Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! We talk about raising your grandkids with Christine Adamec, coauthor with Dr. Andrew Adesman, of The Grandfamily Guidebook . She and her husband have been raising their teenage grandson since his infancy. In this episode, we cover: Why are grandparent led families increasing? What are some common emotions that grandparents and other kin experience when they realize t...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! How does parenting an adopted teen differ from parenting teens that come to us through birth? What are some of the unique challenges adopted teens or young adults face? Check out our interview with Katie Naftzger, an LCSW, Korean adoptee, and the author of “Parenting in the Eye of the Storm: The Adoptive Parent’s Guide to Navigating the Teen Years.” In this episode,...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Did your child experience trauma or loss before they came to you? Do you want to help them heal? Join our conversation with Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director at Montclair State University in the graduate counseling program and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. She is an adult adoptee from Hong Kong and an adoptive...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Have you wondered if you could be the right place for an LGBTQ+ youth or child to land? Join us to talk about how to be an affirming and supportive home for LGBTQ+ youth. Or guest will be Angela Weeks, the Director of the National SOGIE Center at the Institute for Innovation and Implementation. Under the Center, she directs the Center of Excellence for LGBTQ+ Behavio...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! How do you handle a birth parent showing up to a meeting with the child stoned or drunk? What do you do when a birth parent often breaks promises to the child? Join us to talk about nine sticky situations that adoptive parents often find themselves in. Our guest is Lori Holden, the author of The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole . In...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! When should your child get a smartphone? What can you do if your child spends too much time playing video games? How can we protect our kids from the downsides of social media? Join us to talk about parenting and technology with Krista Boan, co-founder of the nonprofit Screen Sanity. In this episode, we cover: Digital Health :  Screen Sanity’s 5 Rules of Thumb. Ride,...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Kari Dady joins us to talk about applying the guiding principles of Trust-Based Relational Intervention® to typical parenting situations. Kari Dady is a Regional Training & Consultation Specialist with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. She is also an adoptive mom who uses the TBRI® approach daily in her family. In this episode, we cover: What is pa...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Do you have a child that is more—louder, more energetic, more argumentative, more everything? Intense children can be harder to raise, but their intensity is a gift as well as a parenting challenge. We talk with Howard Glasser, creator of the Nurtured Heart Approach to parenting. He is the author of Transforming the Difficult Child and Transforming the Intense Child...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Do you worry that your decision to foster or adopt will hurt the kids you are already raising? Check out this podcast with Dr. Jana Hunsley, an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Dallas, trauma therapist, TBRI® Practitioner, and founder of Project 1025 . In this episode, we cover: Fostering What are some of the common impacts of fosterin...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! What happens when identical twins born in Vietnam are separated by adoption, with one adopted by a US family and one adopted by a Vietnamese family? Join us to talk with Erika Hayasaki, a journalist and author of Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity and the Meaning of Family . In this episode, we cover: The story. Twin studies. Adoption studies. The simil...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Have mealtimes become a battleground in your house, is your child a picky eater, or do you have a child who eats too much? We provide lots of tips in our conversations with Dr. Katja Rowell, a family doctor and author of Love Me, Feed Me , 2nd edition, and Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating . She has a special interest in supporting foster and adoptive pare...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Are you planning on claiming the Adoption Tax Credit when you file your taxes this year? If so, this is the podcast for you! We talk with two of the top experts in the US on the Adoption Tax Credit: Becky Wilmoth, an Enrolled Agent and Adoption Tax Credit Specialist with Bill’s Tax Service, and Josh Kroll, the Adoption Subsidy Resource Center coordinator at the North...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Are you thinking about adopting this year? You don't want to miss this discussion of how to adopt and current trends in private infant adoption, foster care adoption, and international adoption. Our guests are Chris Peszka, MSW, Regional and District Supervisor at Adoptions From The Heart Adoption Agency, and Robin Sizemore, Executive Director of Hopscotch Adopt...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! How do you know when enough is enough? What do you do when infertility treatment and adoption don't end up with you having a child. Join us to talk with Rebecca and Sallyann Majoya, co-authors of the memoir Uncertain Fruit , and Carole LieberWilkins, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist providing individual and couples counseling, as well as psychoeducationa...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Are adoptive parents eligible for parental leave? What about foster parents or kinship parents? We talk with Dr. Amy Beacom and Sue Campbell, with the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and co-authors of The Parental Leave Playbook. In this episode, we cover: What are the laws and rules surrounding parental leave in the US? Who is eligible for parental leave under...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! We talk with Isaac and Julie Etter, a mom and son, about what they have learned about transracial adoption and what they wish they had known at the beginning. Isaac is the founder of Identity, a startup focused on using technology to help adoptive and foster families thrive. Julie Etter is a mom of five and a humanities teacher. In this episode, we cover: Isaac, tell...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! How do some kids survive a life of poverty, homelessness, abuse, and foster and eventually thrive? We talk with David Ambroz is a national poverty and child welfare expert and advocate and the author of the memoir, A Place Called Home .  He was recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. Currently serving as the Head of Community Engagement (West...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! How much do you really know about your fertility, menstrual cycles, and conception? Join us to learn more with Dr. Joyce Harper, a Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute for Women’s Health, University College London, and the head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group. She is the author of  Your Fertile Years . In this episode, we cover: Understand...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Are you a foster or adoptive parent whose child is taking mood altering medications or medications to help them sleep? You will learn a lot about these medications and what you can do to make them as effective as possible. We talk with Dr. Adam Langenfeld, a Developmental Pediatrician at Children's Minnesota hospital. He also has a Ph. D. in chemistry. In this e...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Do you wonder if your child was prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs? There may be nothing in the files, but something feels not right? We talk about diagnosing and treating these kids with Dr. Larry Burd, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and the Director of the North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center. In this episod...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Are you a transracial adoptive or foster parent? Have you wondered how you can help your child form a healthy racial identity. Does racial identity formation change depending on the race of the child? Today we talk about all this and more with Dr. Gina Miranda Samuels, a professor at the University of Chicago and Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! What are the common health issues foster parents and those adopting from foster care should expect? We talk with Christy Street, Program Director of Fostering Health NC, which is a program of North Carolina Pediatric Society. In this episode, we cover: Term “health” broadly to encompass physical, emotional, mental, behavioral, developmental, educational, and oral hea...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Are you thinking about using donor sperm, egg, or embryo or using a surrogate? We talk about the current trends in third party reproduction with Corey Burke, an embryologist and Tissue Bank Director at Cryos International Sperm & Egg Bank. In this episode, we cover: What do we mean by third-party reproduction? What are some of the current trends in sperm donation...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Is your child more challenging than most? Do typical parenting approaches not work? We talk about how to parent harder-to- parent kids with Dr. Ross Greene , the originator of the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions parenting model, a non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care. Dr. Greene is a clinical psychologist, former Harvard professor, and...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Have you ever thought about adopting a child from abroad? What does it take and what type of kids are available? To learn more, listen to our interview with Robin Sizemore, Executive Director of Hopscotch Adoptions, who has worked in the international adoption field for 27 years and Debbie Price, Executive Director of Children’s House International and who has worked...