Earlier this summer, I wrote a post about summer camp. What I didn't mention is that camp came on the heels of Penny being denied Extended School Year services by our local town. She was denied because we only live here in the summer. I scrambled to find a camp that would take her, and after a few places ...

I have a new post at parents.com, "Why Aren't Obama and Romney Talking About Abortion?"

It begins:

My kids love to hear stories about when they were born. They know the quirky details—that Penny was easy to push out, that I threw up on the way to thehospital with William, that they celebrated Marilee's ...

Sometime later this week my third post with parents.com about the election will run. My job is to represent the middle way, the moderates, the people who might just vote for a Republican or a Democrat. People like me. And so perhaps it comes as no surprise that I find the arguments espoused by both ...

It seems somewhat out-of-keeping with the tone of the summer, with barbecues and laughter and fireflies and staying up later than usual and sandy feet and hydrangeas, but all summer long, in the midst of the delightful moments, I have also been thinking about how easily those moments can turn to grief. I ...

In mid-July I was alone with my kids for six nights and I happened to come down with a nasty cold. We had just moved from New Jersey to Connecticut, so the house was still in boxes, and my list of things I was supposed to have done before Peter went away seemed longer than ever. To top it off, our kids ...

I have a new post up for the "Moms Decide" section of Parents.com, "What Summer Camp Has to Do with Obama's Tax Plan." It begins:

My memories of summer include bug bites, games of kick-the-can, swimming lessons, and countless hours curled up in a chair reading. My kids have finally reached the age where ...

If this blog has seemed a bit disjointed for the past few weeks, or if you have tried to email me and feel as though the response might never come, well, we've been moving. The process started months ago, when I started to spend my afternoon hours with William "organizing." We made bins for different ...

I mentioned a few weeks ago (What Matters to you During this Election?) that I would be blogging about issues related to the upcoming election for Parents.com. My first post is up, and it is a response to the Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. I ...

We went to a graduation party a few weeks back. It was a lovely afternoon, with family and friends gathered to celebrate the graduate at her home. We brought all three kids with us, and we faced a decision. There was an open space with food and drink and tables, and then an enclosed backyard. After ...

I used to sing lullabies, and every night Marilee still hears "Close Your Eyes" or "Sleep My Child" when she goes to bed. Penny and William have graduated, of their own doing, and now they want me to sing "church songs." It started at Christmas, when we went through three months of singing "Hark the ...

I'm excited to report that Parents.com has asked me to offer the perspective of a political moderate through a series of personal reflections on the upcoming Presidential election. Along with Sharon Lerner (the "liberal" voice) and Suzanne Venker (the "conservative"), I will comment upon issues ranging ...

There she was, my little girl, standing in the front row, wearing a dress from my childhood and her patent leather pink party shoes, singing every word of the kindergarten concert. Wait–I should say–belting out every word of the kindergarten concert, performing every motion, playing her sticks in time ...

My daughter has two mothers.

My daughter also has two fathers, although only one is in her life.

I didn't know this at first. When Emma was placed with us at birth, I believed what I'd been told: that adoptive parents are the "real" parents. That love is enough. That as long as we didn't keep secrets, ...

The other day my son was looking through a box in the closet that had old photos in it. He would grab each photo and ask me if that was him or his sister. At the bottom of the box he found a framed photo of me holding a newborn baby in my arms. He asked the same question. I didn't answer and since he ...

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we read the akeydah - the story of the binding of Isaac. This year I am chanting the first three verses:

After these things, G-d tested Abraham, saying to him "Abraham!" And he said "Here I am." God said, "Take your son, your only one, the one you love, Isaac, and ...

We walked, side by side. Slowly. A close friend was going through a divorce when he sighed and said, "I think God meant for children to be with their biological parents."

Heartbroken at being separated from his daughters, he'd become keenly aware of the inherent—seemingly unavoidable—wrongness of the ...

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called Why Adoption Feels Harder than Abortion. My intention with the post was to help people like me–people who have not ever experienced an unplanned pregnancy, people who have never faced the fear and stress and sadness of a choice between keeping a child you can't ...

I have the privilege right now of doing premarital counseling for a young couple who plan to wed in October. I've never done this type of counseling before, but it has been a wonderful way to reflect upon our own marriage and try to offer some words of practical advice and wisdom to them as they set ...

On Friday night, Peter was on duty in our dorm of thirty boys. As we sat down to dinner with a dear old friend who had flown in from Denver earlier in the day, there was a knock on the door. The knocks continued throughout our meal, with Peter popping up to answer a question or adjudicate an absence. ...

Penny lost her third tooth today. They are falling out just as expected–first the bottom two, and now one up top with the one beside it wiggling as well. It came home from school with her in a small lavender box.

At first, she was feeling brave. "The tooth fairy can come into my room." ...