Beyond Barriers

A Former Foster Youth Traces His Journey of Overcoming Generational Trauma

How to Adopt from Foster Care

“Mommy, when did you buy me?” Those innocent words spoken by my son adopted from foster care gave me pause. He was 6 years old. Having been adopted two years earlier, his curiosity was piqued as we navigated the adoption of three more boys. As resource parents, we are continually reminded that foster care is […]

Facilitating Executive Functioning Skills

What is Executive Functioning? Executive functioning skills help people to learn, work and thrive academically and socially. Without strong executive functioning skills, everyday tasks can be a challenge. Learning about executive functioning may help resource parents and kinship caregivers in facilitating these skills in the children they care for. There are three categories of executive […]

Impact of Trauma On Infants and Kids

A Guide for Resource Parents and Kinship Caregivers

Creative Healing

When three young sisters began art therapy at Michigan’s Ennis Center for Children, their trauma histories were apparent in the projects they created and behaviors they displayed during sessions. They would “regress” developmentally by hiding under tables, crawling on the floor, talking like a toddler and shedding tears over unknown triggers. The youngest of the […]

Have the Courage to Protect

Tragically preventable is the percentage of children abused, neglected and surrounded by domestic violence, unable to distance themselves from what they endured as adults. When a child is removed from a toxic environment, their resource parents have tremendous power to shape the future of the lives they are helping. Most importantly, resource parents can help […]

How to Help Kids Succeed in School

It’s not uncommon as foster and adoptive parents to be asked questions by those around us that are too personal to answer. ”Are they twins?”, ”Are they all yours?”, ”Did their parents do drugs?”, ”How long do you get to keep them?” Beyond these questions is the constant struggle of how much do we share […]