Often over the last several years, we’ve been asked if adoption and foster care is really worth it. Granted, this question usually comes from people outside of the journey, who are peering into our lives wondering. Our answer is a solid. YES! Here’s why…
Many of our children have come from significant trauma and that often prevents them from logical thinking. This can be frustrating, even maddening at times. Our temptation is to shame or lecture. But there’s a better way…
We are immersed in the day in and day out task of parenting our children. Often this leaves us emotionally spent. It’s easy to let our emotions fly out of control when our children are dis-regulated. But is this causing more damage than we realize?
It’s a warm sunny afternoon on a Saturday in early September when we load our kids up in our super-used Chevy Suburban to make the hour and half trek across our state to visit our kid in residential treatment. This is not our first rodeo with this scenario. We’ve been here before. It never gets easier. Sure, it becomes routine…after some time, but never easier. On this particular afternoon we’re confined to campus due to bad behavior in the days prior. It’s disheartening. And it’s hopeless. We see so much potential in our child. Sooo much! We believe in him. And
It’s often a dreaded adventure for foster and adoptive parents: summer travel. Or any travel, for that matter. Often, we wonder, is it worth it? Maybe we’re safer just staying home? We’re here to tell you, it is worth it. And here’s why…
We are mixing it up this week on the Honestly Speaking Podcast, as Mike heads over to the other side of the microphone, where he is interviewed by Sandra Flach, from Justice for Orphans ministry, and he shares what HE and Kristin have learned from their own 16-year adoptive journey. Mike and Kristin have 8 children ages 8-31 whom they have adopted over the past 16 years. They have adopted domestically through both private adoption and foster to adopt. Mike and Kristin have faced many struggles along the way including learning how to parent children who have FASD and having a
It’s been a difficult 13 years with our oldest son. Some would have told us to give up a long time ago. On paper he seems like a hopeless cause. But we’ve found hope. And we refuse to believe his story is over.
Parenting children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders can often feel hopeless and void of answers. In the debut of Season 5, Mike and Matt discuss practical strategies to help parents form a plan and find answers. There are an estimated 40,000 infants born every year with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. As we’ve mentioned many times the past on this blog and podcast, this is a disorder that is widely misunderstood and even judged. But there is new light being shed on the subject and it’s helping parents find resources and answers. We know how difficult it is day in and
It took us a while to get there, but after years of parenting children from traumatic places, we finally had our eyes opened up. It became a game-changer for us, and our parenting.
We’ve personally been down this road 4 separate times with one of our kids. It never gets easier. How do you make it through the devastation of placing your child in residential treatment? In today’s episode of Honestly Speaking, our co-host Nicole Goerges turns the microphone on us, and interviews us over this topic because we’ve walked this road several times in the past. It never gets easy, even when the absence of your child creates peace for the rest of your family.
