Search Results for: my kids are in foster care

Mommy Addictions

Two words: Downton Abbey. After a hard day scrubbing filthy floors, washing stacks of soiled dishes, sorting mountains of dirty laundry, chasing unruly kids, cooking, chauffeuring, and calming crying babies, moms deserve a break; a chance to relax, unwind and indulge in something that brings them peace, repose and otherwise rejuvenates their spirit. According to an unscientific survey, these days, those highly anticipated (though extremely rare) Mommy breaks are being spent in front of a television screen fostering an addiction to Downton Abbey. The entire universe is reportedly enraptured by the ITV/PBS drama set in early 20th Century England, but … Continue reading →

Some Parts Of Our Kids Are On a Need To Know Basis

One part of adopting a child with a history of abuse and neglect is that there are times when you need to discuss it. My oldest son Steve was taken from his biological mother when she was arrested while using him to shop lift; he was only 2 when he was put in foster care. There are a few things that you need to know about Steve the first, he has epilepsy. His epilepsy is controlled in the aspect that you do not see him falling on the floor in a seizure but when they run his annual EEG they … Continue reading →

Foster Parents Part 2

Take a moment to think about this, how many times has your child had to work on a project for school where they were to bring pictures of them when they were younger? Now imagine you had none to give your child how would your child feel? Most good foster parents create a book that the child can take with them to wherever their next home may be. This book is called a life book and it basically shows their life since they were in foster care. Most children in the system have no pictures from before they were put … Continue reading →

Does My Son Have Epilepsy?

My oldest son came to be ours when he was three years old, he had been in foster care for a year before him and his brother joined our family. When he came home we knew there would be an adjustment time for him especially because he is the oldest. He barely knew us and we barely knew him, yet here we are a brand new family. We noticed that he would start staring off and we thought it was just him being a normal toddler, spacing out and ignoring his parents. We never realized that this zoning out could … Continue reading →

My passion for this cause…

It’s becoming irrational. I wish I could fully express it, I wish I could make you understand, and I wish I could make you feel it too. I mentioned in an earlier post that I remember, from my childhood, wondering why more people didn’t adopt. I remember having the understanding that there were children who desperately needed homes and not understanding why more people didn’t take them in. I remember discussing adoption with my husband. I remember when we realized that we were in a position to do this, that we had reached a point where we felt ready, and … Continue reading →

Helping Children with Special Needs Thrive in Foster Care

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Department of Health and Human Services, there are over 500,000 children and youth living in foster care in the US. Of those children, many have disabilities, and have been in foster care for four or more years. Most of these children have been in situations that have left them vulnerable to emotional, behavior and mental disabilities as well. Their chance at a healthy development has been significantly diminished and research depicts them as being in worse health than homeless children are. On average, they have experienced over 14 different risk … Continue reading →

Our Foster Placements

We got our first foster placement on November 2, 2007. The baby was the most beautiful thing. Pumpkin was 11 days old. She was a wonderful and easy baby. Our second placement followed closely on the heels of the first. I couldn’t hold fast to our plan to start slow and foster only one when we were told the child shared my sister and niece’s (her daughter) birthday. Gemini was 21 months old and so smart. She celebrated her second birthday in our home. She grew and changed so much in the four months she was a member of our … Continue reading →

My Last Blog

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This is going to be my last blog as the Adoption Blogger for Families.com. I’m looking forward to spending the summer with my kids, possibly working at their school, and taking on new writing projects. I may well guest blog occasionally for this or other Families blogs. It seems the Adoption Blog will continue, so I hope this blog, along with Families’ forums, can be a source of information and community for adoptive parents, adoptees, and birth parents. Yesterday I could think of a million things to say in my last few blogs and wondered how I would fit it … Continue reading →

Book Review: All About Adoption:How Families Are Made and How Kids Feel About It

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All About Adoption: How Families Are Made and How Kids Feel About It is a book from Magination Press, which specializes in titles helping children understand tough situations or deal with feelings. (Magination Press is also the publisher of Maybe Days, a Book about Foster Care.) All About Adoption authors Marc Nemiroff and Jane Annunziata are both clinical psychologists specializing in families and children. All About Adoption starts out by saying “there are lots of different ways to have a baby. ..some parents have one baby..and some parents have two or three babies all at once. “Babies grow inside a … Continue reading →

“Big Fat Greek Wedding” Star Advocates for Foster Adoption”

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I’ve written about Angelina Jolie, Katherine Heigl and Madonna adopting internationally, and about Sheryl Crow adopting an infant and Sandra Bullock’s adoption of an African-American infant from New Orleans. (Breaking news on Bullock: gossip sites like “Anything Hollywood”and “igossip” are saying Bullock wants to adopt a sibling for Louis, and wants to start the process now and hope that it won’t take as long as Louis’ adoption. Bullock and her then-husband Jesse James applied to adopt nearly four years ago. I haven’t heard any mainstream verification of this, though. ) It seems rarer to hear about celebrities adopting from foster … Continue reading →