I was going to write about positive expectancy but I got waylaid by negativism this morning before church. I should be sitting in my Ladies Sunday School Class, absorbing the teachings of Miss Martha, always an uplifting and interesting experience.

Instead I dropped off all the other children and came back home to deal with a 12 year old rager who last split his bedroom door in half and who has punched holes in my walls. He’s again angry because I wouldn’t let him attack a ten year old who accidentally got a drop of water on him yesterday when they were... more

My almost 17 year old daughter, the one who ran away last week and is now serving out her restrictions, fights against herself. Give her a taste of success and she’ll sabotage it, deeply convinced that it is undeserved. Left unsaid by her is, “If I deserved good things, my birth mother wouldn’t have left me,” simplistic yes but, more so, very primal and the root of my children’s inner pain.

Slowly she’s learning that good things can and do happen to her. She’d been taken out of school, by me, for excessive fist-fighting. I home schooled her for the... more

I just read where The Hiccup Girl has run away apparently in a dispute with her stepfather who just discovered her My Space account. The parents took away her cell phone so she took off.

We had a similar situation where my 16 year old ran away for a week. She’d tried to sneak out one night, her consequence was losing her cell phone and a week later, with full blown PMS coursing through her veins, turning her into an unrecognizable teenage mutant drama queen, she slugged a younger sister... more

The horrible murder of a beautiful young lady in Kansas, just two weeks after her high school graduation, is sad and shocking. She’d simply gone to Target in daylight hours.

My heart sank when I learned that she was not missing, but murdered.

Now I read that the accused murderer was adopted.

Carol Hall told The Emporia Gazette for Friday's editions that the couple adopted Edwin Hall when he was 7 and knew he had problems associated... more

I hope this picture can be viewed simply for what it is, not as offensive, but as a clear example of life with traumatized children. The other words that were written are worse.

I’d received an email yesterday from a lady I know, a mother of a large family; she’d faced a terrible ordeal years ago, threatened by the child protection system that should have been helping her. Her family overcame the obstacles and has continued on successfully.

Usually we don’t have any clue as to what we’re capable... more

Being almost 53 years old, still a country woman, my roosters, two of them, wake me up each morning bright and early. 4:55 a.m. my eyes flew open and thoughts of the day rushed through my brain, pumping me up and propelling me out of bed. The other 25 kids still are snoring, two attic fans whirling and bringing in the night air redolent of honeysuckle and gardenias, both blooming right now. I inhaled deeply, gratified to be a gardener.

People don’t much have attic fans anymore, preferring the rarified air of air conditioners. I can’t tolerate the closed... more

Private foster care providers have refused to take in at least 372 abused or neglected children so far this year, forcing most to sleep in Texas Child Protective Services offices for a night or more. Of that number, 20 kids spent 39 nights in CPS offices.

No wonder my family grew so large. I've read this article several times this morning.

I'm struggling with both cynicism and disbelief at the moment, outraged... more

I spend more and more time each day contemplating problems that seem to have no answers.

“Each month, about 20 percent of the children sleeping in CPS offices were newly discharged from psychiatric hospitals.”

This statement is from an article today in the San Antonio newspaper that bemoans the fact that over 300 foster children are sleeping in the offices due to no bed space within the foster care system. Caregivers refuse... more

I have a son who came to me five years ago along with his three brothers and a sister. This one son, then 8 years old, was considered a Level of Care 3 kid. His psychiatrist recommended that he be split from the sibling group, and not adopted. I disagreed since I don’t participate in splitting up sibling groups. Was I right or wrong?

It would have been easier without him, that’s for certain, but maybe not, as the remaining children may have acted out in an intensely negative manner in response. They are a very difficult group of children on... more

I thought about Nancy’s post all morning as she described her purpose in parenting.

“I am very driven and very goal oriented. I want to see what I consider to be measurements of success. While I can intellectually wrap my brain around the concept that success might simply be that I kept my child safe for 18 years that is not what I had in mind as my definition of parenting success.”

I can hardly echo more than a big,... more