I have a rare treat coming up this weekend. I will have 24 precious hours all to myself. My husband is one of the chaperones on our church’s confirmation retreat. Our pastor has a daughter that this Hannah’s age, so Hannah will be going along to keep her company. I will be alone.

This is the perfect time for me to practice the self-care that I have written about so many times. I could spend this time doing things like cleaning the house, yard work, writing my paper for my bible study class or many other things that need to be done. However, these are precious... more

Formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is not a surprising diagnosis for kids who have been through traumatic events in their lives.

People may be frightened by the diagnosis of DID but its existence is perfectly logical. Some of our kids have been through horrific episodes of abuse and neglect. Estimates on the number of kids in foster care who have been sexually abused range from 75% - 85%. In case that isn’t traumatic enough, kids may have also suffered physical and emotional abuse as well as neglect in addition... more

Every so often on different on-line support groups some pretty heated discussions can take place over what people call their kids. A parent may refer to their child as their RADish or RADlet or their Aspie.

These are meant to be ways to distinguish the child they are talking about from their other children. The debate and argument comes from other parents feeling that the first parent is distinguishing their child as their disability.

Personally, these “names” don’t bother me because I know that the parents involved love their kids and that these... more

The Nebraska Safe Haven law was a very badly written law and the results were predictable. The law was very open ended and allowed parents to surrender children up to the age of 18. Then intent was to allow birth mothers the opportunity to relinquish a child they could not care for and prevent them from making other deadly decisions. Legislators could not agree on an upper age limit so they left it open to say “a child” and now teenagers are being surrendered.

There is a bright spot to this very bad law. USA Today ran an... more

I love this story. Why didn’t someone think of this years ago?

If you have a child with ADHD, is energetic or fidgety, you know that school can become a battle ground. Johnny won’t sit still. Johnny won’t stay in his seat. Johnny is always fidgeting. It can be frustrating for both the parent and the child and the child truly can’t help it. It is a chemical disorder in the child’s brain.

There is good news. A teacher decided to work with these kids and designed a desk that allows kids... more

My friend, Elaine, added a new child to her family with a diagnosis that I was totally unfamiliar with. I don’t claim to be an expert on special needs adoption, but I typically hear the same two dozen or so disorders when I talk to other parents. This one threw me for a loop and Elaine and I both researched it.

I went with Elaine to pick up this little boy and offer my insights as an impartial observer. I noticed obvious speech difficulties, possibly Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), attachment issues, sensory integration issues and a few things... more

There is a great piece of legislation that is being debated right now, and is long overdue for our kids.

The House and Senate both agree that the legislation is needed, they just differ on whether it stands on its own, or gets grouped together with some other things. What is this great piece of legislation?

It allows for mental health issues to be treated the same as medical issues. This means not limiting the number of treatments or sessions per year and allowing the same deductible as regular health insurance.

Interestingly, the proponents for... more

I was talking with a friend today and we were discussing what it is like to live with a child who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Effects. It is not easy.

There are several behavioral issues that are directly associated with fetal alcohol that drive most parents crazy. Even when you understand where these behaviors come from, they are still maddening.

Lack of impulse control – Children with fetal alcohol have poor impulse control. If they see something they want, they take it. Before or after the “event” they can tell you... more

For the purposes of adoption, special needs has a much broader definition than normal.

In general, a special need means that a person has a medical disability or developmental delay. This does apply in adoption as well, but it is not limited to that.

Many of the children that qualify as special needs for the purposes of adoption have a mental health diagnosis, or in many cases, several diagnoses.

There are several other criteria that qualify a child as special needs for adoption that have nothing to do with disabilities or disorders.

Age... more

Nothing ever seems to go just right or easy for my 15-year-old son with ADHD. He is smart, in fact he is very smart, at 15 he is a sophomore at the local community college. His younger brother is jealous of him, as many of the kids who know him are, because he is so smart. However, most do not realize how difficult life is for him. Everything seems to go wrong and for no reason. He has a good heart; he would do just about anything for anyone. Yet many people don’t like him. Adults think he is a know it all, rude, or disruptive. Other children think he is mean, too smart,... more