Foster Parents, Blocked Care, Compassion Fatigue: When you Just Want to Throw in the Towel (part 2)
According to reliable data, over forty percent of foster parents throw in the towel and quit fostering within their first year. That’s a...
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Dr. Mark Andrews
- Feb 13
- 2 min
Foster Parents, Blocked Care and Compassion Fatigue: When You Just Want to Throw in the Towel . . .
I’ve often thought that I could never be a foster parent. It’s often tough, in-the-trenches work. I have the utmost admiration and...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jan 31
- 2 min
Helping our children to really feel safe: Developing “Felt Safety”, part 2 . . .
In my previous blog I shared the story of Samantha, who had just come into foster care from a chaotic and abusive living situation. She...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jan 17
- 2 min
Helping our children to really feel safe: Developing “Felt Safety”
Samantha is ten years old and is entering foster care for the first time. The first ten years of her life have been characterized by...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jan 3
- 2 min
Reaching out for help: When your child needs more than you can give . . .
It is no secret that adopted and foster children have unique challenges and needs that are not always characteristic of kids raised in...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Dec 6, 2022
- 2 min
Who’s in charge here anyway? . . .Parenting the Parentified Child, part 2
In my previous blog I wrote about “Lilly” the parentified child. Because of her background of survival, Lilly had to grow up quickly. ...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Nov 16, 2022
- 2 min
Who’s in charge here anyway?! – Parenting the Parentified Child, part 1 . . .
On an increasing level over the past few years, older sibling groups have been transitioned into foster care together in order to prevent...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Oct 25, 2022
- 2 min
16, 25 or 10 . . .How old is he? . . . The Impact of Trauma and Transience on Foster and Adopted Chi
Is it possible for a child to have more than one age? This may seem like a strange question to ask, but when considering kids who have...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Oct 4, 2022
- 2 min
Nutritional Priorities, Part 2 –
The Blood Sugar-Behavior Connection . . . I mentioned in my previous blog that the majority of children coming into our care for the...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Sep 22, 2022
- 2 min
Nutritional Priorities, Part 1: The Importance of HYDRATION for your child’s brain functioning
If you’re like me, you don’t drink nearly enough water. From the research I’ve read, the average adult should be drinking a gallon of...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Aug 22, 2022
- 2 min
What to do about LYING! . . . Part 2—Responding to our children when they lie
In my previous post I discussed some of the reasons why our kids lie. Fear, internal stress, and even survival are some of the...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Aug 2, 2022
- 2 min
What to do about LYING! . . . Part 1—Why Kids Lie
Many of the adoptive and foster parents I’ve worked with and spoken to over the years have shared with me that the number one behavioral...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jul 10, 2022
- 2 min
Helping our Children with Attachment and Bonding, part 2 . . .
In my last blog, I shared a concerning statistic that up to 85 percent of adopted and foster kids may have major struggles with...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jun 26, 2022
- 3 min
Helping Our Children With Attachment And Bonding
Recent research indicates that as many as 85 percent of adopted and foster children may have major struggles with attachment to their...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Jun 14, 2022
- 2 min
ATTENTION!!-SENSORY OVERLOAD!!
Many years ago, when our son was only seven years old, I took him to Wal-Mart for his very first time. He had only been with us for a...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- May 31, 2022
- 2 min
Domestic adoption: Important considerations for prospective adoptive parents . . .part 2
In my previous blog, I shared that adopted children often come to us with a lot of gaps in their stories; however, as I also mentioned,...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- May 10, 2022
- 2 min
Domestic adoption: Important considerations for prospective adoptive parents . . . part 1
According to current data, there are approximately 440,000 children, birth to age 18 living in the U.S. foster care system. Approximately...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Apr 26, 2022
- 3 min
Adopting an older child internationally: additional things to consider . . . part 2
In my previous blog, I shared that older child adoption has become more common in recent years, both domestically and internationally. ...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Apr 12, 2022
- 2 min
Adopting an older child: reflections and some things to consider . . . part 1
Older child adoption—“older” meaning 3 years of age and up—has become a more common occurrence in recent years, particularly for those...
Dr. Mark Andrews
- Mar 29, 2022
- 2 min
Helping our children who have sensory challenges . . . (part 2)
In my last blog I shared that an inordinate number of adopted and foster children struggle with sensory challenges as compared to...
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