When I heard the argument heating up in the upstairs I raced through the house to cut off the blooming aggression at the pass. By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs it was too late. Dakota was already in the act of pushing Ezra down the stairs and there was nothing I could do. What happened next made me cry.

Did you know a baby starts responding to its environment as early as 5 months gestation? That means babies can hear their mothers, fathers and siblings and many other things going on around them, nearly 4 months before they ever see the light of day.

Gabe was a good kid from the beginning. Even at his worst moments you could see in his eyes that he was trying. But the problem was, that in the moment of anger, frustration and fear, he simply couldn’t REMEMBER the right choice. Chances are, if you have a child like Gabe, one who is threatening you, hoarding or stealing food in the night or is being aggressive towards his siblings—his brain is so over-stimulated in those moments that he literally has lost the ability to think.

Yes, they may eat all the food in there. Yes, they may be up in the middle of the night munching through your last box of cereal. But please. Don't lock up the fridge!

Tantrums are a big aspect of adopting children who have attachment issues and/or a trauma background. This story of how I avoided a huge tantrum I saw building in Dakota one day at Walmart might help you to avoid the next tantrum in your house!

Depression and anxiety are already a risk for teens, but especially those with a trauma background. Defiance is often the way these feelings come out, damaging relationships and setting teens up for poor grades, getting in trouble with the law, and more. Parents often feel helpless during this time. But there are ways you can greatly reduce mood swings and hormone-caused depression through homeopathy.

It was just a couple weeks before the beginning of a new year—2009. We had bought a small farm just days before and had already painted the rooms and decorated it for Christmas. The next day was my husband’s birthday but it was also important for another reason—I was getting my first farm delivery. Goats. Indiana isn't warm in December and the night was cold and getting colder when Ezra and I began what would end up being more of an adventure than I had bargained for

The holiday season can be a mixed bag of intense and happy excitement and the dread of tantrums, judgmental relatives and unending schedule changes that leave your kids in a constant state of stress. So what can adoptive parents do to make this holiday season run more smoothly?

When we adopt children who have a trauma history we have high hopes. We think that it may only be a few months before they acclimate to the family and start to be more calm. We hope that love and Jesus and therapists and even our own will for them to be better may just do the trick. But, as time progresses and behaviors become more aggressive, not less, or, as their stages of life progress and hormones do a number on them, we start to feel afraid.

If you are an adoptive parent you may have experienced the unpleasant and disappointing moment when you realize your family vacation has turned into a nightmare. Your adopted kids are having more tantrums, peeing the bed again in the hotel (they haven't done that at home in ages!) and are generally unhappy and full of complaints. If you resonate with this description of your last travel attempt, this video post gives you three tips that can make your next trip go much more smoothly.

If you have fostered children or adopted a child--even privately, you may have had to take them to a LOT of therapy sessions. I have to admit though, the therapy sessions we took our kids to didn't seem to do much good--for them. For me--well that was another story! So what about therapy? I'd like to share our experiences and offer a bit of an alternative view when it comes to children and talk therapy.

Adopted children always come from trauma--even if the only trauma they experienced was being separated from their birth mother. This causes even children who were adopted at birth to often have special needs emotionally that other children don't have. But there are some thing you can do to prepare for homeschooling that may help things go more smoothly.

GETTING STARTED IN HOMEOPATHY AND HELPING YOUR FAMILY WITH ACUTE ISSUES ISN'T DIFFICULT. BUT HOMEOPATHY CAN BE A DIFFICULT CONCEPT TO UNDERSTAND. I FIND A BIT OF A HISTORY LESSON CAN BE HELPFUL BEFORE DIVING IN. SO HERE IS A HISTORY LESSON ABOUT HOMEOPATHY AND A LITTLE OF OUR STORY.

We often think the work to be done is in discipline, boundaries, schedules or rigid expectations when it comes to helping a newly adopted child move forward. And while there is value in schedules and knowing what to expect, the one thing that changes the game when it comes to healing in a child who has been hurt, is having a parent who is aware of their own emotions and knows how to get and stay regulated themselves--even when all the buttons are being pushed.

Parenting without punishment is challenging to say the least. But there are ways to do it and still have boundaries. Interestingly enough, when we learned how to help our kids with re-dos we started seeing real differences in their behavior. AND, they began to be more relaxed and happy. Let me show you how re-dos work...

I discovered two kids that were super cute but according to the system, destined to fail. In the interview to adopt them, we were warned that they would likely be institutionalized by the time they were 13. This is how we met them and why we said yes.