We’ve said it a million times on this blog: foster care and adoption are hard roads to travel. The emotional toll it takes on you is insurmountable. But what happens when your mind and heart betray you and you think thoughts you would never share openly?
It’s easy to let our children’s bad choices, extreme behavior, or special needs defeat us and make us want to give up. But something deep inside of me refuses to let his choices define his future!
A common issue among children adopted or in foster care from traumatic places, is food hoarding or food issues. While it can be frustrating to deal with as a parent, there are some keys to handling it successfully.
Sometimes the foster and adoptive journey gets the best of us. The life we knew, or hoped for, has been reduced to a pile of rubble. And we wonder, “Will I ever crawl out of this?”
*Editors Note- This is a guest post by Jessica Graham. She is a mother of three kids, all of whom have been adopted and two of whom have significant special needs. Her book Beautiful Paradox: Musings, Marvelings and Strategies of a Special Needs Parent is available on Amazon and is free September 15-16, 2016.
You know how this goes… Kids head off to school, house is finally quiet, it’s time to get to work, you go about your day. Not too long after your phone rings. It’s the school again!
Children who come from trauma are often in a fight for survival, even if they’ve been in your loving care for some time. It’s exhausting and unending at times. How do you successfully parent children who are in a fight while keeping your sanity?
*Editor’s note- this post originally appeared in Mike’s column on Disney’s Babble.com. To read more of Mike’s posts on Babble click here.
*Editor’s note- This is a guest post from our good friend Jennie Owens. She and her husband Lynn, support foster and adoptive families through their nonprofit organization, www.foreverhomes.org. Jennie also speaks to parenting groups and leads retreats for foster and adoptive families. She provides training and one-on-one coaching services to parents through their clinic, Canyon Lakes Family Counseling, in Kennewick, WA. You can also visit her blog here.
This may be the best kept secret in the FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) community. We’re pretty sure it is. The impact that one simple week of camp had on our son’s life is beyond measure. We are convinced it will have the same impact on thousands of other children just like ours.
