Part One

My primary goal for visiting with the head of congregational care was to make her aware of the presence of the Attachment Disorder Network, and the services we could offer to families struggling with emotionally disturbed, attachment-affected kids. I know for a fact that there are many adoptive families in the church. When I spoke a week ago to the local county foster parent association, I was told over half of the... more

I spoke to a room full of foster parents tonight. I spent an obscene amount of time yesterday working on my presentation… rearranging my slides and editing Nancy Ashe’s amazing video from our conference last year. I never could get PowerPoint to play the videos right in the presentation… I finally decided I would just open them separately in Window’s Media Player. I even downloaded a program designed to address that and it didn’t play the clips correctly.

So today I burned a DVD and headed off to speak…. And once again was plagued... more

My dogs are happily snoozing after eating some delicious kibble enhanced with beef juice from a recent pot roast. They are oblivious to the million things on my “to do” list today. This is yet another run-around day where the hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

I spoke with a mom this morning that has a clone of my Amy, and a variation of my Tommy. She lives in another state, but that doesn’t matter. Few (if any) states provide services for the Tommys or Amys of the world. Although the judge involved in this mom’s situation praised the... more

I feel as if I have been hit by a Mack truck today. I could explain it away as just physical fatigue as I try and catch up from a wild weekend followed by a non-stop past 3 days. Or I could just acknowledge what I think it really is… emotional overload from reading and processing Deborah Hannah’s book.

I spoke with Deborah several times yesterday. We have much, much in common. Except I was surprised and saddened to realize she really, truly did make this walk entirely alone. She never knew of the existence of ADN (although someone somewhere... more

As I mentioned previously, I read An Unlit Path in two installments… the first one in the car, using a penlight, on the way home from Chicago last weekend, and the second one late Monday night when I should have been catching up on my sleep from a grueling weekend! In between those two opportunities to read, I scoped out Deborah Hannah’s website. The picture you see here shows Deb, her husband Joe, and five kids. Hmmmnn, I thought, I am reading about a family that has four biological kids, an... more

Argghhh! To say this was another crazy day would be the understatement of the century. Hardly anything I planned to do got done…. But that is not to say it hasn’t been a productive day. It is horribly cold here, so walking just doesn’t seem appealing, not to mention since I didn’t stretch yesterday before doing my 4+ miles, my shins are screaming today… This is the first time…late in the afternoon…that I have had a moment to blog.

I started the day by having a telephone conversation with the therapist that prompted me... more

A long time ago I complained to a friend of mine that my schedule for the day was shot, thanks to all the unexpected things that life tends to throw your way. And my friend responded… “That’s what you get for making a schedule!” I have thought of that so many times.

Well, today was one of those days. I have had a box of pictures sitting on my entry way floor for weeks, waiting to be hung on the bare walls. I keep thinking, “Today will be the day.” But thus far, that “today” has not come.

... more

As Foster and I wrapped up our conversation, I reminded him that without his Love and Logic method, and without having been handed his book, Hope for High Risk and Rage-filled Children, my family and I would probably still be lost. Although I am still disgusted that I had to work so hard to get some answers, I am sure glad he didn’t hang up the attachment piece of his work before I learned about it.

We again discussed the difficult climate in America today for families with extremely disturbed children, and Foster reiterated,

I think that... more

When Foster and I were talking about the impact he has had upon parents—both as a psychiatrist and as the co-founder of the Love and Logic Institute—I told him about my introduction to his books and his philosophies.

I have a friend in Indiana who is a female walking, talking Foster Cline. She had adopted a sibling group of three, and they had really given her a run for her money. She was also a social worker! Somewhere along the way, she discovered Love and Logic, and by the time I met her in the early... more

(Seventh in a series)

When I asked Foster about calling Russ Colburn for his comments as well, Foster was not sure Russ would want to be involved about articles in attachment anymore because...

the issues around attachment therapy are easily criticized; angry, negative people are vocal, often adept at stirring things up, vilifying those they never even met—while those who are satisfied and have been helped get on with their quiet, effective, and functional lives.

Foster travels the United States and the world writing and talking about Parenting... more