Links

Adoption

• Forums at Adoption.com: An amazing collection of information. A must for any adoptive, expectant, or birth parent.
• The Agency Feedback List at the Adoption.com Forums: Each member of the forums can post a message including the name of their agency, attorney, or facilitator. Prospective adoptive parents can send these people private messages, asking for their opinion and experience. Highly Recommended!
• AA Domestic Adoption: Yahoo! group to discuss African-American and bi-racial domestic adoption (foster to adopt or private adoption).
• ABC Adoption : A clearinghouse of information, including forums and situations.
• Adopting.com: An immense amount of information. Don't try reading it all at once.
• Adoption 101 , The Internet Adoption School: An overview of adoption.
• Adoption Blogs: A collection of writing by all members of the adoption community.
• Adoption Guide: A resource by Adoptive Families magazine, this site is a good starting point for those considering adoption.
• Adoption Resource: All things adoption. The owner's mission is to: "put together all your favorite adoption blogs and websites in one place to help you eliminate the endless lists of bookmarks and wondering where you saw a particular bit of information."
• Adoptive Families Magazine: The magazine for all adoptive parents, from thinking about adoption to the teenage years.
• American Association of Open Adoption Agencies: Some great publications about open adoption for all members of the adoption triad.
• BirthMom Buds: An organization that provides peer counseling, mentoring, friendship, and support for women who are considering placing or have placed their children for adoption.
• Family Helper: A Canadian site dedicated to providing basic resources about adoption, infertility, and family building.
• Open Adoption Support: A site dedicated to supporting and educating those in open adoptions.
• PACT: An organization that facilitates and supports adoptions of children of color.
• Reaching Out: This site is by the author of the only book that tells prospective adoptive parents how to write the "Dear Birthmother Letter."
• Transracial Adoption or Placement: Yahoo! group to discuss adopting transracially, regardless of initial location of the child.
• Wide Horizons for Children: The agency we would have used if we had gone international.
• 10 Things Your Adoption Agency Won't Tell You: A cynical, but nonetheless important, article about some of the financial pitfalls in adoption.
• Adopting Couture: Apparel for adoptive parents and their children.
• Many Hearts, One Beat: A site featuring unique gifts for members of the adoption triad, including beautiful jewelry.
• Not Showing: Apparel for the adoptive mom-to-be.
• Tapestry Books: The largest selection of adoption-related literature.
• Tessoro Creations: Beautiful jewelry for those touched by adoption.

Being Green

• gDiapers: An excellent alternative to disposables and cloth.
• Ideal Bite: They deliver a small tip about what you can do to help the environment. Lots of little ideas add up to a big impact.
• Bringing Back the Natives: An annual tour of gardens that use plants native to California.
• Care2: An environmental and socially conscious super site.
• Earth 911: A great resource for recycling items.
• Freecycle: Offer your usable but unwanted items. Ask for stuff you need. Give stuff to others. All for free!
• The Green Guide: The complete guide to green living.
• LocalHarvest: Find farms and farmers' markets near you.
• Moms Rising: A site that intends to harness the power of mothers who want to make this world better for their children.
• My Footprint: Calculate how much you personally mess up the environment.
• Vegetarian Shoes: Lovely shoes for those of us who don't wear animals.
• We Are What We Do: A site to inspire people to change the world with their everyday actions.
• Working Assets: A phone company that donates a portion of your bill to causes that you vote for each year.
• Worm Lady: You too can own worms who help compost your organic waste (called vermicomposting).

Favorites

• The Academy Awards: Robyn's favorite television event of the year, even if she hasn't seen the movies.
• Alton Brown: We tell Jack he's the funny food guy. He's really quite amazing! (Jack and Alton both are, actually.)
• The Charmed Ones: The show may be over, but the web site remains.
• The Container Store: Robyn's favorite store.
• Disney Destinations: Some of our favorite places on Earth.
• FireFly Wiki: Firefly is a favorite of both Robyn and Max, believe it or not. Robyn wants another movie!
• For Better or For Worse: Lynn Johnston's excellent comic strip about family life.
• Good Eats Fan Page: Links to all Good Eats related goodness.
• Harrison Ford: A Web Guide to the Films: How much does Robyn love Harrison Ford? Max wouldn't let Robyn consider the name "Harrison" for our child.
• I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas: Funniest Christmas song ever!
• LostPedia: Although we still haven't seen the third season...
• Muggle Net: An authoritative fan site devoted to Harry Potter.
• The Radcliffe Pitches: An amazing all-female college a cappella group.
• Scarlett Online: A beautiful web site devoted to the best movie ever made.
• The Tufts Beelzebubs: An amazing all-male college a cappella group.
• Winkflash: 12 cent photos and 99 cent flat rate shipping. You can literally save hundreds of dollars using this service!

