Compliments of Freeze.com (clip art)

I walked into your bedroom You were snuggled in your bed Dressed in your pajamas. Warm and cozy and well fed.

I thought of how I rocked you. As I sang you off to sleep. You are a precious baby. Having you made life complete.

The room is painted for you. Decorated to reflect our child. Colorful and amazing. But heart warming, meek and mild.

I stand here and adore you. As you play within your dreams. I ponder what lies before you.... more

Many children in foster care have issues in school. Those issues become prominent with children with ODD or ADHD and/or RAD. One of the biggest issues is completing the work and follow through. These kids often do the work but it gets lost and never turned in. So all their grades suffer.

When working with kids with missing assignment issues, it is important to set up a system that will help them succeed. Sometimes the teachers are willing to help and sometimes they are too busy and are not able to extend the extra encouragement the child may need.

One very simple way to set up an easy system that the child can learn and be successful with is to buy folders of different colors... more

Monday mornings just make everyone squirm and hide under the covers after a long weekend, so it should not surprise anyone that the kids are hard to get up and ready to start their day.

One of the benefits of adopting older children is that they are used to getting up for school... or so you would think. One of my daughters is up and out the door by herself by the time I am pulling the other two out of the bed.

My little one could sleep through a hurricane. It is like the more sleep she gets the more she wants. Motivating her out of bed is a hands on experience. We tickle and sing to her and usually grab her feet and pull her to the edge of the bed. It takes her several minutes... more

Here we are and it is almost spring. Get off the couch and turn off the TV. It is time to put the lazy days of winter behind us.

In the growing population of children, it has been documented that exercise is an essential part of growing up physically healthy. It also does a world of good for ones mental outlook.

With a vast population of us fighting the race to lose weight, it is just as important to teach good basic exercise habits so that we discourage our children from gaining weight.

Most of the time my kids love being couch potatoes. They think chores are punishment. So teaching the desire to work hard and have a good work ethic has been a chore around here... more

Today I sat reading through some of my neighbors' blogs and a rush of emotion flowed out of me. I sat with warm tears running down my face because I felt the words I sat there reading.

For the first time in weeks my memories flowed back to a time when I went from super mom right down to almost lifeless.

I had a wonderful family but as most adoptive moms, I had doctors appointments, therapist visits for the kids, and school agendas all to balance. In the meantime we had decided to sell the house and move to a little home town in mid-Michigan.

The house was bigger and it was a lot more room for the kids to stretch out and have space. The town had a little ice cream... more

I recently met with a group of young teens. They were all considered to be "Troubled kids." But here in a group setting we sought out some of the quality thoughts and expressions they had. They know what they need to help and encourage them.

Half of the behaviors that tag a bad kid are behaviors they do on purpose to earn the title. So why do they want to be "bad" and can they be "bad" in a good way?

We separated into groups of seven. I immediately told them I had the upper hand because God's holy number is 7. We went around just introducing ourselves and I asked for a few color words that would tell me something about who they are.

Before long everyone was giggling... more

Older children are amazing at times. When we adopted Baby Angela (a biological sibling of our other children), our kids became instant nannies.

Angela did not have a chance to cry before one of the kids was tending to her needs. It wasn't long before her newness wore off on our son and he started playing out side again but never before giving her a kiss on the cheek. However the two girls were at arms about being the best sister. Of course our oldest daughter acted like a little mom again and we had to make her let April hold the baby.

She would sit and glare at April until I would take the baby and send both of them out the door to play. You can be assured that it didn't... more

While visiting a friend of mine recently. I had the privilege to meet two of her new Foster Kids. One of them sat there playing on the PS2 and ignoring everything around him and the other was a little white tornado. He just spun around in the kitchen with a dish towel and he cleaned and shined just about everything but the walls.

I looked over the top of my glasses at my girlfriend and said "Where was he when I was still fostering". We both just giggled.

This little guy was about 9 and he cleaned house better than I do. I walked in the kitchen for a glass of water and he said "Let me help get that for you." He was better than the White Tornado Man and he had manners too.... more

Thinking about adopting a child? Do you have a lot to offer a child? Are there special interests in your life that you may be able to teach another person to enjoy?

We all know that with infants and children under 5 there are a lot of issues to deal with. Kids basically learn a lot during this period of time. However if the love and attention of a good parent is absent during this period in life. It can cause a multitude of issues.

There are children out there that do not have a family and do not know what a family home life is even like.

They have never had someone to sit down with them and just ask them how they are or what they like. No... more