Articles

If I had a mysterious ancient lamp that I could rub and be granted three wishes, I would use one to eradicate the need for the child welfare system. In its place, I would create a society that values community in its institutional practices. Effortlessly, there would exist in this mystical utopia unlimited support for […]

Learn How to Treat Different Types of Hair and Skin of Kids in Foster Care You know the feeling you get when the phone rings and a worker from your agency says they have a child they’d like you to consider taking into your home? Your heart starts to beat a little faster as you […]

Talking to children about race can be a challenge, especially if you and your child are from different races. I remember my nephew as a toddler, who is half South East Asian and half white, looking at my sister, pausing for a moment, and asking, “What color are you?” While in our case the topic […]

Earlier this year, in honor of National Foster Care Month, the White House issued a proclamation recognizing many youth in foster care “carry lasting physical and emotional scars from trauma.” One seminal study on trauma is the ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) study conducted by Kaiser Permanente in 1995. The original ACEs questionnaire asked participants 10 […]

Being a Black/biracial girl in a white adoptive family and living in a majority white community is difficult. Racial differences often meant I stuck out in a crowd and at the same time, I wondered if the people staring at me really saw me. As a transracially adopted person, I thought every family must have […]

When Maya Mosley-Katakanga adopted a 10-month-old Black and Indigenous child from the foster care system 15 years ago, she felt alone post-adoption, navigating topics about birth parents, loss and growing up in an adoptive family, without assistance from the “professionals.” Then seven years ago, she discovered a support group run by the Adoptive Parents of […]

Caregivers weigh in on creating a village of support for children with the diversity and representation I stood patiently in my local foster care agency’s office, holding a baby carrier with a squirmy 2-month-old anxious for her next bottle. She had a shock of black hair and an easy temperament — except when she was […]

Volumes have been written on the “model minority myth,” a false belief that all Asians and Asian Americans are polite, law-abiding, successful minorities who have, through a combination of innate talent and persistence, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. This false narrative matters in non-traditional parenting because the model minority myth fuels adoption and foster […]