A mom and her daughter share lessons learned about older child adoption.
Winning Your Child’s Trust Around the Dinner Table
In an excerpt from her guide to enjoying family meals, our childhood feeding specialist explains how to show your foster or adopted children love through food.
7 Ways to Give Your Child a History
When a child is adopted from foster care at an older age, he needs to understand his story up to placement and the significance of his joining a new family forever. Here are hands-on activities you can use to start this conversation.
Ask AF: How Grandparents Can Support Older Child Attachment
My son and daughter-in-law recently adopted a five-year-old from Ethiopia. They told us we cannot hold, hug, or kiss our grandson.
Discipline in Older-Child Adoption
Our older child adoption expert explains what works, and what is sure to fail when disciplining your child.
Small Wonders: Adopting a Toddler
Straddling the line between infancy and autonomy, toddlers experience adoption in unique ways. Here’s what you need to know to face the challenge.
Ask AF: When a Child Calls Every Woman “Mommy”
Our three-year-old has been through several foster placements and calls nearly every woman she comes in contact with “Mommy.”
[Book Review] The Boy Who Built a Wall Around Himself
AF’s editors review The Boy Who Built a Wall Around Himself, a story to help teach adoptive children that it’s OK to let their defenses down and trust.
Ask AF: Considering Disruption
Answers to your parenting questions.
“Our Love Stayed with Him”
As foster parents, you hope that the love and security you offer will stay in a child’s heart. When we reconnected with a boy we fostered through two reunifications 14 years ago, we found that it had.
“My 10-Year-Old Nephew’s Adoption Day”
Seventeen of us crowded into the court as witnesses to my nephew’s finalization, bringing an end to 10 years spent in foster care—10 years of waiting for this day.
Choosing Which Age Group to Adopt
For lots of adoptive parents, the hardest part of the process is the “choice” — particularly what age they should adopt.
Ask AF: Keeping a Child’s Immunizations on Track
Answers to your parenting questions.
Older Child Adoption — Becoming a Family
In this collection, adoptive parents share their experiences of parenting older children they’ve adopted and offer wisdom on that initial adjustment period.
“Through the Glass”
When people learned I was pregnant, they were surprised that I was still planning to adopt.
“Bonding with My Daughters Over Pink Nail Polish”
My first 19 years of parenting were spent learning the scientific names of dinosaurs and organizing a bug collection. Was I ready to parent preteen girls?
“Overcoming Malnutrition with Pizza, Pasta, and ‘Dabo'”
How a cooking-impaired mom managed a happy Thanksgiving.
“Redefining Perfect”
After giving birth to a boy and a girl, I had what other people defined as a “million dollar family.” A few years later, family and friends questioned our decision to adopt two older children, out of birth order, when we had the “perfect” family.
“Deciding to Adopt Older Siblings from Foster Care”
At first, we envisioned welcoming a baby into our home. But we soon discovered that adopting older children was right for us.
“Taking Moms for Granted”
We try to teach our daughter Mariah gratitude. But I know we’re doing something right when she takes us for granted.