Creativity abounds and other things…

It never fails. As soon as you turn the kaleidoscope a smidge, suddenly opportunities abound. My two fun writing assignments have led to two other opportunities, neither of which I sought out. I also have been asked by a friend to design a Web site for her (she knows my skills in this area are rudimentary right now, but I’m trying to get better and she needs it done for free, so this is a good exchange for both of us). 

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We have infertility insurance coverage again! Or, we will as of Jan. 1, 2009. Mr. SingLikeSassy’s employer offered some coverage so we moved over to his plan. This is better than great news because we are planning to do another full IVF cycle in a couple of months, and our savings got hit with the market drop. 

We were on my insurance because when we got married Mr. SLS was part-time with the school district and my employer had cheap rates and some excellent infertility coverage so it made sense. When I changed jobs earlier this year, Mr. SLS had just returned to full-time status so it made sense to just let me continue to cover us, even though my current employer offers no infertility coverage AND the premiums are high, though I am grateful in this economic downturn to have health insurance. I also am grateful we had sufficient savings that we could pay out of pocket for our last procedure. 

But I am especially grateful that we explored all of our options during this open season as shifting to his insurance saves us some money on the premiums as it costs him less than half of what it cost me to insure us (I pay more than $500/mth for both of us) and we get the added benefit of infertility coverage.

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My friend is adopting her foster son!! He’s such a sweet kid, she’s had him since he was 4 (he’s 6 now), his mom can’t get it together and wants my friend to adopt him because she sees how well he is taken care of and how much he is loved. 

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Interesting story about multiracial adoptions…

Study of ’94 Adoption Law Finds Little Benefit to Blacks

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 27, 2008; Page A02

A 1994 federal law that paved the way for more white adults to adopt black children has left many parents ill-equipped for the situation and has not achieved the goals of giving black children an equal chance of being adopted and recruiting more black adoptive parents, a study concludes.

The study, being released today, found that the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) did succeed in increasing the rate of black adoptions, but only by a small margin, and that black children still disproportionately end up in temporary foster homes.

Because the law forbids discussion of race during the adoption process, it prevents social workers from preparing white parents for the challenge of raising black children in a largely white environment, said the report, titled “Finding Families for African American Children: The Role of Race and Law in Adoption From Foster Care.” It cited studies showing that dark-complexioned children in white homes tend to struggle with identity issues related to skin color, self-esteem and discrimination that their new parents are often not equipped to handle.

You can read the full story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/26/AR2008052601837.html

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My thoughts on this:

I think this is interesting because in my casual research about adoption I’ve found that many of the black children are special needs. I wonder if that has more of an impact — people not willing to take on children with emotional or physical problems — moreso than any race issue.

Also, I have a friend who is a foster mom and she can’t afford to adopt her foster kid. She’s trying to figure out what to do as she’s raised this child for a year now — he’s the best kid — and she can’t imagine him being in the foster care system and how that might affect him.

How about you, would you adopt a child of a different race and/or a special needs child? Would you be a foster parent?

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/SingLikeSassy