by GIFT Coach | Dec 5, 2013 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Strengthening Family Relationships
At GIFT Family Services, we constantly look for ways to help families connect and create positive relationships and moments of togetherness that build healthy bonding in a family. A Facebook video posted by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University...
by GIFT Coach | Nov 20, 2013 | Blogs by Gayle Swift, Faith and Values, Strengthening Family Relationships
We adoptive parents are thrilled to have our children in our lives. For most of us, the adoption process required determination, commitment, and persistence. Adoption changed everyone in the family, not just the adoptee. We all–parent, child, siblings,...
by GIFT Coach | Nov 8, 2013 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Faith and Values, Infant Adoption, Strengthening Family Relationships
In honor of National Adoption Month, we are sharing the insights of adoptees. We invited them to share any thoughts which might assist families currently raising their children. Our first guest blogger is Parker Swift, pictured at left at 22 months. He is now 28. I...
by GIFT Coach | Oct 23, 2013 | Birth parent relationships, General Discussion, Strengthening Family Relationships
As adoptive parents observe a warm relationship between their child and his birth parents, complicated emotions may arise. Along with joy, a subtle uneasiness, envy, or sense of competition may occur. Birth parents too, may experience similarly conflicted feelings....
by GIFT Coach | Sep 25, 2013 | General Discussion, Post Adoption Challenges & Behaviors, Strengthening Family Relationships, The Adoption Triad
According to Steven Covey, “The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are.” I would assert, that the pivot point which governs a parent/child relationship revolves around feelings–our own and...
by Gayle Swift | Sep 18, 2013 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Language, Strengthening Family Relationships
Last week we discussed the toxic effects of “Black Box” conversations: words that are so destructive that parents must commit to never speaking them. This week we want to focus on the conversations that others express within hearing distance of our...
