by Gayle Swift | Feb 5, 2012 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Blogs by Gayle Swift, General Discussion, Post Adoption Challenges & Behaviors, The Adoption Triad
Recently I shared a conversation with an adult who was adopted as a newborn. She described the soup of emotions that she felt toward her birth-mother. To this day, she maintains a strong current of anger, hurt, frustration, and lack of control. This pain co-exists...
by Sally A | Oct 30, 2011 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Blogs by Sally Ankerfelt, Foster Parenting, General Discussion
Here at GIFT Family Services, we speak about creating “intentional” adoptive or foster families. One important aspect of being an intentional family is having a vision with goals and values rather than making things up as we go along. Being intentional...
by susand | Sep 23, 2011 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Blogs by Susan David, Foster Parenting, General Discussion, Strengthening Family Relationships
Being a parent is a huge undertaking. Dah! “Tell me something I don’t know!” is perhaps what you are thinking! And, another revelation, sometimes being a teen is a difficult task! I am reminded of a cartoon that I saw recently while flipping through...
by Gayle Swift | Sep 18, 2011 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Blogs by Gayle Swift, Difficult Discussions, Foster Parenting, General Discussion, Strengthening Family Relationships
Weaving family relationships with a child who has experienced trauma requires a well-stocked parenting toolbox. Unlike Dominoes which always fall in predictable directions when nudged, children sometimes respond to a technique and sometimes they do not. A successful...
by Sally A | Jul 24, 2011 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, Blogs by Sally Ankerfelt, Foster Parenting, General Discussion, Post Adoption Challenges & Behaviors, Strengthening Family Relationships
Not long ago, I returned from work to find my soon-to-be 20 year-old daughter frantically washing her clothes. Just that morning, she had called to announce that she was heading back to the birth family and town she left behind eight short years earlier when she...