Listener Jamie asks, how do we prepare the kids already in our home for the journey into foster care? This is something as parents we do not always consider, especially if the kids already in our home are very young. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about ways to help kids prepare for and deal [...]
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Preparing Those Who Are Walking Alongside You
Listener Jamie asks the team about resources for family members and friends to help educate them on how they can best support their family as they navigate foster care and adoption journeys. [podbean resource="episode=ukvtf-94d616" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Resources Mentioned in the Episode The Whole Brain Child TBRI Overview Video The Science [...]
5 Books For Your Summer Reading List
School’s out for the summer, so we thought we would share some of our favorite books with you. Each one of these has changed the way we look at the world and has impacted how we understand ourselves and our family. In short, each of these books has changed the way we relate to people [...]
How to Love Our Children When We Don’t Like Them
Whether we admit it or not, it's a thought adoptive and foster parents have at least once: how do I love my child when I don't like them? Chris, Kayla, and Ryan explore this in detail, starting with the need to continually remember behavior is an expression of a need. We need to do the [...]
Preparing Kids for Summer Camp
Listener Jeremy wants to know about prepping kids from hard places for summer camps, so Ryan, Kayla, and Chris discuss the best ways to manage this. They also discuss how those working at these camps might be able to help out in that environment. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Sky Ranch @ Horn Creek Adoptive [...]
Stuck
I don't like feeling stuck. Not physically stuck, although I don't particularly care for that either, but emotionally stuck. A place where my emotions seem to take over at a moments notice. I seem to be sailing through my day and wham, out of nowhere I get an email that rattles me. Someone makes a [...]
Our Kids are Watching and Learning
I truly believe that parenting is a leadership exercise. We are responsible for teaching and mentoring our children, we are their leaders. The mentoring part is so important because they learn more by watching what we do than they do from us instructing them. Some behaviors are taught, but most of them are caught. There [...]
Expectations
There are so many places where our unmet expectations get in the way of connection with our kids. Chris, Ryan, and Kayla are joined again by Allison Highton, and they talk about these various expectations, which begin even before our kids come home. [podbean resource="episode=hkyhg-9021bf" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Resources Mentioned in [...]
From Pep Rally to Reality
I love going to conferences! Adoption and foster care, home school, women of God, marriage, to name a few. I love spending time learning from experts in the field. I love hearing stories from those who have failed and those who have found solutions. I always walk away from conferences feeling like I can do [...]
When Two Worlds Collide [Video]
Ryan had the opportunity to Keynote the 2017 Florida Adoptive/Foster Parent Association Annual Conference in Orlando last summer. Here is "When Two Worlds Collide" from that event.