since Buckey Beaver started touting Ipanna. (If you don't get the reference, you're too young to read my ... more

While flying from Singapore to Phnom Penh to pick up our son Sam in 2003, Mark and I had our Scrabble game interrupted by a pleasant young man in the next seat. I'm chatty by nature, so more than happy to share airplane conversation with this complete stranger, to hear a condensed history from him and give a quick run-down on us.

Him: David, French Canadian photographer/writer, married father of one nine-year old son, traveling with a friend to Cambodia for the first time to visit the daughter of the friend.

Us: On our first trip to Cambodia, going to an orphanage... more

Cambodian history is extremely rich, and not like that of any other country. From grand to gruesome, from cultural birth to mass death, there is nothing average or commonplace about its past. The temples at Ankor Wat are testament to a culture as ancient and venerable as that of the Aztecs and the basis for much of what is now considered Thai. Toul Sleng, the Genocide Museum, illustrates far too graphically the modern history of the country.

Given... more

Sam and Cj are international in just about every way possible: born in Cambodia, being raised in Seychelles, citizens of Great Britain and eventually the USA, they can claim affinity in many directions and will have choices upon choices when older for education, work and life.

Their British passports are actually European, so they will be allowed to live and work in any EU country. Procedures for processing their US documents have to wait until we go there again ... possibly next year if we can take the thought of thirty-six hours of travel with little kids ... and will... more

This little boy is not in prison, but he may as well be. He's committed no crime other than being born in Cambodia to someone who couldn't or wouldn't care for him. He now lives in the Asian Orphans Association home just outside Phnom Penh and has about zero chance of being adopted.

As I write, more than four years have passed since the USA suspended adoptions from Cambodia. The UK followed suit last year and some other European countries have also made it impossible for residents to bring Cambodian children into their families.

To say that the issue of Cambodian... more

I was over on the Reactive Attachment Disorders blog and Nancy’s post on infants got me thinking of just how amazingly lucky we have been. (Thank you, Nancy!)

Sam and Cj were born in Cambodia and came to us through Asian Orphans Association, Sam in 2003 and Cj in July of last year. AOA, like most of Cambodia, struggles and survives on a shoe string. Very little money must go a long way, and they manage somehow to house and feed on the average of one hundred children day in and day out. Since a suspension on Cambodian adoptions was imposed by the US, the UK and a couple of other European countries, things are harder … much harder.

Nonetheless, the children are fed, clothed,... more