No Biking in the House Without a Helmet Book

Introduction: Still Here, After All These Years 3

1 Room for One More? 13

2 Nine Hundred and Eighty Thousand Websites 19

3 Foreign Film Festival 24

4 Motherhood vs. the Career 29

5 Chrissy 35

6 First Trip to Bulgaria 39

7 Just a Weekend Getaway 48

8 The Decision 53

9 Return to Bulgaria 60

10 Post-Adoption Panic 66

11 Love at Second Sight 72

12 The Art of Playing 78

13 Crash and Burn 83

14 Monkey icka Lion 90

15 Sing, Goddess… 95

16 Enormous Families, Group Homes 99

17 Dogs We Have Loved 105

18 The ABCs of Preliteracy 111

19 A Continent of Orphans 117

20 First Trip to Ethiopia 122

21 Old Friends 131

22 Helen in America 137

23 Questions of Heaven 144

24 Why This Is Not a Cookbook 151

25 Married to the Defense 156

26 A Boy Moves Out, a New Boy Heads Our Way 163

27 Meeting Fisseha 168

28 Searching for Grandmother 173

29 Tsehai 178

30 The Labyrinth of Nightmare 185

31 The Professor Gives Birth 188

32 The Young Hunter-Gatherer 192

33 Identity 197

34 Sandlot Ball 203

35 Squirrels We Have Known, Also Insects 209

36 A Wonderful Number of Children 215

37 An Orphanage League 225

38 Room for Two More? 233

39 Their Histories 241

40 Homeland Tour 246

41 Class Differences 252

42 Swim Party 257

43 Reunion 261

44 A Family Feast 265

45 Daniel and Yosef in America 273

46 Strife 280

47 Fighting Words 284

48 A Haunted Night 289

49 The Silent Treatment 293

50 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Couldn't Spell 304

51 Songs of a Summer Night 312

52 Another Mother 320

53 The Jewish Guide to Raising Star Athletes 324

54 Gurage 333

55 Ten Things I Love About You 341

56 DNA 347

Acknowledgments 353