Tag Archives: respite care

Special Needs Adoption

As you may remember one part of the adoption application was to consider what type of child you would consider. You may think that is an easy question, it is actually one of the most complex questions. When you hear the term special needs adoption you may automatically think of a child who has physical disabilities. While children with physical disabilities are special needs children there is also many other conditions or circumstances that would make the child a special needs child. Some of the other reasons that a child may be labeled as special needs are: • If they … Continue reading →

Mentor Family?

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I contacted the adoption recruiter regarding one of the girls we were matched with, and instead of putting me in touch with her social worker she informed me that this girl is sort of freaked out about the idea of adoption, and she asked whether we would be interested in starting out as a mentor family. That is all the information I have for the time being. She just left me wondering… What does that mean? Is this just a way of slowly introducing her to a family? Is this a one time thing, a way of easing her into … Continue reading →

More Ways to Help Foster Children

In a recent blog,I wrote about helping foster kids prepare for life after they turn 18, when they will likely lose their outside support systems—both financial and emotional. In the next blog I wrote about how you might help by tutoring, mentoring, serving as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Volunteer, becoming a foster parent or adopting an older child. This blog will discuss a few more ways to help foster children. First, there’s my fellow blogger Kori’s great idea on donating your kids’ old things to the foster care system. This seems to me to be an especially good idea … Continue reading →

The Pros and Cons of Hospice Care

Recent articles in the New England Journal of Medicine report that Americans are not taking advantage of high quality hospice care at the end of life. One author from Harvard Medical School points out that only a third of Americans are under hospice care when they pass away. High quality hospice care is intended to help a terminally ill person deal with pain and live the best life possible in their final days. Emotional support is just as important as medical support during this time. A recent survey found that almost all families who had experienced hospice care would strongly … Continue reading →