Teen intercountry adoptees talk about the cultural challenges of growing up in the U.S.—considerations for their parents. For untold...

You may have read my blog from last November about how adopted and foster children deal with loss and grief over the Christmas holidays....

Hello readers, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season! Children who have been through a lot of trauma and negative...

Author and adoptee Jessie Hogsett writes in his autobiography Detached, “Trust must come before love can come.” This statement is packed...

Over the years many adoptive and foster parents have shared with me that they’ve observed an increase in their child’s behavioral...

With November being National Adoption Month, I was reminded of a blog I wrote about a year-and-a-half ago about parental expectations in...

As an adoptive parent myself, I am very excited that both domestic and intercountry adoption are both spotlighted each November. Over...

My thoughts for this blog arise out of recent conversations I’ve had with foster parents and staff from foster care agencies. Let me...

In my previous post I began the discussion on how important it is for adoptive and foster parents to keep our lives “in balance” amidst...

Adoptive and foster parents operate day-to-day with a “full plate.”—Often our plate is fuller than most! When we operate this way long...

In my nearly thirty years experience previously as a family counselor, I noticed that it was sometimes difficult for adoptive parents to...

In my last blog I talked about some of the more common types of regression that previously traumatized children express. But what about...

“Act your age!!” We’ve all either heard this, said this or been on the receiving end of this exclamation when we were younger. Perhaps we...

I used to direct an internship program at a long-term residential facility for older adolescents, ages 16 to 21. Most all of them had...

Debbie Riley, author of the book Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens recently wrote an excellent article in Adoptive Families...

Most of us have fond memories of summer vacation away from school. This year, our kids may be looking forward to this summer even more so...

Did you know that babies are born with over 100 billion brain cells? Brain development experts have found that the first three years...

Food issues are not uncommon for foster and adopted children. Fixation on food hoarding, over eating, hypervigilance about having enough...

Children from traumatic backgrounds often deal with a lot of chronic fear—fear of the unknown, fear of not having enough, fear of the...

As I mentioned previously, a child’s emotional meltdowns are often connected with change. This is especially true with children who have...