Is Accepting Transracial Adoption Enough?

“I think the church is doing an awesome job with transracial adoption. They’ve been so accepting of our family!!” 

As the words above, spoken by a genuinely kind neighbor, floated into my brain, my face immediately flushed. It took a moment to realize how quickly my heart was beating. My stomach was woozy and the room felt like it was spinning around me.

The words didn’t seem to immediately impact anyone else in the circle of white women from the church event I was attending. 

It took me a moment to realize the next words I was hearing, which were a little too loud to be socially appropriate, were coming from my own mouth.

Yes. It’s good that the white, evangelical church can sometimes accept transracial adoption and even celebrate transracial adoptive families. However, we continue to perpetuate the unjust systems that cause most transracial adoptions in the first place. In short, every transracial adoption is a reminder of how far we have to go.

We say we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Would we want to be stuck in unstable situations caused by systemic injustice that causes vulnerability that leads to our children being removed from our homes and raised by strangers? Or would we want our neighbors to love us in a way that preserved our families?

Families were intended to be together- biologically. It’s how God made us. Separating families, specifically, biological mothers from their children and children from their biological mothers, is abusive unless it’s absolutely necessary to keep children safe. Removing children from their culture of origin creates another unique trauma. We need to work to make certain adoption hardly is necessary if we aim to love our neighbors as ourselves. We have an opportunity to prevent trauma upon trauma as we truly love our neighbors as Jesus instructed us.

Although the circle of friends spoke loudly through their body language of uncomfortable shifting and inability to know where to focus their eyes, it seemed like two-and-a-half decades passed before the next voice spoke. When I heard how shaky it was, I glanced up to see a visitor with tears in her eyes. She then poured her heart out, beginning with wholeheartedly agreeing adoption creates trauma. I won’t tell her story or her family’s story, I will say she had grown up with an adopted sister and what I’d said resonated with her greatly. The trauma was always obvious to her. It was obvious her adoptive sibling needed her birth family. Her sister knew it, her parents knew it, she knew it; yet the system that had originally separated a once hopeful family was limited in its ability to contribute to their healing or safe reunification.

Only the adoptive family had the means to begin addressing the cumulative trauma. Yet, it wasn’t nearly enough. 

Sadly, in the white, evangelical church, it feels like we believe the next thing we choose, dream up, or contribute to financially (child sponsorship, transracial adoption, etc…) is the solution to racism. We’ve become comfortable with expecting far too much for ourselves and far too little for our neighbors; which leads to us to believe the church is doing justice by merely accepting adopted Black children of white congregants into our communities without first acknowledging that we’re contributing to unjust systems that separate families in the first place. 

But transracial adoption isn’t a solution to racism. Transracial adoption is an imperfect response to crises created by racism. If racism were eradicated, transracial adoption would be mostly eliminated with it.

If justice prevailed, adoption in general would rarely happen. 

Adoption not only separates a birth family, but the resulting trauma often wreaks havoc in the adoptive family. Transracial adoption involves the additional traumatic experience of being removed from one’s culture of origin; something some adoptive parents refuse to acknowledge, other adoptive parents don’t have the resources to address, and those who acknowledge it being left knowing they can only do the best they can with what they have. Trauma leaves scars. 

Yet, while trauma had clearly left its mark, as I listened to the newcomer speak, I didn’t hear a note of blame for her adopted sibling. She had only love for her. She only wished the circumstances of their relationships were different- that loss wouldn’t have caused unnatural urgent necessary relationships. That the systems that had caused her sister’s need for adoption would have rather prevented it. 

She loved her sister. She hated the trauma her sister endured. The trauma both families endured. She wanted better for her sister- which would have been better for everyone. 

In order to love my adopted children, I’ve had to grieve with them, constantly, over their losses. I’ve had to learn to acknowledge that they didn’t want me to be their mom- that, if given the choice between having a whole family from the start and being my child through adoption, they (like every other child on earth) would choose the former.  

