Posts Tagged ‘Attachment’

What Does Therapy Look Like? Part 2

This is Part Two of a post on Attachment Therapy. Read Yesterday’s Post. I marvel at the way Deborah draws as she talks. Dimples eyes stay focused on the page as Deborah illustrates the situation she is discussing. Then she engages Dimples in conversation, often while Dimples adds details...

February 13th, 2010 | Attachment, Ethiopia, Feature | Read More

What Does Therapy Look Like? Part 1

There was a time last year when I didn’t know if we could survive the impact that grief, loss, and trauma were having on our family. After 22 months of tumult, with the situation worsening, we finally sought professional help. We were 20 months later than we should have been. I learned some...

February 12th, 2010 | Attachment, Ethiopia, Feature | Read More

Looking Back To See What’s In Front Of You

I’ve played out the end of this surrogacy journey over and over in my head. I planned and prepared very early on to be sad when it was done, and got ripped a new one on a certain surrogacy “support” site for stating that expectation out loud. How dare I? It seemed that the upset was not over that...

December 29th, 2009 | Feature | Read More

Three Therapeutic Tips for a Merry Christmas

Christmas is nearly here; for those of us with children from the “hard places” , the holidays are approached with a mix of hope and trepidation. We know that Christmas may be a delightful day of joy, or a terrible day of rages and stress. The good news is that we can take steps to...

December 12th, 2009 | Feature | Read More

Giving Thanks in a world of RAD

It’s been a tough ride around here lately…but something changed. I think it’s me and I wonder why I couldn’t have done it a long time ago. RAD isn’t funny. I know that…but humor and a thankful spirit can, in fact, get a person through very dark days and nights and bring them out on...

November 25th, 2009 | Attachment, Feature | Read More

Is it Supposed to Be This Easy?

I used to talk with friends at lunch about how I was preparing myself for the “worst”…reading up on FAS, sensory issues, making sure I baby-proofed everything and they thought I was crazy. They told me that that having children was supposed to be easy. That attachment and bonding came...

November 16th, 2009 | Attachment, Guatemala, Russia | Read More

“How’s Your Heart?”: Filling My Adopted Child’s Heart

Our first reports of Dimples used words such as “active” and “energetic”. We chuckled a little, knowing that those presumably understated words could describe some of our other children. Then my friend went to visit Dimples and wrote to me: “She is absolutely the most outgoing...

October 20th, 2009 | Feature, HIV + Children | Read More

Attachment Activities for Adopted Toddlers

Every newly adopted toddler needs fun attachment activities to promote bonding and help them feel more comfortable in their new surroundings and with their new family. Here is a fabulous list from a variety of my favorite websites. Cherrio Kisses: Place a Cherrio between your lips and allow the baby...

October 4th, 2009 | Attachment, Feature | Read More

Post Adoption Depression and Attachment Disorder…are They Linked?

The other day I heard a news blurb about the life-long debate of which came first between the chicken and the egg. The big outcome was that they both came at the same time. Admittedly, I didn’t hear the whole story – or at least not without interruption – so I may have missed a bit of the...

September 30th, 2009 | Attachment, Feature | Read More

Raising responsible children…or not

DS2 left yesterday. It’s not quite as dramatic as all that. He went on a school trip, to the mountains for 4 days and 3 nights without us. DS1 did this same thing a couple of years ago, but the stress level is a little higher for this one. I just want him to succeed SO badly. I want him...

September 27th, 2009 | Attachment, Feature | Read More