Planning an adoption shower for an internationally or domestically adopted toddler or older child? Here’s what to ask for.
Ask AF: Your Older Child’s First Day Home with You
A parent-to-be who’s adopting a four-year-old from foster care solicits advice about what to do that first day home and how to make it easier on the child.
“Parenting After Foster Adoption—Like Playing Jenga, Backward”
As a father who raised a child from birth and is now parenting older children adopted from foster care, I’ve come to see that the game and pieces may, indeed, be the same, but you have to play in an entirely different way.
Ask AF: Transitioning Children to Calling Us “Mom” and “Dad”
“My husband and I are working to adopt from foster care. How do we transition a child from calling us our first names to calling us ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’?”
“Letting the 13-Year-Old Drive”
How do you empower a child entering his teen years in a state of defeat, powerlessness, and utter self-disregard? You give him a key and tell him to take off!
“Anniversary”
One year after my daughter came to live with me from foster care, the memory was still too bittersweet for her. But today, two years after becoming mother and daughter, we are ready to celebrate.
Ask AF: How to Encourage a New-Sibling Bond?
“We adopted our 10-year-old daughter as an infant, and adopted her seven- and eight-year-old biological sisters last month. How can we help all three girls bond with each other?”
“Sometime in the Night”
In this personal essay, a single dad shares the story of the night he met his daughter in China.
“Where We All Belong”
When I was a teen, my parents decided to grow our family by adopting from foster care. How did it feel to suddenly gain four new brothers and sisters through adoption?
“We’ve Always Done It That Way”
The uncharted journey of our first Christmas together etched a road of new, heart-warming traditions.
“Front Porch Children”
Being a foster parent is not for the faint of heart. Your heart swells, loves, breaks, and heals with each placement—and it is all, every moment of it, worth it.
“We Are All Adopted”
From my own search for my roots through adopting older children from foster care, life has taught me to treasure my children’s biological connections while knowing that we don’t have to look alike to belong together.
Ask AF: Handling a Difficult Adjustment After Older Child Adoption
A single mother who’s adopting a boy from foster care seeks advice on a challenging older child adoption adjustment. Parents who have adopted older children respond.
“Adoption Is Not Second Best”
Near-strangers feel compelled to tell me about friends who got pregnant after adopting and say, “There’s still hope….” But I don’t hope for a biological child; I hope for a healthy relationship with my two kids.
Ask AF: When Kids Don’t Ask for Birth Family Contact
A mother who adopted older children asks what to say to her children’s birth grandparent when her children don’t ask for contact.
“Bonding with My Teen in the Baby Department”
My daughter came to me at nine years old, so neither of us knows what she looked like as a baby, but walking these aisles is a way for us to recreate what we both lost.
“An Unexpected Family”
For eight years, my wife and I watched our chances of having a baby evaporate. Then our eleven-year-old niece came to live with us, bringing with her a bittersweet deliverance.
Listen to the Children
A callous foster care system deprived her of parents and siblings and gave precious little in return.
Into the Safety of Our Hearts from Hard Places
Years of working with at-risk adopted children have taught us powerful truths about how to forge a strong parent-child connection. When children have experienced maltreatment or neglect prior to adoption, the idea of family may be confusing to them.
“Someone to Count On”
Four years ago, I legally became a mother. The adoption day was no less special because I had already been parenting Danielle for 15 months. On that day, I truly claimed my daughter. No one could take her away.