Friends

• Adam Shlian: CMU No Parking Players alum.
• Alex Benton: Robyn's former roomate.
• Annemarie Goslow Zwicker: College Park High School alum.
• Audrey Paige Dickinson Surdyk: Daughter of College Park High School alum Kari Dickinson.
• April Weeks: College Park High School alum.
• Big Wide Logic: John Biggs, CMU, Scotch n Soda alum.
• DJ Champ: Robyn's brother-in-law Jim Rose.
• Fortier Fotography: Greg Fortier, New Hampshire friend and photographer.
• From Our Bunch to Yours: Robyn's online friend Lori describes her family's life. Lori has adopted from Haiti and is active in missionary work.
• Hambone and Jennicakes : Online store of Jenn Pellecchia, the wife of a No Parking Players alum, and a fellow CMU alum.
• J. Specland Photography : CMU No Parking Players alum. 
• John and Twana's Adoption Journey: Online adoption friend.
• Krista Contino Krahn: CMU No Parking Players alum.
• Lisa Marinacci: CMU, BHA, Scotch n Soda alum. 
• MOMS Club of Antioch: Robyn is a member.
• Stop Drop and Blog: Robyn's online friend Jenna.
• Will Uther: CMU No Parking Players alum.
• Written in Chicken: Blog of Karla Jameson Singh, wife to Sanjay, an Oracle alum.

Hobbies

• Actorsingers: Community theatre company in NH, with which Robyn was involved.
• Nashua Theatre Guild: Community theatre company in NH, with which Robyn and Max were initmately involved.
• Etsy: The craft world's alternative to Ebay.

Multicultural Resources

• Anti-Racist Parent: For parents committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook.
• Black Books Galore!: An independent children's book store, offering a range of carefully selected, marvelous books for black and multicultural children.
• Dolls Like Me: Multicultural dolls, puppets, toys, and games.
• SleepySoft, Dolls and Toys for Adopted Children: This site boasts the best selection of multicultural dolls on or off the Internet.
• Totally Tots, African-American Dolls and Books: A growing selection of African-American dolls and African-American themed books. You'll find African-American dolls for boys, girls, babies, and toddlers, as well as books written for, by, and about African-Americans.

Parent and Child

• Anti-Racist Parent: For parents committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook. The site includes a wonderful list of books that feature children of different races.
• Baby Cheapskate: A blog that keeps track of sales and discounts on children's stuff. 
• Baby Loves Music: An innovative, fun series of books that introduce children to different types of music. Jack loves his "boom boom bap books"!
• Bottle Raid 2007: Blog entry about the hazards of bisphenol-A (BPA) including lists of BPA-containing and BPA-free products.
• ecochildsplay: A blog that reviews natural children's toys.
• Fluoride Action Network: Site that explains why fluoride isn't necessarily as good as we've been led to believe.
• gDiapers: Yahoo! group that discusses the wonderful diaper alternative, gDiapers, as well as other green parenting topics.
• Healthy Child, Healthy World: Also known as the Children's Health Environment Coalition or Creating Healthy Environments for Children, this site offers information and advice for living an environmentally-friendly home life.
• Holistic Pediatric Association: Information about alternatives to conventional medicine.
• I.C.P.A, International Chiropractic Pediatric Association: Information about chiropractic care as a "foundation of wellness."
• International MOMS Club: An organization that includes thousands of local clubs for moms and their children. Robyn & Jack belong to the MOMS Club of Antioch .
• iPride : An organization that supports multiracial families.
• Mandy's Moon: Excellent personalized stationery, including address labels, and gifts for adoptive or multicultural families.
• Milestone Charts at BabyCenter : One set of milestone charts from birth to age 3.
• The Mushroom Tree : A WAHM who sells cloth diapers, cloth feminine pads, and more.
• The Not-Quite-Crunchy Parent : A blog from a mom who went green.
• SafeMama: A blog that is a child safety, product recall, health and well-being resource for parents.
• Signing Time!: Jack's favorite TV show! Teaching infants to sign means that they learn to communicate earlier, reducing frustration for all parties.
• The Soft Landing Baby Blog : Non-toxic baby gear and reviews.
• Two Hearts Carriers: Robyn's friend Twana makes lovely met-tai carriers and is branching out into cloth diapers.
• zRecommends: Excellent blog with eco-friendly children's product reviews! My favorites are the ZRecommends Sippy Cup Showdown and Z Report, A Directory of BPA in Baby Bottles and Sippy Cups.
• 100% Lactose Free Entertainment: Information about being lactose-intolerant (or allergic to cow's milk protein, which is often just called being lactose intolerant).

