Lindsay and Ryan began their adoption journey as many people do, envisioning an infant who would transform them from a couple into a growing family. But within months of starting
Practical Tips for Fostering a Sibling Group
Social workers usually make a significant effort to keep siblings together, especially if the children’s case is moving toward adoption. While there is always a need for more resource parents,
Expanding Our Capacity to Love
After seven years of marriage, Gretchen and Jill Rode were ready to add a child to their lives. The two Lutheran pastors in St. Paul, Minnesota applied to the infant
Keeping Your Cool When Your Kids Are Losing Theirs
It is disheartening to feel you are losing your cool with your children as often as they are losing theirs! Keeping your cool while your kids are losing theirs is
Celebrating Pride Month: Why Reading LGBTQ+ Books is Essential for Children
As we celebrate Pride Month, we are reminded that inclusivity and acceptance are values that should be fostered from an early age. One powerful way to introduce children to the
Understanding the Losses Foster & Kinship Kids Experience
When your family welcomes a new foster child or a relative child for kinship care, it’s critical to recognize that this child is experiencing grief and loss. Regardless of how
Prenatal Exposure – Part 2: Parenting Tweens and Teens
What is Prenatal Exposure? While a mother is pregnant, using drugs or drinking alcohol of any kind can cause malformations in a developing baby. It’s difficult to separate the effects
Prenatal Exposure – Part 1: Parenting Babies through Elementary Ages
In the adoptive, foster, and kinship community, there’s often a wide range of what parents know about the child’s birth parents. Frequently, information about the birth mother’s prenatal care can
5 Tips to Help Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
There are many factors that lead to grandparents raising grandchildren. There are just as many factors that make this a hard row to hoe at this stage of your life.
Are You Ready for Transracial Adoptive Parenting?
Parenting an adopted child requires extra attention to issues you might not need when raising biological children. Additional layers exist when you are preparing to adopt a child of another
