Perspectives on Challenged Family Building

Welcome to Part Two of our post, designed to help adoptive mothers, in particular, know they are the right parent for their troubled son or daughter. Part One explored the types of feelings and questions a parent can develop when presented with the challenge of parenting a child with a history of trauma. Frequently, such [...]

It is very common for adoptive parents, especially adoptive mothers, to ask, “Am I the ‘right’ mother for this child?”  A child with a history of trauma, abandonment, institutionalization, abuse, neglect, pre-natal drug/alcohol exposure, brings to the home significant challenges. These issues don’t always simply fade with affection and time. That is, “love isn’t always [...]

It seems fitting that our first post after the start of the New Year contains a wish for peace. Peace in the family is a resolution worth making and attaining.

Peace, in the family, begins with the parental statement, “I will be calmer in 2010.” In reality, this means learning to bypass angry interactions that occur [...]