by Gayle Swift | May 22, 2019 | General Discussion
My GIFT colleagues and I have just returned from our annual retreat. Because we live in different states, we believe it is important to get together and reconnect. It’s one of the ways in which we invest in our relationship both as colleagues and as friends. It’s also...
by Gayle Swift | Apr 23, 2019 | General Discussion
My son celebrated his thirty-fourth birthday recently. For the first time in several years, his birth mother was not here to join us in person although she most certainly was present in spirit, in my own heart and most assuredly in our son’s. Over the years...
by Gayle Swift | Mar 13, 2019 | Blogs by Gayle Swift, General Discussion
Last week’s conversation about family traditions got me thinking about how traditions help create a thread of continuity through the generations. Adoptive families want to be intentional in finding ways to establish and nurture a sense of connection within our nuclear...
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 | Jan 23, 2019 | Adoptive Parenting Skills/Tool, General Discussion
I took a class this weekend to learn about native plants for the garden in my new house. The most basic rule the instructor stated was to choose the right plant for the given location. Consider the weeping willow and the cactus. While each plant is lovely, they could...