NYHOMESTUDY BLOG

By ABBY ELLIN

IN the past, you could learn a lot about a person from a group of letters: Ph.D., D.D.S., V.F.W., D.W.I.

Now another set looms ahead, and it affects everyone from teeny tiny models to adoptive parents to schoolchildren: B.M.I. or Body Mass Index.

But few people actually know what it means.

“I know that having a low B.M.I. is supposed to be a good thing, but I have no idea what it really is or how to figure it out,” said Hilary Black, 35, the editor of Tango, a magazine about relationships. “Keeping track of my weight is more important to me than keeping track of my B.M.I.”

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By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY

Angelina Jolie and Madonna may be the most famous Americans to adopt children overseas, but they’re certainly not the first.

Each year, parents in the USA adopt about 20,000 children from around the world. And though the super-rich appear to be able to swoop into a far-off land and scoop up adorable children with ease, for the majority of adoptive parents, the process is a costly, emotionally wrenching grind.

I know. My wife and I just returned from Russia with a 2-year-old girl. In just a few short weeks, we’ve come to learn what other adoptive parents have been telling us for years: that adoption is an amazing, transforming experience. It’s no less a miracle than having children the old-fashioned way.

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