The Honestly Adoption Blog
Insights, strategies, and personal stories to encourage you on the parenting journey!
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Three Things to Do While You Wait to Adopt
How many times have you let your past or incessant focus on the future impede your right now? Maybe your right now is a snapshot of you and your hubby. Maybe your right now is a quest to build your family through adoption. In the midst of planning for your tomorrow, it is important to make space to experience joy in the moment-in the right now.

Kids In Foster Care Are The Heroes Of The New DC Movie Shazam And It’s Awesome! (Movie Review)
Two movie reviews in one week! We’ve never done this before. But as the weather becomes warmer, and families venture out to the theaters, we want to adequately equip you to make the best choices in family entertainment. Check out my full review below…

Is Disney’s Dumbo Appropriate For Kids Who Are In Foster Care Or Adopted?
Disney’s live action take on the classic Dumbo soared across screens nationwide on March 29th, and I’m answering some big questions on how appropriate the film is for children who are in foster care or adopted.

When Your Child Is The Bully
This is not an easy reality to face. Because you never want to admit that your child is bullying others. But there’s something prompting this behavior. And there is hope for this child!

Encouragement For When Parenting Feels Defeating
This journey is hard. There’s no question. When we signed up for it, we never knew loving children from hard places would take so much out of us. We didn’t realize that, even when we felt empty, we’d have to keep going. But that’s what real love is all about.

How To Help Your Children Advocate For Themselves
This post was written by Kristin Berry, (adoptive mom), with insight from S. Berry (adoptee.) As parents, we spend a lot of time advocating for our children, and ensuring their needs are understood, and met. That’s a big part of our job. But we also must begin to teach our children to speak for themselves. How do we successfully do that? Hello, my name is ~. I have an FASD, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Some things are harder for me like focusing, sitting still and remembering things. I’m very good at some things like drawing, problem solving and building things.

How To Recognize Mixed Maturity And Developmental Trauma
There are so many up and down emotions swirling around in our children, and we are often so exhausted, that it’s easy to forget about developmental delays. How do you recognize this in your children? This may help…

What Do You Do When You Feel Like The Worst Parent In The World?
This journey is hard. And oftentimes we feel like complete failures when we lose our tempers, meltdown, or allow our exhaustion to take over and react harshly to our children. But you and I are not failures. Not even close!

The 9 Keys To Massive Influence In Your Child’s Life
Mike Berry has a new book! We invite you to read about it here.

Love Is There, Even If You Don’t Always Feel It!
Sometimes it’s hard to feel a genuine connection with our children. Especially if we have a lot of difficulties with them often. But trust that love is there. Even when it doesn’t feel like it.

What Do You Do When You Feel Like Your Back is Against the Wall?
Sometimes we can feel trapped when our children have extreme behaviors. The anxiety, the aggression, the constantly needing you but then pushing you away, can feel unending. We want to do the right thing, but what can we do when it feels like our backs are against a wall?

How Do You Know When It’s Time For Residential Treatment?
It’s a question our team receives quite often from parents all over the world: “How do I know when it’s time to consider residential treatment for my child?” Our answer has changed over the years…

The Behavior Isn’t Manipulation, It’s Survival!
It’s easy to view your child’s behavior as manipulation, but there’s something deeper going on that is hard to see on the surface…

Is Mary Poppins A Good Film For Foster And Adoptive Families?
It’s officially, OFFICIALLY, the Christmas season and we are excited to see Mary Poppins Returns as our annual Christmas Day tradition. But Kristin and I had the chance to see a pre-screening of the film earlier this week, which is officially in theaters today. The question we always try to answer with our reviews is, “Is this good entertainment for foster and adoptive families?” Here’s my take…

Dear Frustrated Parent, There’s Hope For More!
There are days when you may struggle to believe that your child is ever going to be able to make it on their own, do the right thing, or even make safe choices. But I believe, there is hope for more!

The Case For Charity And How To Give It
The Christmas season is the season of giving. But what does that look like for families who are in crisis, or families who just need a helping hand? There’s a right way and a wrong way to help. Here is how you give well…

When Faith Requires You To Do Something Scary
The adoption and foster care journey are filled with moments where a leap of faith is more than needed. It’s necessary. That’s why we love the following words on faith. May this encourage you as you step into the New Year…

How Do I Know If I Need Medication?
Sometimes we find ourselves struggling through this journey as parents in ways that are beyond the normal struggle. But often, we’re afraid to admit that we may need medication too. How do we reach out? Our hope is that this post encourages you to bravely step into the light. You are not alone!

How Gratitude Can Help You Better Care For You!
Over the years we’ve learned what it means to take care of ourselves as parents. But nothing we do, in terms of self-care, happens apart from being hands on as parents. We’ve learned that simple things, in the middle of parenting demands, make a big difference…

A Full Review Of The New Film Instant Family
Paramount Pictures has finally released the brand new film Instant Family, into theaters nationwide, and I had the chance to pre-screen it just before it debuted. In this post, I provide my full perspective on the film.