Transracial adoption constantly reminds me our society has a long way to go to love our neighbors as ourselves. Inequitable and unjust housing, education, childcare, wage, and employment structures not only constrain mobility for African Americans, but also put those families at disproportionate risk of losing a child to foster care or adoption. Who of us can keep our family together without the wages and housing opportunities necessary to keep a family safe? 

Investing in causes that fight to dismantle unjust systems that cause the disproportionate separation of African American families via adoption is one way we acknowledge the pain associated with the trauma of adoption and love each member of our unique family well. As we work to love others with the goal of family preservation, we enjoy each other and thrive; because we all know that our neighbors deserve a solid foundation- beginning with the family and culture they were born into. 

We know that the day our society treats everyone as a neighbor, adoption trauma will all but cease. 

Adoption is in the fabric of our family and we cherish each other. And if adoption was no longer necessary for our neighbors, we would all have reason to celebrate. 

While transracial adoption has a broader definition, I’ve specifically emphasized African American children being adopted into white families because that is our family’s experience. This theme also applies to international adoption. I truly believe also that if we loved our neighbors as ourselves adoption in general would be nearly nonexistent. This post is my theological and personal perspective; which has been informed by multiple adult adoptees, birth parents, as well as my experiences providing foster care and as an adoptive parent. 

As I write, I’m constantly reminded that while all of our experiences are valid, adoptees didn’t have a choice being adopted. Transracial adoptees also didn’t choose being adopted into another culture. Adoptees: I recognize your opinions are diverse and your voices are not heard nearly enough. You are the experts. I’m thankful to be learning from you.

The Eighth Hour of Battle

It’s the eighth hour of battle. There are fewer enemies to fight. But the sights, smells, and sounds that surround me trigger me into believing I’m cornered. My battle gear seems too heavy to bear. In this state, how could I even lift my sword if I needed to? I’m immobile. It’s no longer necessary to fight, but I can’t remove my armor. I’m too weary and too afraid. The next vile enemy is probably lurking right around the bend. 

The words “IEP meeting”, “psychoeducational evaluation”, or even “school” can send me into a tailspin. My head swims with images of the last seven hours of battle- my child wearing a vacant expression, lying in a hospital bed after his school repeatedly allowed teachers and students to bully him. Another child battling migraines at only six-years-old because it was too much to deal with the enormous emotional load at home while adhering to a rigid behavioral code of conduct at school. For two years he received not one demerit, but he did spend time visiting multiple emergency rooms and one children’s hospital team of neurologists. I picture our lovely previous neighborhood, and my coming to the realization that my urban ideal was less-than-ideal for two of my children who had sensory needs that were being neglected in that environment. 

The solution to each of the above instances involved me carrying a greater burden. School abuses my son. I’ll teach him at home. My son needs more time being emotionally heard and less time in a strict classroom. He can come home too. Sensory needs aren’t met in our current home. I’ll spend two years patching, sanding, and painting while homeschooling multiple children so we can sell our house and have enough equity to purchase in a location that’s healthier for our family. When the planned house purchase falls through and we end up renting for a few months in a lovely area that lacks cultural diversity, my path forward is clear. I order a few more textbooks, brush up on the special education skills I never had, and teach everyone at home. 

Observers don’t know I’ve been in battle or that I’m dealing with toxic stress from that battle. After years of being perpetually unavailable, I’ve become unknown. I don’t have time for life-giving activities. Rarely do I have time for life-sustaining breaks. In my current existence, those infrequent breaks have to be enough. I’ve forgotten what relationships and activities bring me joy. I’m not sure I have energy for joy. My expectation is that the next season will only require more of me. And there isn’t much of me left. So I withdraw. Who wants to be around a person as depleted as me anyway? 

I don’t. 

Sometimes I just stare at my phone and imagine having the energy to make a phone call, send an email, or invite friends I truly miss into my current life. 

But the realization that I have nothing to give those friends causes me to pause. 

The eighth hour of battle is far less intense than the first seven, but it’s in the eighth hour that the realization finally comes;  even when the conflict is over, there’s no going back. I will never be who I once was. 

This fall is scheduled to bring changes in our family. Our plan and our hope is that all four children will be in school. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have predictable breaks for the first time in almost nine years. 

