I read a very disturbing Newsweek article called When Adoption Goes Wrong. I wrestled with whether to write about it but concluded that this is information that hopeful adoptive parents need to know about to protect themselves.

The article begins with a story about an adoptive mother who beat her adoptive two-year-old child to death. (Can you see why I hesitated to write about this?) While there is no justification for what this adoptive mother did, hopeful adoptive parents can benefit from reading... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

I am a "by the book" kind of person. When we adopted our greyhound, I studied the advice that the rescue provided for the first few weeks, and I followed them to the letter. Meanwhile, my husband would much rather... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

When we adopted our greyhound, the rescue told us he might grieve his old life for the first few days or weeks. The dog might not have much of an appetite for the first couple of days. He might also cry or... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

When we adopted our greyhound, the rescue told us that there are some things that are different about greyhounds that we needed to respect before adopting one. For example, greyhounds must live indoors.... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

I have owned many dogs throughout my life, and I raised the vast majority from puppies. I would choose a really cute puppy, give him lots of love, and watch him grow into a full-grown dog. Along the way, I... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

I have owned one or more dogs at a time for most of my life, and I have taken all of them out for walks on a leash at one time or another. While I might get the occasional "He's cute" comment, none of those... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

As I mentioned in my last post, the greyhound rescue strongly encouraged us to keep the dog on a leash for the first... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

In my last post, Dog's Eye View of Older Child Adoption: First Few Days, I talked about the things we did to... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

Our greyhound rescue provided us with ample information about the first few days of having the dog in our home. They strongly suggested that when the dog comes home, we walk him around... more

This post is part of a series on older child adoption in which I am applying things I learned from adopting a retired racing greyhound to hoping to adopt an older child. While there are obviously many differences, I learned a lot that can be useful in adopting an older child.

The greyhound rescue gave us lots of ideas for preparing our home for our new addition. Their number one suggestion was to purchase a crate for the dog because he had lived most of his life in a crate.... more