The beginning of a new year always finds me buried knee deep in paperwork. Like most people who are expecting a tax refund, we like to file as soon as possible. In order to pull that off by the first week of February I need to begin sorting paperwork and entering numbers now. This is partly because we have a farm that makes many of our purchases and utilities tax deductible. On top of that we finalized two adoptions during 2007, so that adds another stack of paperwork. One of our adoptions has a fixed deductible not requiring any receipts because it was considered... more

My friend Nancy over on the Reactive Attachment Disorder blog has my wheels turning. Recently her two older adopted children have publicly questioned (on her blog) her decisions to talk the challenges of parenting them. Nancy’s probably the most straight-forward person you’ll ever meet. We tease Super Dad that he’s incredibly blunt, but Nancy could give him a run for his money.

One of the things that Nancy and I see eye-to-eye on is that Nancy is a truth teller. (This is not to imply that others do not tell the truth.) What I mean is that Nancy believes telling the truth, for truth’s sake, is important. Guess... more

I mentioned a question in a previous blog that I received in an email from a college student who wanted to ask me about parenting special needs children for a project she was working on. Boy did she ask some loaded questions. I thought I would share another of her questions with you along with my response.

“What obstacles have you overcome as a result of adopting special needs children?”

One of the first things we learned was... more

Kelly posted on the Saint Syndrome recently. Don’t we all cringe at “You are such a saint” or any variation of that theme! I think I’ve heard them all. “She’s so lucky,” “You’re doing such a great thing,” even “I don’t know HOW you do it” bugs me. Because, let’s face it, what’s the alternative at this point – either to raise LuLu or to not raise her? What does not “doing it” look like?

The rest of the world doesn’t know how to respond to those of us parenting... more

An article yesterday in Reuters Health by Amy Norton said that people who live with chronic distress through their lives might end up with a mild cognitive impairment, characterized by persistent memory difficulties, like forgetting names or misplacing things. Eventually it can evolve into advanced dementia. Nearly15 percent of older adults may have a mild cognitive impairment, which... more

It is not always possible to potty train a child with severe special needs. Some children may not have the mental capacity to identify the “urge” with actually going to the bathroom nor are they concerned with their personal hygiene. Some children continually leak urine. They must wear adult diapers 24 hours a day and regular potty training is probably out of the question.

Changing a wet diaper isn’t a big deal. However, if you have ever changed a soiled diaper on a teenager or even on a preteen you know just how foul smelling... more

You and your family have decided to adopt a special needs child. So how can your family decide which special needs to consider and which special needs won’t work with your family’s lifestyle? How do you go about finding a special needs child who needs a forever family?

First, look at some of the state adoption websites like North West Adoption Exchange, or The Adoption Exchange and national adoption websites like Adopt... more

You may be having difficulty with a specific issue with your child and wish you could get some training to help. Sometimes you just can’t get away for a whole day of training or maybe there aren't any seminars scheduled in your area. There are training options available on the internet and some offer certificates that you can print upon completion to document your training. If you require training for your agency, or adoptive homestudy, please verify that your agency will accept online training certificates, before proceeding.

There are... more