22/12/2022 Christmas can be stressful at the best of times. From family politics to getting the arrangements sorted for a family celebration, it’s a full-on time for most families. For children, the excitement can reach fever pitch with kids being like coiled springs before the big day. Often the excitement co-exists with end of term… Read More »Is it time for a therapeutic Santa?
25/07/2022 Parenting a child with early trauma is tough, really tough. It can be rewarding, challenging and of course keeps you on your toes. But for me, a few years in, one thing is a constant – trying to explain to professionals and others the impacts of early trauma and often getting blank looks in… Read More »Navigating a world that isn’t trauma informed
26/06/2022 When I started this blog, I had meant it to be at least semi-regular – but sometimes life just gets in the way. Towards the end of last year, I was working on lots of writing aside blogging about adoption and keeping this up went on the back burner. More recently, I just had… Read More »Waking a hibernating blog
21/09/2021 Like many people, I found the adoption process challenging, but once we were approved and on the road to adopting our little girl, I felt all it had been necessary. The Government has over time made its intention to speed up the adoption process clear. Former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson stated that the only… Read More »The adoption process is invasive and challenging, but for good reason
17/08/2021 Like many children who have experienced early trauma, our little one thrives on routine. In the early days of her placement with us, she’d need micro-detail about what was going to happen. For her it had to a be a minute-by-minute breakdown such as “we’ll put our shoes on by the front door, go… Read More »Routine, transitions and the summer holidays
05/08/2021 No matter how prepared you are or how ready you feel, the realities of adoption will always be a shock. They certainly were for us. We’re still relatively new to being an adoptive family in the grand scheme of things, but I feel we’ve come through quite a few challenges while learning on the… Read More »Adoption: Expectation vs reality
19/07/2021 Adoption can be really isolating. Really isolating. From the challenges of having to be separate and not introduce family early in placement, to the isolating impact of challenging behaviour caused by early trauma, a sense of separation and loneliness can easily creep in with adoption. Parenting in general can have this effect, but adopting… Read More »The isolation and loneliness of adoption
25/05/2021 Adoption has rightly changed enormously over the years. Where once it would have been seen as the right thing to ‘protect’ a child against issues arising from contact with birth family, we now know the importance understanding life story, knowing who family members are and being in touch where safe and appropriate. In… Read More »The importance of contact
21/03/2021 There is a gulf between perceptions of adoption within wider society and the experience and understanding of adopters and adoptees. This is obviously no great revelation to anyone involved with adoption. What is interesting to me is the dynamic that exists between societal expectations and understandings of adoption, the way adoption is marketed to… Read More »Framing contemporary adoption
02/03/2021 Like all prospective adopters, we had to think long and hard about our matching criteria during the approval process. When we started out, we wouldn’t have imagined adopting a child with underlying health conditions, but that’s where our journey would take us. As we navigated a far from simple route through stage two, our… Read More »Adopting a child with additional needs