Useful Tools

• Dotti's Weight Loss Zone: An amazing collection of diet-related information, including the Weight Watchers POINTS values of a dizzying array of foods.
• Newsweek: One of Robyn's two sources for current events. (The other is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.)
• Real Simple: The bible of organized living.
• TinyURL: This site makes long URLs shorter, so they don't wrap around in email messages.
• The Ultimate White Pages: Search several sites simultaneously.
• Verse It: Lots of ideas for writing invitations of all sorts.
• Weather Underground: Weather information from all over the world, including archives that can tell you what the weather was years ago.

Vaccination

• Vaccinations: Yahoo! group that discusses vaccination-related issues. Heavily anti-vax! Articles are posted daily.
• WAVE, World Association for Vaccine Education: Probably the best site I've come across. A comprehensive, professional site that includes a well-written blog, excellent listing and explanations of vaccines and their ingredients , and a wealth of related information.
• National Vaccine Information Center: The NVIC was crucial in starting the vaccination debate. This site is dated, but there is good information hiding in it. Some pages worth reading include In the Wake of Vaccines, VAERS & "Hot Lots", and Vaccine Myths and Facts. Otherwise, each link takes you to a list of articles and other links related to specific vaccines and diseases.   
• A User-Friendly Vaccination Schedule  and An Update on This Vaccination Schedule: Dr. Donald W. Miller, Jr., the article that solidified our resolve to delay vaccinating Jack.
• Adventures in Babywearing: Blog articles by a concerned mom, who believes that her son's epilepsy is a direct result of vaccinations. Vaccine-specific posts include my favorite, Stirring the Pot: What I Want Every Parent to Know .
• America, Meet Our Unvaccinated Kids, 2.0: Age of Autism, September 25, 2007, by J.B. Handley. Discusses a study done by Generation Rescue that looks at the correlation between autism and vaccinations .  
• Are Vaccines a Waste of Time?: London Evening Standard, excerpt from the book The Truth About Vaccines, by Richard Halvorsen
• Australian Vaccination Network: Still under construction, this site will have brief information about each disease for which there is a vaccination.
• Legislation Aims to Resolve Thimerosal Controversy: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY),  “Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007” (H.R. 2832)
• Current and Past Childhood Immunization Schedules: CDC, US schedules from 1983 to present. Useful for countering the "I was vaccinated and I'm fine" argument.
• FDA Experts Urge Ban on Cold Medicines for Young Children: (BabyCenter, September 29, 2007) If over-the-counter cold remedies aren't safe for infants and toddlers, how is it OK to inject them with 8 diseases and a slew of "preservatives"?
• Generation Rescue : This group is concerned with the correlation between vaccination and autism.
• HealthSentinel.com: Graphs that show historical rates of disease and death in the US and internationally.
• Informed Choice, Glossary of Vaccines: Lists the ingredients in common vaccines. One of my most-cited sites.
• The Informed Parent: A UK-based group that supports making informed decisions. The site includes information about measles, mumps, rubella, and MMR and an interesting FAQ .
• Healthful Living, Vaccinations: Article discusses vaccines and their possible relationship to autism and other neurological disorders.
• History of Vaccines: A brief list of historical information. Please note that the rest of the site is extremely biased, even among anti-vax sites, and is an example of why people who oppose vaccinations are often called insane.
• K.N.O.W. Vaccines Frequently Asked Questions: Overview of the current immunization schedule, ingredients, common reactions, and more.
• Medicine Men, Vaccines and Brain Disorders: NewsMax, July 16, 2007. Article discusses the findings of the Generation Rescue study, and the need for a comprehensive study of vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.
• MotheringDotCommune Vaccinations Forum: Mothering Magazine's web forum for learning more about vaccinations, not vaccinating, or vaccinating according to a selective or delayed schedule. The Vaccinations forum is heavily anti-vax, while cooler heads tend to prevail on the Selective and Delayed Vaccinations forum.
• New Yorkers for Vaccination Information and Choice: Excellent site with clear articles and information about the downsides of the vaccines. Great information about the chicken pox vaccination and shingles.
• On Public Health, So Why Does the State Want to Require HPV Vaccinations?: San Francisco Chronicle, March 12, 2007, MaryAnna Clemmons. Article clarifies what the HPV vaccination is supposed to prevent, and how money influences vaccination decisions.
