For those of you new to my blog, I am a happily married (to Hubby!) mother of 4 teenagers. We adopted our special needs teenagers from foster care in 2008 - a son (Bear, age 19, currently in jail) and his bio 1/2 sister (Kitty, 18 next week!, a junior, attending a special school for emotionally disturbed children). They have been in our home since November 2006 (an out of state adoptive placement when they were age 11 and 13). We have two younger bio children, a 6 foot tall, neurotypical daughter, also a junior in high school (Bob - see the post "What about Bob" if you're dying to know how she got her nickname -age 16), and a cuddly, hasn't quite hit puberty yet, son (Ponito, 14).
Our company went under in 2011, so I'm doing lots of volunteer and advocate work, plus I'm always job hunting. I want to go back to working in Social Work (I got my Masters degree 20 years ago), but also am a professional seamstress, edit manuscripts, and even do some interior design.
5 years ago, this blog started out as a place to vent and find support from other Trauma Mamas, because we were struggling with what we had gotten ourselves into! The kids are currently diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, ADD/ ADHD, brain injuries (mostly effecting their memory, processing and emotions), low IQs, emerging borderline personality disorder...
My main goal with this blog has changed to being more of a resource for other therapeutic parents (you can check out my reviews of books and methods and other resources on the right side bar - including my favorite attachment guru - Katharine Leslie. We use a discipline technique called the FAIR Club, which works with both my neurotypical kids and my kids with special needs, and I maintain my Meanest Mom in the World status by sharing it with as many parents as I can! (See the right sidebar of this blog).
I try to be open and honest about my feelings and how we handle things in order to help others know they are not alone. Therapeutic parenting of adopted teenagers with RAD and other mental illnesses and issues, is not easy, and there are time when I say what I feel... at the moment. We're all human!
So welcome to my blog if you're new! Good to see you again, if you've been reading for awhile. I don't post as often as I'd like, but I hope you find something helpful here. Please let me know you dropped by, by posting something nice in the comments!
11 comments:
I may not have time to participate in the #UBP2013, but have been going through and reading various posts. Great way to quickly get an idea of why each blog has been created. Thanks for sharing!
Something Nice ;)
Something nice!
Ha ha cute Natalia!
Glad you're amidst the blogs I follow "Mary the Mom!"
Muddling through Mayhem is one of the blogs I turn to when I must need to remember I am not alone out there.
It's always good to have other Bloggers out there to turn to just to know that we are not alone..
Will be coming back and reading thoroughly (when I don't have an assignment I'm meant to be doing!). I am a foster mum to two kids 4 and 6 who should be with us until they are 18. The 6 year old has autism and adhd and seems to be much more affected by the trauma background than the 4 year old.
This is my first blog party! UBP13 has been pretty darn cool! My wife and I did foster care for kids with severe disabilities for 8 years. I'm an educator and adoptive dad of two with special needs. I'm kind of a newb to bloggin, but I'm loving it so far. It's been great reaching out and helping other families with the info I have! So excited to share with others and learn even more myself. My whole blog is all about that. Learning to learn. Come check it out too. You and I are similarly inspired and I think you will love it!
www.facebook.com/wiselearners and www.wiselearners.com
Very cute, Natalia!
Thank you, Hedged in Beauty and Feiner Michele! You all say the nicest things! ;)
Looking forward to getting to know you guys. Hope this will inspire me to blog. I'm super swamped dealing with Kitty turning 18!
I love reading your blog! I am a foster care social worker, and have a child (who is very near and dear to my heart) who is diagnosed with ADHD, RAD, ODD, and PTSD. A lot of your stories about Kitty remind me of her so much! It's so encouraging!
Wow! I "stumbled" on to your site when I googled "ODD vs RAD." Wish I had ran on to this sooner. My husband and I fostered and adopted two little boys. I am an ESE teacher by trade and I knew there were issues immediately with the older one. So far, he has been diagnosed with ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder. I am concerned about RAD or ODD for him. I don't know what to do next - you would think I would being an ESE teacher. I am sitting here crying as I read through some of your posts. I will be reading more and trying to figure out the next steps for us.
Welcome Anonymous readers, please let me know if there is any way i can be of assistance or if there is anything I can post on that would help!
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