International Adoption
Advice from a Michigan Parent

Katie Mikesell is one of many adoptive parents in Michigan. She has welcomed two young boys from Guatemala into her home and family. She shared some advice from her adoption experience:

“For international adoptions, a nice thing to do while waiting for things to finalize is to study the language of your child’s original country, and get some CDs in that language. For one thing, learning the language will come in handy when you travel.

“Also, no matter how young your child is when they come home, they are very tuned in to the sounds of that language. Our two boys are from Guatemala and came home at 5½ months. Their reaction when they heard Spanish was pretty remarkable, even at such a young age. We played a lot of Spanish lullabies for them and they seemed to really like it.

“I would also suggest keeping a journal when you travel, even though it’s a hectic time and it’s hard to do. Our kids are now 6 and 8 and love hearing the story of their beginning with us, and I wish I had done this to capture some of the details from that experience.”

Mikesell emphasizes that prospective parents should not be dissuaded by concerns about blending a child from another culture into American life.

“Our kids are still young. But one thing surprised me. We were given a lot of reading about how difficult it was going to be to be a ‘transracial’ family, and so far it’s been a nonissue. I think adoption and blended families have become so common that people just see us as a normal family (which we are!).”

The truth of her comment was evident even in the recent presidential election. President Barack Obama grew up in a blended family and candidate John McCain and his wife, Cindy, are adoptive parents in a blended family.