One of our greatest struggles as a foster and adoptive family has been the fear that the revolving door of foster care will leave our permanent children feeling unsure of who they are and their importance to us.
It happens to the best of us- exhaustion. It’s really unavoidable because that’s just the way parenting goes. In today’s episode, we along with our co-host, Nicole Goerges, discuss some practical ways to overcome the exhaustion bug. We’re tired. In fact, just hearing the word “exhaustion” makes us want to take a nap. We’ve often said that we’re a grand total of 14 years behind on sleep. If we added our years of parenting to John and Nicole’s 14 years, we’re a combined 28 years behind! We’re kidding, of course, but sometimes it feels that way.
If there’s one thing that pays the price the most in foster care (or adoption), it’s the health of your marriage. How do you maintain the most important relationship you have and care for the children who have been placed in your home?
This is a guest post by our good friend Michele Schneidler, founder of The Refresh Conference in Redmond, Washington. Check out her blog here, or like the Refresh Facebook Page.
Back in November, we posted a video on YouTube that helped teachers understand the traumatic pasts our children have come from. The video was a hit and was shared with hundreds of schools and teachers around the country. Today, we’re including the audio version in the latest episode of Honestly Speaking… Between Nicole and her husband, and us, we’ve been in hundreds of IEP meetings with our children’s teachers and principals. We’ve had many that went extremely well, and some that…well…didn’t! What we’ve learned from our experience is that teachers really do want to understand where we’re coming from, and why
Ten years ago our oldest son was diagnosed with Alcohol-Related-Nuerodevelopmental-Disorder (ARND), very similar to Fetal-Alcohol-Spectrum-Disorder (FASD), and our lives have been a rollercoaster ride ever since. Recently, however, we’ve begun learning new lessons about him, ourselves, and what we need to do differently.
Fourteen years ago I was a wide-eyed, headstrong, and terrified pre-adoptive father. The start of a new journey was exciting to me, but there were so many things I was afraid of. In the middle of it, though, I found hope. If only I could go back in time and whisper to my 25 year old self. Instead, here’s a letter to any other man who feels the way I felt 14 years ago…
It’s a common tale in foster parenting- A couple gets excited, joins the ranks of foster parenting, begins taking placements, and just a month in they’re completely overwhelmed or defeated! How can a person enter this journey better prepared? This is the topic of today’s podcast! We figured out just months into our time as foster parents, that we were in over our head. But it really didn’t need to be this way. If only there were some folks willing to give us the inside scoop on what we could expect from this journey. Instead, we took the foster parent
It’s another snow day and the pressure is on! How do you measure up to the mom who has an array of Pinterest-worthy weapons in her arsenal for such a day as this?
It has been said that hindsight is always 20/20. As I look back, 12 years into the past, to our first year as foster parents, there are some things I would change if I had the chance.