• Package Inserts at the Institute for Vaccine Safety: Each vaccine comes with a package insert, a "manual" about what is in the vaccine, what it does, what the common reactions are, and so on. These are extremely enlightening! Find out what's in the vaccines your child is supposed to have. This page covers US-licensed vaccines only.
• Put Children First: Site devoted to the link between vaccines and autism. Includes interviews and articles. This site is related to Generation Rescue.
• quaintpassion, Vaccination: August 25, 2005, Personal blog entry about one family's decision to delay vaccinations. Includes hundreds of links to all sorts of vaccine-related information. Only go here if you  have a lot of time on your hands! You will not find a more comprehensive list of links.
• Raising a Vaccine-Free Child: Excerpts from the book by Wendy Lydall.
• Saying No to Vaccines: Blog by Dr. Sherri Tenpenney, "one of the country’s most outspoken physicians regarding the impact of vaccines on health."
• State Exemptions Information from NVIC: Vaccines are not mandatory! See this list to determine how to get an exemption from your state.
• Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute: Heavily anti-vax, and heavy on the conspiracy theories. Does contain some good Q&A's and information about homeopathic alternatives to vaccines.
• Vaccine Articles at the Holistic Pediatric Association: Although somewhat dated (the most recent article was written in 2005), some of these articles are well-written and relevant even today. My favorites: "Vaccinations: A Parent's Right to Choose" (Jane Sheppard, July 18, 2004),  "Vaccines and Immune System Damage" (Randall Neustaedter, July 18, 2004), and "Vaccinations" (Randall Neustaedter, July 14, 2004).
• Vaccination Information and Choice Network: Lots of links to articles, studies, historical information - practically everything. Each disease and/or vaccine has its own section, as do some of the reactions. The owner of this site is a nurse who also offers classes on vaccine dangers and how to prevent and treat disease holistically. Heavily anti-vax!
• Vaccination Liberation: Lots and lots of links! This site is very difficult to navigate. Some of the more useful information includes...
• Vaccinations, Parents Informed Choice: (The Weston A. Price Foundation, Lynne Borne, November 7, 2005) A great, though dated, basic article that argues for informed decisions regarding vaccination. Many of the reasons this writer cites are the reasons why we do not vaccinate Jack.
• Vaccinations at Health World Online: This site is devoted to alternative medicine, so it is no surprise that the articles here are against current vaccination practices. The articles are dated, but some are very informative nonetheless: About Vaccine Choices (Excerpts from The Vaccine Guide: Making an Informed Choice, by Randall Neustaedter), Unvaccinated Children (Richard Moskowitz, MD), Vaccination and Social Violence (Harris L. Coulter PhD, 1996), SIDS and Seizures (Harris L. Coulter PhD, 1996). They also have a Vaccination News page, that appears to be completely updated.
• Vaccine Refusal and Medical Intimidation: A personal account of one family's visit to their pediatrician, this article includes excellent advice about what to do if your pediatrician wants you to sign a "refusal to vaccinate form" and offers alternatives. Summary: Don't sign the form! This account also links to a basic article about vaccine choice, Dispelling Vaccination Myths (Alan Phillips, May 2001).
• Vaccine Rights: Vaccination injury attorney site, that includes an extensive legal FAQ. Another brief article also addresses the forms, Refusal to Vaccine Forms Raise Ethical Questions (Alan Phillips, December 2007). Vaccine Exemption Alliance is another vaccination-rights law firm.
• Vaccination Risk Awareness Network: A collection of links, articles, and information about vaccines, disease, and vaccine reactions.
• Vaccination.co.uk: A site under construction by a British chiropractor and father. There is quite a bit of medical information here about the immune system and how it works. This man wrote a dissertation on the DTP vaccine.
• Vegan Family Anti-Vaccine Information: A brief collection of interesting articles and a recommended reading list.
• Vaccine Debate: Personal web site of a vaccine opponent and author. Good for basic information, though not all sources are listed. A good introduction to the arguments against vaccines. 
• Vaccination Dilemma: A basic site that introduces the concept of refusing vaccines.
• I.C.P.A, International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, Childhood Articles: A list of articles about various pediatric health issues, including Vaccinations: The Choice of a Lifetime: (Dr. Larry Palvesky, May/June 2003), Challenging the Theory of Artificial Immunity (Keith Wassung), and Chicken Pox Vaccine (Jim Davis, January/February 2003).