Some people are shocked when they hear that foster children can have a hard time in an adoptive home. I know I was one of those people. I thought that I would bring Sammy into our home and give him a stable and wonderful life, and he’d be “fine”. Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

On one of the Adoption.com forums, I read such an incredible description of the thought process involved. Here it is:

Just suppose one day a husband came home and his wife did something to irritate him. Maybe she asked for money, or spilled food. He hit... more

With our kids we get all kinds of interesting behaviors. Some are joyful and some are downright ugly. So how do you know what is normal child behavior and what is your child just being naughty? I once had a very wonderful therapist tell me that it didn’t matter if the behavior was normal or adoption related, if the behavior was undesirable, it still needed to be dealt with.

He was absolutely right, but there are still bad behaviors that your child is going to go through, just because it’s child development. Here is a list of some of the behaviors.

Age... more

Today I would like to continue with my discussion about Listening to Parents, the report and website designed to address the disconnect between parents wanting to adopt children in foster care and the agencies responsible for finding families for those children. Nancy Deren, one of my blog readers, commented on the report. Her experience... more

I think I'd like to visit Washington state. It just seems interesting. I mean, their gem is petrified wood. That's just interesting! Then again, their state dance is the square dance. I can get that kind of action without traveling across the country. All that said, their post-adoption contact agreement laws aren't too unfriendly to families wanting communication between birth and adoptive parents. It was refreshing to see after a few of our recent (alphabetical) states.

Let's take a look.

What may be included in postadoption... more

Parents of special needs children are always swimming in uncharted waters. And when it comes to the topic of death and grief, we don’t get a pass on that either. I was reminded of just how “goofy” LuLu’s grief appears when another mother was describing her son’s reaction to a recent death in their lives. It seems that a teenager who participates in the same sporting league as her son (son is much younger) died recently.

Her son’s reaction to this news was all over the place emotionally. I can relate. The most frustrating (and appalling, if you’re not ready... more

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about birth control as one of the things you will need to think about after the birth of your baby is what type of birth control method you are going to use. In that post, I mentioned the birth control pill as a popular form of birth control. A new article out of The Money Times sheds light... more

A reader e-mailed me and asked if I would share more about my personal story with our home study. I am working through a series about each of the interviews we had as part of the home study process.

As I mentioned in my post, Home Study: The First Interview, one of the interviews had to be conducted in a one-on-one with the social worker. That was the interview in which was discussed our childhoods.

As I shared in my posts, Abuse... more

I’m not a reality show watcher, but I have always enjoyed The Apprentice. I am especially happy with the current season of Celebrity Apprentice.

Why should you care and what does this have to do with foster care and adoption? Well, there’s a chance that our kids can directly benefit from this show. These celebrities have plenty of money and don’t need a job with Donald Trump, so they are competing for money for the charity of their choice. There are several charities that benefit children. Here is the list of the charities... more

A reader asked me recently about enrolling her adopted children in sports. Another mentioned that her adopted child didn’t have the social skills to play a team sport. Rarely, in our 14 years of foster care, has a child come to us already active in any sport. Most of those children also lacked social skills. Our family, like Cindy’s over at the older child adoption blog, enjoys soccer. We also love floor hockey. Every child that has come through our doors has been enrolled in soccer, hockey, or both.

On the soccer field... more

My son recently had a birthday. He attends a Montessori school, where birthdays are a really big deal.

Montessori schools have an entire program set up for birthday celebrations. The children sit in a big circle. In the middle of the circle is something to represent the sun. Index cards with the months of the year are placed around the sun. The birthday child holds a globe and circles the sun to represent one year of his life. Meanwhile, the class sings a song about each year. The child stops after each year, and the parent shares stories and pictures of the child... more