With privilege comes responsibility. I’m just now realizing that my first responsibility is to learn who I am and who I want to be given my life-altering journey.

Why Aren't the Adoption Books Working?

“I’ve been doing everything in The Connected Child for five years and things only get worse. I’m now so scared of my daughter that I don’t even know how much longer she can live with us. I feel hopeless.”

Reading those words, my heart broke instantly. I knew Debbie*, the author of the email I was reading, was surrounded by other adoptive parents telling her that whether or not behaviors improve, the right thing to do is to parent her child with connection by using the specific strategies laid out in The Connected Child.

Many of us can relate to Debbie’s experience. We try and we try and we try. We read the most highly regarded material. We do the same thing over and again- somehow expecting different results- because we’re doing what the book says to do. It’s what our community is telling us is right and we trust them.

Some friends even tell us that the point of the book(s) is to tell us how to build a relationship with our child not to change their behavior. We begin wondering if waiting for behavior to change is selfish or unnecessary, but we can’t help the nagging suspicion that if our children trusted us it would be evident in their behavior- at least some of the time.

WHY WASN’T THE BOOK WORKING?

There are a few reasons adoption books can be inaccessible to parents. One reason, for me, is that merely reading the book is bringing up big feelings that are too stressful to work through while actually grasping the concepts in the book.

Others of us, like Debbie,  misunderstand when to begin utilizing specific relationship-building and correction strategies with our children. Our children must feel safe with us before a time-in, or many other connection or correction strategies, can be effective. Until “felt safety” is established, most interventions that are specifically designed to help parents and children connect are actually more destructive than they are constructive.

Before trying to utilize specific connection strategies I need to understand if my child feels safe enough in my presence and in their current circumstance for me to utilize that strategy with positive results. I also need to understand if I feel calm enough to try to connect with my child.

IS MY CHILD FEELING SAFE?

You might wonder how in the world we know if a child feels safe. I know I wondered for a very long time. Finally, a therapist explained that our children most often communicate their needs through their behavior. In the past I’ve cared for children who would wet their pants when a caregiver tried to connect with them. Children who react strongly to parenting are unintentionally explaining that, in that moment, the combination of proximity to the caregiver, conversation, request and eye contact are too overwhelming for them. It’s the caregiver’s job to adjust the circumstances and give the child the space he needs to function at his highest potential. As his relational tolerance is respected by a caregiver, it will grow.

It gets even trickier for some of our families. Some children who’ve endured trauma are demanding of a parent’s time, attention, and even physical nearness, but it just doesn’t seem close. If a child’s affect, tone, and body language are anxious while near their parent;  the nearness is not safe for them even if it’s what they think they need. In this event the parent still needs to find a way for a child to regulate their emotions in as close of proximity as possible so they can feel safe enough to enjoy meaningful connections. Often this is a good time to do a parallel large motor activity or do a chore together where parent and child are close, but not having to make eye contact or touch. In our experience, the sensory activities and chores that are repetitive are the most regulating. We know our children are getting the right kind of sensory input when the activity results in their bodies being calm.

AM I FEELING SAFE?

I’ve personally noticed times when children I’ve cared for finally felt safe and were seeking attachment and I had too many big feelings to respond appropriately to them. Our lives together to that point had been defined by drama. My body tried to defend itself by distancing from that trauma drama. Parenting children whose early experiences were defined by trauma also exposed my greatest weaknesses and begged me to process the most traumatic events of my own life. Sadly, before I addressed my own big feelings, I was unable to connect with children who were looking for connection.

What do responsible parents do in that situation?

I know I had to pray and meditate. Others might try therapy, EMDR, Neurofeedback, or parent coaching. One idea is to write a letter to a child’s trauma. Doing so can serve as a reminder that trauma has robbed the child more than it ever has the parent- an understanding that helps us gain more compassion for our children. The goal is for us parents is to work through our own traumatic experiences (parenting and otherwise) so we can be calm enough to regulate and be a person our children can safely trust and attach to.

