okay, I am the hostess, but I need ya'lls help

I think it would interesting to see a discussion of how people integrate their kids non-adopted siblings into the family. I adopted a sib group of two, which were the only two children of this family available at that time. There is an older boy, in care of his grandparents - no contact. A younger full sister, half sister, half brother on mom's side and a barely younger half sister on dad's size. Plus of course, our bio kids which are adoptive siblings to our boys. SO ... how can we incorporate all these siblings into our kids' lives and a sense of connection, and a sense of family. When it all seems so overwhelming! Jen

Jen, my DD has 2 sisters living with their Nana, 1 sister adopted by Great Aunt, and a brother and sister living with her bio Father. I have worked really hard to build and maintain relationships with her siblings and b/c she is so young I was worried she wouldn't remember them between visits. I have plastic frames all over my fridge and from my waist down we put pictures of her and her other family that she can rearrange and organize. She has a few frames of them in her room and when she paints and draws I ask her to draw one of her sisters for them. We randomly talk about them and how much we all love them, she has recently statred asking some fun questions but talking about them helps her feel more connected to them. We have recently gotten a web cam with a microphone ($34 for 2 sets) for her to video chat with the 2 girls living with her Nana and they will talk and giggle for hours if we let them. I would love to hear more ideas about how to encourage their sibling relationships.

I have a harder time because bfamily is not as receptive to fostering a relationship between the kids, as we are. Plus we have age differences to deal with. We would love to know the older brother, he is 14, my oldest is 11. But we dont think his parents even realize that our boys were adopted. The little sisters/baby brother are 4, 1 and newborn, so although my boys send them presents, not much in the way of relationships. Although they did get to talk to 4 year old on the phone for the first time last month. Half sister from dad's side is almost the same age as my second son (9) but she has just been "found" and her mom isnt overly receptive to developing relationships with strangers half way across the continent. My boys have gone through phases of absolutely refusing to refer to their sisters/brothers as sisters or brothers because "its different" to begrudging agknowledgement, to joy at connection. Jen