Catholic adoption - Life on the Road Less Traveled

September 16, 2012

Attachment Therapy: One Family’s Story. Guest Post by “Forever, For Always, No Matter What”

Many children diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, and other “invisible” learning and emotional impairments are in fact struggling to heal from trauma stemming from their early years. Some adoptive parents have found that attachment therapy can greatly improve the parent-child bond. In today’s guest post, Jen Dunlap shares her family’s experience with attachment therapy. If your family has had experience with this type of therapy, what techniques or books did you find most effective? Our decision to enter into attachment therapy wasn’t made lightly. It’s easy to be lulled into thinking things aren’t that bad or that we have all the answers. We ultimately made the decision that we […]

September 7, 2012

Adopting Older Teens: Should You Consider It?

Today I came across Nissa Gadbois’ new blog “At Home with the Gadbois Family.” They are attempting to raise $30,000 in order to bring home three teens from Ukraine. (If you would like to help, a link is on her site to the Paypal account set up for this purpose.) I admire Nissa’s passion and resolve on behalf of these kids who, without her help, are very likely to “age out” of the institutional care they currently receive. It’s heartbreaking to even contemplate. I’ve come to believe that God puts a custom-designed hole in the heart of every adoptive mother, that only the children HE […]

September 7, 2012

Are you listening, St. Dimas?

A new friend of mine, who shall for the present remain nameless, recently gave me a beautiful rosary to intercede for my family. This same friend also gently suggested that I ask St. Dimas for a bit of celestial intervention. Now, this was an unfamiliar name, and so a little research was in order. I came across this post by Lance Mannion, which offered the following explanation: Dimas is the patron saint of thieves. He is not their patron saint the way St Anthony is the patron saint of lost items. You pray to St Anthony to help you find something you’ve misplaced, like when your […]