If you all follow and read some of my blogs and, there seems to be a comment from Sharlene on there at the end, it is just my wonderful husband Gary checking up on me and feeling strong enough to leave his opinion. Which I must say I welcome with open arms.

Gary is much more than a husband to me. He is like my gift from God. When my father was ill and became and invalid, Gary helped me nurse him back to health so that my father could walk me down the aisle. When the doctors said it couldn't happen, Gary made sure with a lot of personal determination that it did happen.

When I had uterine cancer and I found out I could never carry my husband's child - we would never have... more

Those of you who have known or have adopted a child that has severe abuse in their back ground must already know that the trauma of it never really goes away.

We were fortunate enough to find one of the most wonderful children's therapists still walking this earth. We called her Dr. Gabby.

I have met several therapists in my time with my adopted children. But Dr. Gabby is by far the most heartwarming and educationally accurate therapist of them all.

She knows how to treat the family like each person is important. Her smile and her forwardness helps you to feel open and as if you can talk about anything. Which of course you can.

As a parent she led us through... more

Well, now we have come to an area that every parent has faced at one time or another. Children are born in innocence only to be taught right from wrong at the very beginning of understanding. So it is cute as it is comical when we scold a two year old for doing something and even if they have the evidence right there in their hand. They lie and say, "NO".

After all we have maybe given them time out or tapped their hand to teach them, what they can or can not do. So now that they have done it. They know there has to be more behind mommy's words, so they are afraid and they naturally lie to be safe.

This is why I am a firm believer in allowing a child to touch objects and... more

Oppositional Defiant Disorder is something I think every child experiences at some age to a certain degree. But for those who are so overwhelming affected with this issue, it can be a huge problem to live with.

Children with ODD usually have patterns of behavioral issues including but not limited to actions such as these:

1. Often loses temper 2. often argues with adults 3. often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults' requests or rules 4. often deliberately annoys people 5. often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior 6. is often touchy or easily annoyed by others 7. is often angry and resentful 8. is... more

Middle aged children often get past the toy stage of life and the next few years are full of emotional highs and lows.

It is no secret to anyone that adopted teens are even more confused about life. They begin to wonder about the birth parents and how they fit in. Who they look like? What color eyes did their birth parents have?

When you add this to all the normal teen hormonal changes it can stand a child's world up on it's ear. No doubt that depression is a factor for most of our adopted children at different points in life.

How... more

As parents dealing with a child who has an issue of bed wetting can often be frustrating. We try everything from cutting back on the amount of fluid intake the child has. Making sure the child uses the bathroom before bed. We may even wake them up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom also.

Sometimes none of these help. Sometimes they do. Some parents have tried embarrassment which I highly disagree with.

If you have tried all you can possibly think of maybe a visit to the doctor is a great idea. They can do a few tests and rule out any physical issue that might be causing the problem.

There are devices that can be placed on the child's bed that have... more

Bed wetting is a common problem with children who have been traumatized. It is fairly normal to some point with other children also.

Some children just sleep so deeply that they relax and the bladder just discharges itself before the child even realizes what is happening. Some even sleep right through it and wake up wet. Other children may have very weak bladders and may not have good control when they are not awake. So the child will dream they are in the bathroom because they feel the need to urinate but release the urine and wake up abruptly.

With traumatized children it is more on an emotional level but just as uncontrollable as with the deep sleeping child. In some... more

Breeanna's stepmom arrived and spoke with the teacher. Neither the stepmom nor the teacher would allow Breeanna to speak. Breeanna's mom promised to get to the bottom of all this pencil business and assured the teacher it would not happen again.

On the way home Breeanna and her stepmom stopped at the beauty shop. She took Breeanna inside and told the lady to cut her hair. Breeanna began to cry. Both she and her sister had been growing their hair since they were babies. Now her beautiful long hair fell to the floor as the tears streamed down her face.

That night her dad came into her room. He was shocked when he saw Breeanna's haircut. It was just a bit past her ears.... more

Lately we have discussed children and sexual abuse. Where is the line of safety in touching and, what is a good touch verses a bad touch? A child who has been through any type of abuse needs someone there to help them begin healing. However as parents we some times do not know how to react, especially in Foster Care.

We do not want to push the child or make them feel uncomfortable by hugging too soon, or trying to find the appropriate boundary of love that we can adorn them with.

These children are just like any other children. Even more so when it comes to needing someone to love them unconditionally and showing them that they are precious little people.

Dr. G is... more

As a follow up to yesterdays report on Child Sexual Abuse. I would like to talk about what kind of things as parents you can do to encourage appropriate sexual behaviors with your children.

Open communication is very important especially when we are dealing with children who have suffered child abuse of any form.

Learning to talk about how they feel opens doors to them for healing. The first step to a positive life is learning to heal by dealing with the tough issues in life.

With children who have been exposed to sexuality in a negative form at a young age. They often do not know what is considered the correct behavior. Since they will be way beyond what... more