WHAT TO DO BEFORE THE BOOKS ARE HELPFUL

A few years ago I had the pleasure of attending a conference led by Dr. Bruce Perry. He told a story that I can’t find online, so I’m sure I’ll get the details confused, but the gist of the story lowered my stress greatly so I could learn how to connect with the most hurting children I’ve met.

Dr. Perry was helping a residential treatment center (RTC) develop a plan to improve their outcomes for youth they served who had endured childhood trauma. One youth was admitted and immediately refused to attend meetings or be in proximity to the treatment staff. The only person he could be within a hundred yards of was the facilities manager.

The staff called and asked Dr. Perry what they should do. They had to have something measurable to report to their funders so they could continue treating this youth. Dr. Perry said they should develop a new metric and call it the YFS. The staff would then measure how many yards from staff the new youth was each day.

The first few days the new youth watched the facilities manager on the grounds of the RTC from about 100 yards away. The staff diligently documented this information and, about a week in, they noticed the youth was only 60 yards from the facilities manager. A couple days later he was only 30 yards away.

A couple weeks after the staff began measuring, one member excitedly called Dr. Perry to report. “The YFS is zero!!!”

“The what?” asked Dr. Perry.

The staff member continued, “Our new youth, the one who refused to do anything for over two weeks. He still hasn’t been to group, but he’s within three feet of the facilities manager and he’s helping with a project.”

Within a couple more weeks this same youth felt safe enough to join the program- even attending groups, and, eventually, he even contributed positively to the community.

I was encouraged when hearing this story that if I watched how naturally close my children could be to me without being too stressed out to function, I could meet them in that place and work from there. My job was to provide them with a safe space, provide them with a safe routine that considered their relational and sensory tolerance, and be a safe adult. It was okay to remain at a safe distance as long as I was doing what I could do so my children could eventually feel safe enough to measure at zero YFP (yards from parent).

In my experience, the safer our relationship with our child is the more we’re able to benefit from and implement helpful strategies from the most reliable adoption books. By the time felt safety is established, we also know the child better and can modify the brilliant interventions to meet the child’s unique, complex needs.

The major challenge is being patient enough to wait for a child’s readiness. But when my child and I share a reciprocal smile over an inside joke, my heart melts instantly and I know it was worth the wait.

*Not her real name

To read more of my thoughts on why Adoption Books are sometimes inaccessible to our families visit the Attachment and Trauma Network Here

Announcement Coming Soon!

I'd be honored if you choose to follow along by email so it comes directly to your inbox. Under my photo (right side of my blog) you'll see my social media icons. Below that is a place for you to enter your email address if you'd like to have my new posts sent to your inbox. 

Surprised by Attachment: Compassionate Nurture

Over the years I’ve taken care of many, many children whose number one fear seemed to be the fear of being nurtured by a mother figure. The most obvious instance was a child who was only four-years-old. He seemed securely attached to me and more “normal” than the most average child I’d ever met, until he realized he was stuck with me for a bit.

Once he realized he was stuck with me, he began refusing to do anything I asked of him. He wouldn’t put shoes on. He wouldn’t use the bathroom before leaving the house. He had to pee the second it was inconvenient for me- especially if I’d just asked him to go minutes before.  He wouldn’t eat food I prepared. He’d wait until he got to school, convince the teachers I didn’t feed him, and beg for food there. For two consecutive weeks, he didn’t eat one meal at home. He ate breakfast and lunch at school, Monday through Friday, and then fasted until snack time at Sunday school. I started only fixing his favorite meals and that scared him even more! His response when I baked him a treasured treat was to defecate on himself.

Any “good mom” move I tried to make was either thwarted by him in a way that seemed manipulative to me or refused by him altogether.

I had heard the phrase “Connect before you correct,” when interacting with kids from hard places, but this child would wet his pants if I made eye contact with him!

He was horror-stricken in my presence.

I was fairly unnerved in his.

For months, I was at a loss as to how to live in the same house with this truly precious and hurting child. Connection seemed impossible. I began to wonder if it always would be.

