Although the thought of travel may cause anxiety in those new to the idea, travel itself can be addictive once the practice starts.

With a taste of the wider world, I sure wanted to experience more and expand my horizons. Within the span of a couple of years I visited Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Belgium, Switzerland, France and Spain, soaking up as much as I could of the sights, sounds, smells and flavors of each country and culture.... more

With our trip to Kenya now just a week away, I'm thinking about travel in general.

In my not often humble opinion, travel is one of the best things about international adoption. Even if the travel doesn't happen for the adoption ... for some do choose to have their child escorted to their new home country ... having such an important link to another part of the world opens up the possibilities for travel at some time in the family's collective future.

I didn't grow up as an explorer of the larger world, although my dad was keen to put miles on our cars' odometers... more

After writing about malaria yesterday, some folks are wondering why anti-malairal drugs aren't already part of our daily life. After all, we're tropical and off the African coast.

Simple answer: No Anopheles mosquitos, no malaria, and we don't have the little buggers here. Yipee!

Why?

It has to do with distance, then vigilance. Back in the days before air travel,... more

We're off to Kenya in a little over a week, so it's time to think anti-malarials.

And if your international adoption journey could be taking you to any one of many countries where the Anopheles mosquito thrives, you should join me in my think.

In the way of good timing, the BBC decided to put out some info just when it would come in most handy and inspire me to visit our friendly online neighborhood CDC... more

“I love the smell of diapers in the morning!”*

(*A very different Robert Duvall in “Apoopoolypse, Now” speaking over the wail of a wet and hungry baby, a Barney sing-a-long blaring at full blast, and a never-ending loop of See n’ Say doing farm animals.)

Some people aren’t fond of kids. They may go all squishy inside at the sight of a newborn, but that’s just nausea. Sticky fingers scare folks like this and can have them avoiding contact as though melted chocolate contained a deadly virus. And diapers? Don’t even think about diapers!

My... more