OK, enough already of me whining about Amy. I very much appreciate the comments from my readers who are supportive of me during my brief, but very real, “pity party.” I don’t do pity parties very often. Never found them to be too productive in addressing whatever issue I was pitying myself for… But the final hurrah around here this summer is getting to be very, very hard.


So, on to addressing another reader question. I was asked about the practice of adopting a child who disrupted from a previous family. The reader wanted to know if families were needed for that eventuality, and if so, how would one go about making that happen?


There was an article in USA Today in January of this year that addressed this “underground network”. The article denigrated parents, claiming families who take in kids from disrupted placements do so “for the money”. It says parents who “dump their children and run” do so because “It’s not the merchandise they bought.” The article does say some parents have purer motives…


It has been my experience that the families who contact ADN have been dedicated, grieving, exhausted and financially drained parents who have tried everything and then some to make the placement work. In the 10 years that ADN has existed, and especially in the past 6-7 years when I have received a larger volume of SOS emails and phone calls, I can only think of a few parents who wanted to “dump and run.” I have most certainly assisted families who are so close to falling off the cliff that they need the child out immediately or something horrible might happen. But those are folks who have endeavored to parent a difficult child for a very long time. Often by the time they get to me, they are way past repairing anything and need answers and options immediately if not sooner.

To be continued...