Reading Weekend

I spent this weekend relaxing with some books. It's cold outside, and we've been so busy with the adoption paperchase and getting ready for our home visit that it was so nice just to stay in this weekend with Kevin. Here's the books I tackled and my reviews of each... along with some rice crackers from one of the Asian grocery stores we visited and some green tea.

1) Cross Cultural Adoption: How To Answer Questions from Family, Friends & Community
I liked the first half of this book because it was easy to read and focused on positive adoption language. The second half discussed adoptions from the most popular countries (China, Guatemala, Russia, etc.) and that wasn't what I was looking for at all.

2) Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life
This book wasn't so helpful for me as I realized that I have a pretty well behaved dog, but I can see where other families' dogs would have a long way to go to be prepared to bring a child home. Some of the examples seem pretty far fetched, like a couple that bought a baby doll to get a dog used to having a baby around. But, the dad played tug of war with the dog using the baby. Then when baby came home and was left along with the dog for a few minutes, the dog mauled the baby. I think Sedona just has one thing to work on before baby comes home. When we lay down on the floor with her, she thinks that we're doing it just to play with her. She runs over and jumps on us, licks us, and brings her toys to us. She needs to work on leaving people laying on the floor alone unless they invite her to play.

3) Lonely Planet Taiwan
Basic travel guide book. How are we ever going to decide what to visit when we're in Taiwan? There's so much to see! We'll need to be there for a minimum of 5 days for the adoption, but as long as we're flying half way around the world, we should really take 3-5 days just to experience the place and people. That way as Hannah grows up we can say, "Well, when we were in Taiwan we saw...."

4) Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents
This book is supposed to be THE book about attachment parenting in adoption. Our homestudy case worker got really excited when she saw this book on my bookshelf and went on how it's THE book. I know that this stuff is important, but it reads like a university text book. Zzzzzzz. Need coffee! Can't stay awake! I only got through the first chapter and had to stop and take a break. Then I skipped into the back that talks about the steps of attachment. I read up on step 1 and 2. Attachment takes years, so I guess what I read covers the first few. Well, at least this a start and the book will serve as a reference later.

Kevin picked up our documents from our doctor's office Friday afternoon that we need to send to the homestudy agency and adoption agency that show that we're healthy enough to be parents (no HIV, hepatitis, TB, etc.) I'll mail them out tomorrow morning before going to work.