Parenting

Loss is one of the core issues in adoption. Every child and parent in adoption has experienced loss of some kind—whether the loss of their birth family or loss of a control of what a child experience in their early life. Understanding this loss and the resulting grief can help adoptive parents be more successful… More

by Rita Laws, Ph.D. Rita Laws is the mother of 12 children through adoption and birth and the author of numerous books and articles—many pertaining to adoption and parenting. Below she offers her perspective about sharing adoption assistance information with adopted children. For years, a friend of mine who has adopted several children from foster… More

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common childhood psychiatric disorder in the United States. The disorder affects an estimated 3 to 7 percent of all children, and often persists into adulthood. Many researchers (Simmel, et al. 2001, and others) believe the rate among children in foster care—and those adopted from foster care—is substantially… More

Adapted by Diane Riggs from Beyond Sexual Abuse: The Healing Power of Adoptive Families, published by Three Rivers Adoption Council in cooperation with Wayne Duehn, PhD, Sherry Anderson, MSW, and Kirsti Adkins, MPH. Parents teach pre-schoolers about good and bad touch to give them tools for avoiding and reporting sexual abuse. But foster and adoptive… More

Parents who adopt older children from foster care often do not have as many years to save for the child’s college education. The good news is that there are programs in place that may help these youth pay for education. Federal Programs Since July 2009, children who were adopted from foster care at age 13… More

At the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) we know that parenting hurt children can be different and challenging. Our goal is to ensure that adoptive parents have the information they need to do they best they can to help their children heal and thrive. We encourage you to explore the various resources we… More

Compassion fatigue (also known as vicarious trauma or secondary traumatic stress) can happen to anyone who works in the business of caring for others—be it in one’s professional life or personal life. There is sometimes a stigma attached to taking care of ourselves, as we are often taught to “take care of others first” from… More

  We all begin the adoption journey with a vision of the outcome already in mind. We dream about the way our new child will be lovingly woven into our family. The way that a loving big brother will dote on his baby sisters. The way a pair of siblings will round out your little… More

by Kari Fletcher, NACAC parent support specialist Kari Fletcher is a parent support specialist for NACAC’s Adoption Support Network program, which provides peer support to  adoptive families across Minnesota. She is the adoptive parent of two children who have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and previously worked at the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If… More

by Richard Delaney, PhD Dr. Delaney is a clinical psychologist who has worked with foster, kinship, and adoptive parents and their children for more than 30 years. His thoughts about parental mind reading were recently studied at Northwest Media, parent company of Foster Parent College. He is a major contributor to the interactive online training… More

by Kayla VanDyke, NACAC youth engagement coordinator Kayla was in foster care and uses her experience in a number of capacities to make a difference in the lives of other youth. After graduating from Hamline University, Kayla lead the national It’s Complicated project, which sought to bring comprehensive sexuality and relationship training to youth in… More

The memory is vivid. I am eight years old and I am screaming. I am hysterical in my room. I ache at a level that I cannot give words. Over and over again I cry that no one loves me and that I don’t fit. My father holds me. He cries while I cry. He… More

My children are my greatest treasure on earth. They are worth more to me than all my possessions combined. Most of you feel the same way about your children—whether they were born to you or placed into your family to blossom. Our children are what matter, and there is no close second. That is why… More

by Stacy Manning Stacy Manning is a registered nurse, post-adoption family coach, and educator. She and her husband are raising six teenagers, three adopted and three biological. In 2011, Stacy created Hope Connections, which provides family coaching sessions to current and prospective adoptive parents across the U.S., and offers workshops, sensory tools, and a hands-on… More

In 1999, the California Department of Social Services and Consortium for Children partnered to launch an innovative new program—Permanency Planning Mediation. The partners were looking for an effective way to use openness to shorten a child’s time in foster care by avoiding costly and time-consuming contested termination of parental rights hearings while also helping maintain… More

Christen: When our two biological sons were 12 and 16, my husband and I chose to expand our family through adoption. In 2010 we welcomed a sibling set of four—Olivia, Samantha, Serena, and Zach, ages 3, 5, 7 and 9—into our lives and hearts. Despite hearing that families often faced challenges in the early stages… More

Children and youth in the child welfare system want a life free of pain and full of love. If possible, most want to live with their parents. We in the system cannot discount or minimize the power of love between children and their birth parents. While parents may have had inadequate parenting capacity, most have… More

A few years after adopting three children with FASD from Russia, Diane Black and her husband were exhausted from supervising a hyperactive and destructive son, a son with autistic traits, and a daughter who was sweet but disconnected. Three years later, after removing casein and gluten from the children’s diet, Diane wrote about “the slowly… More

Please do not reprint or reuse without permission. Contact Mary Boo to request permission The information in this article is educational. It is not meant to replace careful evaluation and treatment by medical, nutritional, or mental health professionals. Whether a child is 15 days or 15 years old, feeding and nurturing through shared meals is… More