My husband and I are new to NM.  We are Adoptive Parents of a special needs child, elementary school-age, from Russia.  We hope to eventually build a Large and Diverse Adoptive Family through Special Needs Adoption, both within the US and Internationally. 

We are seeking to connect with anyone interested in Adoption or Special Education issues, particularly we would appreciate Notifications from Parenting Groups, Adoptive Parent Support Groups, International Heritage Groups, and Special Education -related Groups with whom we can become actively involved

We currently live in Farmington, but make it Albuquerque for Disability-related events about every 2-3 weeks!  We would love to her from folks who share any of these same interests!!!

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My husband has a large extended family who all live in this area.  What that means is that we are expected to attend family gatherings for every holiday - from Memorial Day to three different gatherings for Christmas.  With the 4th of July coming up next week, I'm dreading yet another demand on my time.  Instead of looking forward to a much needed day off and time to relax, I get to look forward to shopping for groceries, cooking all day (or even the night before after working all day), cleaning up mass quantities of dishes and then putting on my happy face and spending hours with people I don't really care about.  I pick and choose which events I can tolerate and sometimes don't attend.  However, this causes hard feelings and I get the cold shoulder the next time I go to a family get together.

How do others handle these intrusions on their precious free time?  My husband is totally understanding and supportive if I don't feel like going.  But I sometimes make myself go just to avoid the hard feelings from the other family members.  But I end up resenting my time there.

 

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I am about to install some type of internet safety device on my computer. I am not very savvy and want to ask for advice. I did a search and found a site called internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com. On this site it's top 2 picks are Net Nanny and Cybersitter. Does anyone have experience with either? The one that is listed #1 doesn't seem to have as many options, however, since it is #1, maybe I should go with it. They are both $35.00 (I am assuming per yr, I still need to read about that). Thanks for help. Krisi

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I'm dismayed to find out that a registered sex offender has moved into my neighborhood.  All of the parents are up in arms (and rightly so in my opinion).  My main concern is that although I know the age of the victim (which is the same age as my son), I don't know the gender of the victim.  Since I only have a boy, I would be slightly less concerned if I knew the victim was female.  Along the same lines, I would be more alarmed to find out the victim had been male.  However, I cannot get this information.  I think my local sheriff's department would have given it to me, but this offender moved in from another state and the local authorities don't know the details of his offense.  I contacted the State Police because they are the ones who listed this offender on their website and was informed that by law they were not allowed to tell me the sex of the victim.  How have others handled this situation?  Does anyone know how I can find out the gender of this victim?  As I said, I simply want to know for my own peace of mind.

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