Repost: Bless the Child?

Every other week my blog will feature a reposted work. I had been a contributor on two different sites that have since closed or no longer include blogs. I will be reposting pieces that had originally been featured on one of these two sites.  

This was originally posted July 6, 2011

Every night at bedtime I bless my son. 

I had talked to my professor’s wife through email about attachment and parenting, specifically pertaining to children who had been adopted.  One thing she mentioned was that my professor blessed their daughters every night.  I thought this would be a good practice to incorporate into how we/I parent Isaiah.

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Bedtime Story

Isaiah was crying at bedtime. 

His stuffed Puppy has a hole at the seam, which we said Mama could fix tomorrow, but he got worked up about it. I went in and lay down with him and talked to him. I sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “Step by Step”.

I asked him what happened last time Puppy had a hole, he said Mama fixed him that time. I talked to him about how Puppy was actually really old because dogs age differently and we've had Puppy as long as we have had Isaiah. How Isaiah picked Puppy to be his friend the first time he walked into our home in Bowman House.

Isaiah grabbed my arm and pulled it around his body and said,

“Stay with me Papa. Tell me a story.”

Once there was an….

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Repost: Thoughts on Race From a Pale Papa

Every other week my blog will feature a reposted work. I had been a contributor on two different sites that have since closed or no longer include blogs. I will be reposting pieces that had originally been featured on one of these two sites.  

This was originally posted June 28, 2011


I’ve been thinking about how people interact with each other and how we can understand where others are coming from and what their circumstances are specifically in the area of race.  I have read White Like Me by Tim Wise and I have had several conversations with people of different races than me.  I recently stated reading Why Are All theBlack Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria? by Beverly Tatum. Lately I have read about this issue in articles and opinion pieces in adoption magazines. 

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Preparing for Easter

This semester I have a personal trainer as part of BoxerBoot Camp, a program that matches exercise science majors with employees at the university where I work. On Monday my trainer contacted me to see if we could postpone my workout until at least Wednesday because she had schoolwork to deal with.

I happily agreed to put off the workout she had planned.

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