by Gayle Swift | Mar 11, 2026 | Adoption as a communal experience, Adoption Paradox, Adoption systems, Lived Experience Informs Understanding, Psychological Permissionis, Telling a Complete Story
Last week we announced that adoptee Jean Kelly Widner had been named the 2026 recipient of our annual Shaping the Future Award. She is the author of the ground-breaking book Adoption Paradox: Putting Adoption in Perspective. Jean is an articulate and courageous voice...
by Gayle Swift | Feb 1, 2023 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Difficult Discussions, Faith and Values, Strengthening Family Relationships
What unique factors complicate the art of gift-giving and its connection to relationship building within the context of an adoptive family? It’s February so everyone’s media platforms will be filled with messages about how we can show our families and...
by gayles | Feb 5, 2020 | Blogs by Gayle Swift, Difficult Discussions, Intentional Parenting, Strengthening Family Relationships
Feeling short of time or finding it difficult to concentrate? You can listen to this post. As of February 3, 2020, eleven cases of Coronavirus have been diagnosed in the United States. Thousands in China have fallen ill and 361 have died.[1] As responsible parents, we...
by Gayle Swift | Mar 27, 2019 | Blogs by Gayle Swift, Difficult Discussions, General Discussion
Here in Florida, the Parkland community is reeling from the recent deaths by suicide of two student survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas School massacre which occurred on Feb. 14, 2018. On the heels of that double tragedy, the father of one of the first-graders...
by Gayle Swift | Feb 6, 2019 | Adoption-attunement, Blogs by Gayle Swift, Difficult Discussions, Empathy
Unless adoptive parents are also adoptees, we can only approximate in our minds and hearts what it must be like for our children. Adoption was the answer to our prayer; but for our children, it is far more complicated. The benefits they gained via adoption coexist...
by Gayle Swift | May 23, 2018 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Blogs by Gayle Swift, Difficult Discussions
In our two previous blogs, we focused on the role of the family adoption library as a way to facilitate important yet perhaps difficult conversations about adoption complexity. Books are one of many tools parents can draw upon to help them. The most salient point in...
