Archive for “Adoption Preparation”
By: Michael Monroe
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
“Who are you?” I remember thinking this unthinkable thought as I looked into the face of my young son only a few years into our life together as an adoptive family. He did not share my DNA but he was every bit ‘mine.’ Yet while we were both made in the image of the same God, I was becoming aware that we were two very different reflections.
In that moment I began to be confronted by much of what I had brought into the journey of adoptive parenting – most significantly my expectations about my child and how this journey would unfold. In reality I hardly knew my son, still that did not stop me from creating expectations about the things he would like and how he would act and think. On top of that, I expected that the adoption path God had led us down would be relatively easy and straightforward once we were home. I convinced myself that adoption was little more than a historical fact of how we came to be, rather than an ongoing reality of the journey that lay ahead.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Being Fully Present, Compassion, Especially for Dads, Motivations and Expectations
Posted in Articles |
By: Dr. Karyn Purvis
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Parents often struggle to blend the parenting approach they used before they adopted with the trust-based parenting approach they are now using to meet the unique needs of a child from a hard place.
Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis explains how parents can effectively meet the needs of all of their children — biological, adopted, foster — by using a parenting approach that focuses on building trust. In addition, Dr. Purvis offers valuable insight to help parents explain changes in their parenting approach to their older biological child, and encourages parents to give these children a voice as the family welcomes new children through adoption and embraces their needs.
Tags: 10 Common Questions Series, Adoption Preparation, Giving Voice, Investment Model of Parenting, Motivations and Expectations, Older Children, Talking with Childen
Posted in Video |
By: Dr. Karyn Purvis
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
As a result of their early life experiences, children from hard places often miss out on some of the key development that is essential in helping them learn to trust and grow relationally. As a result of their unique histories and needs, these children need parents that are willing to utilize the unique approach of trust-based parenting to help them heal and grow.
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.
Tags: 10 Common Questions Series, Adoption Preparation, Balance of Nurture & Structure, Count the Cost, Investment Model of Parenting, Motivations and Expectations
Posted in Video |
By: Lisa Qualls
Thursday, April 19, 2012
You know those people who always seem to have it all together? They look great, their children are well behaved and dressed in darling outfits, their homes are decorated and lovely, and life seems to be going along swimmingly? I used to aspire to be like that, but that doesn’t seem to be God’s plan for me. It’s not that I’m admitting defeat or saying that I’m giving up on a tidy life, rather I am accepting that our path is messy.
When we love people, we invite their brokenness and mess into our lives. Mess is inconvenient; it takes our time, energy, and sometimes money to make it better. Despite our efforts, the mess cannot always be fully contained. It spills over and touches the people who dare to stand near.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Being Fully Present, Count the Cost, Motivations and Expectations
Posted in Articles |
By: ETC Team
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
As Dr. Purvis points out in The Connected Child, nutrition is important for all children — and especially so for children from hard places. Dr. Purvis explains, however, that “it’s not always obvious that a child is missing out on complete nourishment.”
Recognizing that many adoptive and foster families face various food and nutrition-related issues, the Spoon Foundation and the Joint Council on International Children’s Services have launched a new online resource — www.adoptionnutrition.org — that focuses on nutrition for adoptive and foster families.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Behavioral Challenges, Brain Chemistry, Food & Nutrition
Posted in Articles |
By: Dr. Karyn Purvis
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
In order to truly understand children from hard places — what they have experienced, the impact of those experiences and how we can help them heal and grow — it is important that we understand some of the basics. That’s why we have put this collection of eight Empowered To Connect videos together — to introduce (or re-introduce) you to some of the most important basics that we believe every adoptive parent can benefit from.
Click here to watch all eigth videos.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Attachment, Balance of Nurture & Structure, Behavioral Challenges, Being Fully Present, Brain Chemistry, Compassion, Connecting While Correcting, Creative Ways to Connect, Dealing with Crisis, Discipline, Fear, Giving Voice, IDEAL Response, Investment Model of Parenting, Sensory Processing, Trauma
Posted in Video |
By: Dr. Karyn Purvis
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Building a solid team to help you care for your child is critically important. Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis encourages adoptive and foster parents to build a team and offers suggestions on how they can effectively educate and prepare that team to speak with “one voice” as together you love and care for your child.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Family & Friends, Investment Model of Parenting
Posted in Video |
By: Lisa Qualls
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Adoption and foster care bring new children into our families and we open our arms to receive them. What we might not expect is the way our circle may enlarge beyond our immediate families. Since adopting our children, our world has expanded to include many others who have become very important in our journey and in our lives. We have learned that parenting children from “hard places” takes more than Russ and I can give on our own; for now, it takes a “team.”
Let me share some of the members of our team in the hope that it may encourage you to think about the
support your family needs.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Family & Friends, Investment Model of Parenting, Older Children
Posted in Articles |
By: Dr. Karyn Purvis
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The adoption and foster care journey is filled with joy, blessings and beauty. But it is a journey also marked by loss, pain and challenges of various kinds. As a result, parents must be mindful to ‘count the cost’ of traveling this journey.
Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis encourages parents to ‘count the cost’ as they engage the adoption and foster care journey in a way that leads to true hope and healing.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Being Fully Present, Count the Cost, Investment Model of Parenting, Motivations and Expectations
Posted in Video |
By: ETC Team
Monday, May 30, 2011
Empowered To Connect, together with Show Hope, hosts the Empowered To Connect Conference, which has provided hope and help to many adoptive and foster parents as well as church ministry leaders and adoption/foster professionals.
The next Empowered To Connect Conference will be held on September 23-24, 2011, in Nashville, Tennessee at Brentwood Baptist Church. Online registration is open and the early bird rate is available through Wednesday, June 1.
Visit www.etcconference.org for more details and to register online. And, for a limited time, 1/2 off registrations discounts are available due to a generous grant from Focus on the Family. Simply use the code FOCUS when registering online to receive this discount.
Tags: Adoption Preparation, Church Ministry, ETC Conference
Posted in Articles |