A friend’s daughter was diagnosed with precocious puberty. I can not begin to imagine what both she and her daughter are going through.

If you don’t know what precocious puberty is, it is the very early onset of puberty. This girl is five years old and is going through the bodily changes that had a girl would normally go through at the age of 10, 11 or 12. I’ll leave the details at that. I think you can figure it out.

When we were looking for a placement, we looked at a profile for a little who was diagnosed with precocious puberty. When I read more about it,... more

There are times in your adoption journey and parenting when you know you have done something right. Mine happened this weekend.

In stark contrast to the lukewarm response I received when I visited Sammy in his new foster home,the reception I received from Hannah was beautiful and heartwarming.

I was apart from Hannah for forty eight hours, which is the longest I have been away from her in the ten months she has been with us. I attended my bible study class, and then Hannah... more

How long does it take for a foster child to get over the trauma of their early abuse or neglect? This is a question I am pondering. I have been blogging about my own abuse, and I’ve been very honest about what happened to me.

This past weekend, when I was at my women’s retreat, I was talking to a friend who goes to a different church than I do. They are dealing with the issue... more

I have seen this on several different discussion groups, and it’s been bothering me. Parents are willing to accept that their child has attachment issues, but when it is diagnosed as “full blown RAD”, then they panic.

As Nancy has said, attachment is a continuum. Yes, some children have more attachment issues than other, and some can ‘heal” faster than others, but adding one letter to a diagnosis shouldn’t be something this scary.

When I look up the symptoms for attachment disorder... more

I missed a team meeting for Sammy today. I have never missed one before, and it’s my own fault because I had the date wrong. I received a call from the foster care coordinator asking if I was coming. I started to head up to the meeting and was part way there when they called me back and said they were done and I did not need to come if I didn’t want to.

They also informed me that Sammy was in a very foul mood, so I opted out. In the history of all Sammy’s treatments, meetings, staffings, etc., I have never done this. However…I did not feel the need to continue... more

Do you really like talking about sex with your kids? When is the right age to talk about it? How much information do you give? What if your child has been sexually abused? What if your child knows more about sex than you do?

Dealing with sex with a “normal” child is hard. Throw in the complications of a child who has been sexually abused, has witnessed sex, or may be a perpetrator, and you have a conundrum you’d probably rather avoid.

Our sex talks with Sammy began very early. At five years old, his knowledge was quite extensive. I knew about his abuse... more

Have you ever had a time when you wore a piece of clothing and it bothered you so much you couldn’t wait to get out of it? Or had a headache or migraine and every little noise bothered you? What if you lived like that every day of your life?

The signs of SID can be difficult to determine since they overlap so many other disorders.

Overly sensitive to touch, movement, sights, or sounds Under reactive to touch, movement, sights, or sounds Easily distracted Social and/or emotional problems Activity... more

I intended to blog about this yesterday, but we have been having trouble with our internet connection at our house. It will go out for hours at a time, and then just come back on. We never know when this is going to happen so I will be “dripping” some blogs in, in case my internet should die again.

The “real” name for Autism is the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This is because Autism has a wide range of issues and how severely kids are affected by it. It can range from kids who are non-verbal an uncommunicative to kids on the very high functioning end or Asperger... more

What happens once you have been matched with a child and you begin the pre-placement visits, or the child moves into your home? What do you do with this child? How do you know what they like or don’t like? What if the child won’t talk? Here are some activities that you can do together that also promote bonding and attachment.

Board games – We have loads of board games in our house. Sorry, Monopoly, Scrabble, Candy Land, Battleship, and tons of others. Having a wide variety of games available lets your child make a choice of what to play.... more

In my previous blog, I posted the “story” that Sammy wrote about his life with attachment disorder.

There were some positive things in it. The fact that he acknowledged his current situation of being in trouble with the law and being in a treatment foster home is about as close as we get to him taking responsibility for his actions.

It is also the first time that he has put into the words the fact that he doesn’t trust people. He has never verbalized... more