12-year old Tori has been in foster care for six months.  Overall, she has been a compliant and pleasant child.  Typically an outgoing child, Tori’s foster parents noticed her becoming more withdrawn as the Christmas season approached.  She no longer wants to participate in family activities like their weekly board game night or watching a movie together.  She been spending more and more time alone in her room and became increasingly picky in her eating habits.  She has troub

Some years ago, I was on staff at a residential program for older adolescents.  As was our tradition, we had a big Christmas party for them.  Our big common room was filled to capacity with gifts provided by generous supporters of the program.  The kids were overwhelmed with anticipation and excitement!  Before distributing the gifts, we all sang Christmas carols and our Director read the Christmas Story.  As the excitement built, I noticed a young lady—one of our residents—s

As we are in the midst of National Adoption Awareness Month, I want to give a “Shout Out” to all of you dedicated adoptive parents who follow my posts. As an adoptive parent for the past 31 years, I am fully aware of the highs and lows—and everything in between—in the experience of being an adoptive parent. We adopted our children, Michael (now 38) and Sara (now 30) from India in 1994 and 1999 respectively. I believe I have learned more from them than they have learned from m

Single adults seeking to adopt has become much more commonplace over the past two decades. This change is reflective of evolving societal attitudes, along with increasing support for single parents (women in particular) from a variety of sources. Many women—particularly in their thirties and forties—who have never married or who have divorced are seeking to build a family via adoption. A minority of these women already have biological children, but the majority do not. Along

As recently as the 1970’s many states in the U.S. did not permit foster parents to adopt the children they were fostering, regardless of...

Adoptive and foster parents face unique challenges not common in traditional parent-child relationships. Children coming into adoptive...

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is a permanent disability.  However, this does not mean  that a child is doomed to a bleak future into...

In my previous blog, I shared some details and history about the epidemic of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, particularly among foster...

Back in July of 2023, I wrote a blog entitled “Raising Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.” Since that time, we continued to be made...

Currently, there are approximately 390,000 foster children in the United States. That number is down from nearly 450,00 ten years ago....

Jamal is ten years old and has been in foster care since he was five. From ages five to nine, Jamal was in six different foster homes...

Grayson is four years old.  He came into foster care for the first time with the Ryan family about three months ago.  This is also the...

Veteran foster parents reading this blog know full well that when a new child comes into their home, that the “unexpected should be...

Recently, during a Parent Coaching session I was doing, a frustrated foster mom told me, “Our daughter has been with us well over a year...

Previously, I shared with you about the sensory challenges kids like Sabrina and Charles face.  In this final installment on Sensory...

In my previous blog I shared some introductory information about sensory deficits experienced by foster and adopted children. Research...

“He pitches a fit if he has to wear a shirt with long sleeves!” . . .”She screams that the water from the shower head hurts her skin—how...

Tyler is 10 years old, and recently came into foster care with Mr. and Mrs. Norton. The Norton’s have two biological children, a daughter...

A couple years ago, I wrote a two-part blog called “What to Do About Lying!”  (Scroll down to August of 2022 if you’d like to check those...

In my previous blog I shared the story of seven-year-old Tori, who out of her personal grief and emotional turmoil, created a fantasy...