If your child was diagnosed with RAD, attachment disorder, PTSD, oppositional defiance disorder, or if there weren’t any diagnoses, but your child was neglected or abused, you may feel they won’t develop empathy. Heck, you may have even been told that your child will never show empathy. It’s not true. I know I brag about…
Read MoreAll articles filed in RAD
negativity is contagious (adoption/foster)
Ebooks have this nifty technology that enables a reader to highlight a section of text. If enough people highlight a passage, it will be underlined in every issue of that ebook sold. In some books I’ve read, hundreds of people have highlighted a section. I see it going like this: Reader sees underlined sentence. Reader…
Read Moremy wish for you in 2014
I’m not a fan of New Years resolutions. Probably because I’ve never made a serious one, and all I’ve really witnessed of those who make them is that they don’t follow through. I’ve been in the gym in January, and then again in May, and many of the fitness fanatics who began the year with…
Read Morethe importance of consistency & routine (adoption/foster)
I looked up “quotes on consistency” for this post. What I found was in direct contradiction to what I was looking for. Oscar Wilde says, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” Aldous Huxley said, “Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only complete consistent people are dead.” For the sake of…
Read MoreSanta’s big secret: to tell or not to tell (adoption/foster)
Our daughter’s been asking the question since she could talk, “How does Santa get in?” With no chimney protruding from our roof, our answer was, he’s magic. That response would appease most children. Not Payton. “Will he use the front door? Will you leave it unlocked?” Well, we didn’t want to cause worry, having her…
Read Morehardly typical (reposted from Moved by Mercy)
I found this beautiful post on Moved by Mercy. I have previously written about our daughter, Payton, and how, despite her setbacks, she has always been amazing with her brother. As I read this post I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Dave’s words describe so much of who she is. She has been dealt a blow…
Read Morethankful therapy
I thought the post I wrote last week would be the last one until after Thanksgiving, then I began thinking about just that; Thanksgiving, and what it means. If you’re on Facebook, you’ve seen people posting daily about what they’re thankful for. Awesome idea. But it’s hard to be thankful when your children are hurting,…
Read Moreavoid holiday hassles
We all know the holiday hoopla is fast approaching. Some of us look forward to it, but for many it brings a mixture of depression and anxiety, filling us until it’s all over and we can say it’s two-thousand-fourteen. No matter where we find ourselves, many of us will be visiting family or friends during…
Read Morethe lies our children believe (adoption/foster)
It’s difficult to see through the anger, the hate, the attitudes. If our children have created coping mechanisms, it can be almost impossible to see through the smiles, the laughing, and the efforts they make to see us happy. What can’t we see through all of this? The lies our children believe; lies about themselves,…
Read Morewe are our child’s best therapist
“After a hard days work, you don’t want to come home and be the therapist.” This statement was made by the father of an Autistic boy after a new therapy office specific to helping children with Autism opened up in our semi-small town. This dad wanted the work to be done by therapists, but he…
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lovin' adoptin' & autism 