Even if you haven't been to an adoption and foster care conference, such as Empowered to Connect or CAFO Summit, you may have attended a seminar or one-day class that had you coming out of it thinking, "Yes! I can do this! I'm going to change the way I parent my kids!" But the excitement [...]
Category: Podcast
The Healing Power of Story
Chris, Ryan, and Kayla talk about how being an empathetic listener to our children's stories can help with their healing, and why it's important for us to tell our own stories to others to help in our own healing. For when we learn to how to help heal ourselves, we can help our children in [...]
How Do We Deal With Drama?
Some of our kids have big emotions. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about how we deal with drama when the emotions go from big to bigger to biggest. [podbean resource="episode=mjufj-97d457" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Resources Mentioned in the Episode Harry Chapin - The Cat's in the Cradle One Big Happy Home [...]
What is the Impact of Foster Care on Kids in Our Home?
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Schooling Options
[podbean resource="episode=aruwh-8ec05e" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="0"] Chris, Ryan, and Kayla are joined by Allison Highton. Allison, along with her husband Russ, is an Empowered to Connect parent trainer in New Jersey. Allison works with Miriam's Heart, a non-profit adoption ministry that radically supports families who take action on behalf of adoptive and foster [...]
Make Play a Part of Every Day
The team discusses how playing with our kids is a great way to connect with them. Play is fun and disarming and makes us enjoy our kids as much as it makes them enjoy us. Play is the language of children but is sadly something most of us are no longer fluent in. [podbean resource="episode=f7ku6-8e4cf2" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="8" [...]