In this blog, I wrote about Andrew Bridge, a former foster child who became an attorney and now advocates on behalf of foster children and kids in the system. Andrew has made it his mission to address the deficiencies in how America approaches its troubled children—a passion I share. I indicated in my previous blog that I was looking for him; therefore, I was pleased to receive an email from him a couple of days ago. Apparently, he reads the blog! (In my Googling to find contact info... more

Continuing with my interview with Mike O’Connor, author of Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run., my next question was:

How do you relate trust and love? How does lack of trust affect a loving relationship?

For me personally, it would kill it. Some relationships are built on lack of trust. For... more

I mentioned in this post how I managed to find a few hours one weekend to read a book. The book I read was Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run. I blogged about it shortly after I finished reading it.

Imagine my surprise to receive an email from the... more

I don’t have much time to read—Reader’s Digest and the highly accurate and sophisticated People magazine are about my speed. Short bytes in short time frames. It was in People magazine that I read a book review about Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run. The write-up sounded interesting, so I went online to my local library and queued up to get the book. Apparently others thought it sounded interesting as well, because it took over a month for it to become available.

It is... more

I have been sick since returning from Colorado. I don’t do sick well … I have way too much to do. But I spent all day yesterday in bed reading a book that was recommended to me by a family I met at Memorial Day weekend Family camp. The book was a NY best seller titled The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Seems I’m reading lots about other peoples’ daughters these days, having just read ... more

Last October I received a book in the mail, and because I had just moved for the second time that year, and because my life was upside down, I put the book on a shelf and forgot about it. That is, until Cindy Bodie blogged about it and I just had to read it. So I did, and then I blogged about it.

The book is An Unlit Path by Deborah Hannah. Those of you interested... more

While I was on vacation, I actually had the opportunity to read a book. Significant opportunity, in fact, because it rained so much of the time. It has been so long since I have had time to read a book for more than a few brief moments, I was shocked when I actually read a whole book in one day! I only took one with me, and I had the time to read two.

The book I did complete, however, was one I learned about from the May/June issue of Fostering Families Magazine. The book... more

Continuing with my series on abuse allegations and indicators of a highly stressed foster or adoptive family, in this post I want to address how the provider’s agency or community can exacerbate or relieve these stresses. I am continuing to draw information from Jodee Kulp’s book.

Sometimes the following negative contributions from the provider’s agency or community can be the straw that breaks the camel’s... more

Continuing with my discussion of abuse allegations levied against foster and adoptive parents, I want to share with you some of the amazing wisdom found in Jodee Kulp’s excellent book, Families at Risk; A guide to understanding and protecting children and providers involved in out-of-home or adoptive care.

In the preface, Jodee sets the tone by stating:

As adults, we may want to excuse our behavior or blame the child when the real solution... more

It seems inconceivable to me that I could be so overcome with emotion merely by reading this book, and that it would take me a few days to recover. I thought I was further down the path than this. After all, my tough kids are gone. I’m the one who holds the hands of moms these days, not the other way around. Actually, I have been holding moms’ hands for a decade now, even as some of my close ADN friends were still holding mine. I was once told by a therapist that I should not have started ADN until after I had “recovered” from my own experiences,... more