Chris is joined once again by Ryan and Kayla as the team talks about the need for mindfulness. As Curt Thompson says, "You need to pay attention to what you're paying attention to." They discuss why this is especially important with adoptive and foster children. [podbean resource="episode=h2jd9-795e3f" type="audio-square" height="400" skin="1" fonts="Helvetica" auto="0" download="1" rtl="1"] Star [...]
Tag: parenting
How Long Do I Have to Parent This Way?
Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis encourages adoptive and foster parents to embrace trust-based parenting as the “new normal” that God has called them to as an essential part of the journey. This video originally appears on Empowered to Connect.
Are You Stuck on Friday?
Today is Good Friday and all over the world Christians will gather to commemorate the death of Jesus Christ. Churches will be full of the faithful and the marginal (outside of Mother’s Day and Christmas Eve, Easter is the most attended church service) all participating in one of the most somber services on the calendar. [...]
A New Hope
Another Christmas has come and gone because as Brooklyn reminded us on Thursday, “last Christmas was yesterday.” But now that Christmas 2013 is in the books it seems like a time of reflection is in order. Do you remember a movie from 2006 titled Children of Men? It’s set in 2027 where women have somehow [...]
WOW! That’s a lot of Kids
One of the things about having a family as large as ours is that everywhere we go people will comment about our six kids. Usually it's something innocent like, "You must have your hands full" or "WOW! That's a lot of kids." And sometimes we have those less than nice interactions like "What's wrong with [...]
Let’s Try that Again!
"Let's try that again" is a phrase heard daily at our house. With 6 kids in our home, we are always looking for simple ways to correct our children's unwanted behaviors without always seeming like we are correcting them. One great tool we use is to simply have our kids redo a behavior. It is [...]
Where is the Trust?
Have you ever had one of those moments when you needed to trust someone? Have you ever just needed someone to trust you? Trust is both beautiful and scary. Beautiful because there is peace and joy in having a relationship where trust is freely extended and received. Scary because for relationships to grow there will [...]
A Change of Plans
Often people will ask me when I knew I wanted to be a foster parent. They are usually quite surprised when I respond with...never! In fact, if you had asked me 10 years ago if I could/would ever be a foster parent I would have told you, "NO WAY!" I would get too attached. Adoption [...]
5 Keys to Better Relationships
I want better relationships, don't you? Sometimes I feel like I spend more time thinking (or writing) about changing the way I interact with people than I actually spend changing the way I interact with people. I think some of you can relate. Change needs two things...ideas followed by actions. Our example of the balance [...]
What Do You Want To Be?
Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like I talk more than I act. I think some of you can relate. Maybe I love thoughts and ideas too much. I don't think that there is anything wrong with thoughts or ideas, they are after all the genesis of action. But at some point ideas need [...]