Reactive Attachment Disorder World: Life is Never Boring
Emily Simmons days before leaving Russia for her new home in the U.S. Several of my children live in Reactive Attachment Disorder World. We're trying to teach them how to live in…
Category
Adoption
How to Soothe our Pain When we Can’t Help who we Want to Help
Some of my little friends from Far East, Russia Marina was seven and Jula was five, like my daughter-to-be. I don’t know how old Jenya, Maksím, André, Dasha, Ksenya and Natasha were,…
You Don’t Need to be as Wrong as I Was
Her name was Marina. She was one of the sweetest, prettiest, shyest little girls I had ever met. She was almost seven when she handed me a beautifully completed sheet from a…
Reactive Attachment Disorder Measuring Success
Because some of our children have Reactive Attachment Disorder measuring success is hard to do and that leaves us, as parents, frustrated. My wife sprang a leak. Water ran from both eyes, down…
The Real Reason for a Decline in Adoptions
As Seen on Adoption.net Recently, my Google alerts for “adoption” and “international adoption” went crazy. It seemed that every news outlet in the U.S. had picked up on the story. International adoptions…
How to Fix Your Child With a Magic Wand
My oldest daughter hadn’t been home from Russia for a month before we noticed her pointing pencils or other objects at us while contorting her eyes and face. Emily had come from…
Get Close Enough to Help People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Psychologists call them triggers. They could be events, objects, sensory stimulations or even words. When a person who has experienced severe trauma is confronted with anything that they have psychologically associated with…
Something we All Agree on
One of my friends says he’s “probably an atheist.” Another friend says that evidence indicates there is a creator, but not a personal and active god. I’m a Christian. I have friends…
The Adoption System Isn’t Fair
As Seen in Huffington Post I can’t stand the waiting! I don’t know if I can handle another failed referral. What if they change their minds? What if I don’t get picked?…
Reactive Attachment Disorder I Need Your Help withThree Things
Because my daughter has Reactive Attachment Disorder I need your help with three things. Some people think that RAD means my daughter can’t emotionally attach to others. It doesn’t. Attachment is like…
Playing to Your Strengths - The First Step in Adoption
Were you raised in a multi-ethnic family or neighborhood? Do you have lots of friends and family who would crush people that made an issue out of race? Maybe you had a…
Adopting a Child with Down Syndrome: Winning in Vegas
Our family was so wrong. We thought that adopting a child with Down syndrome would be about what we could do for him. The error of thinking like that was one of the first of…