I began to wonder if the trauma everyone in the household was enduring in this child’s presence was going to destroy us all.

If I was ever going to connect with this child, I had to make some changes because he was terrified, and I knew that a terrified child is not building his tolerance for the thing he’s scared of.

Eventually, I had to embrace the fact that in order to love and nurture him well (and in order to love the rest of the family well), I might have to appear to be a bad parent to parents, teachers, and neighbors who had no context to understand his enormous fear.

I couldn’t let it bother me when people saw me care for only his very basic needs while using few words and no eye contact. It was all the connection he could handle from me. He was petrified with any more nurture from me.

I had to consider the definition of nurture: to care for and encourage the growth or development of.

And I had to remember that if the ways I nurtured my child was not encouraging his growth or development (or, in fact, doing quite the opposite), it was technically not nurture, and it had to be modified.

In order to connect with my most hurting children, I’ve had to acknowledge that more foundational than discipline, correction, or control are peacefulness, acceptance, and the willingness to take myself less seriously.

In order to nurture my hurting children with compassion, I’ve had to learn how to respond to each individual child’s need to feel safe and in control. I had to be willing to forfeit all I once expected from the parent/child relationship including the entitlement to “warm and fuzzy” feelings. While I understand correction is important in the long run, I had to learn that correction was impossible until my children felt safe with me. It was more important to create safe spaces, plan safe activities (they could succeed at), tighten boundaries and provide a predictable routine for the months or years to limit dysregulation during times that correction was only inducing shame in them.

I’ve had to learn from each interaction with each individual child how to help him feel safer so his anxiety and stress could be lower and so that he could function higher behaviorally. When this was done successfully, over time, my children began gaining the confidence they needed to build trusting relationships.

Before my children began feeling safe with me, they felt safest with chaos - because that was what was most most familiar. They delighted in “making me angry.” They had to test the limits of my love to believe it existed and know they could trust me and to rest in the knowledge that, with me, they are safe.

In order to help my children feel safe so I could eventually do more to nurture them, I had to consistently offer them an alternative to the chaos. Until I could be consistently calm- despite being surrounded by the chaos my children needed to stir up (to feel safe due to their early life experiences)- they couldn’t feel safe with me. For as long as I let chaos reign, our most hurting children depended on the familiar feeling that chaos provided for them.

Practically speaking, we created safe spaces in our house for individuals who needed them. We built in routine. We began to mantra anytime there’s an interruption from our typical family routine, it’s going to be a surprise and will be fun planned by Mom and Dad. Otherwise our hurting children were prone to sabotage the impending fun out of anxiety and fear. We had to learn to provide our children with only activities they could handle so they had chances to succeed behaviorally and so we could avoid attempting to discipline them before they felt safe enough to appropriately respond to our discipline. Before our children could trust us, we had to let go of the expectation that they would respect us. How could they? We have no evidence that anyone in their history ever respected them. We had to simplify our possessions, our schedule, our commitments, our careers, our meals, and even our wardrobes. For example, for the better part of two years, we were raising older children who bathed at night and changed into comfy clothes they would sleep in and then wear the following day! If we hadn’t, the morning routine would have been too overwhelming for a portion of our children and, therefore, torturous for the rest of us.

I found that the most “compassionate” way to nurture was not my most “natural” way to nurture. In fact, my “natural” approach to nurturing was both unfamiliar and terrorizing to my child. Compassionate nurture doesn’t always look like a picture of good parenting in the eyes of the world. Compassionate nurture is seeing our child’s fear and tolerance level for relationships and offering predictable nurture at that level - until he can handle more. Compassionate nurture begs us to ask forgiveness for the times we’ve overwhelmed our children by attempting to nurture them beyond that tolerance level. Compassionate nurture reminds the child consistently that we’re doing what we can now to care for him well, and we really look forward to a time when we can enjoy a deeper connection. Compassionate nurture is faithful and patient- hoping for the day true connection happens, without being resentful if it never does.

Once I began nurturing the aforementioned child compassionately, the rest of our household could begin to breathe.

As I’ve attempted to nurture my children compassionately, I’ve made a ton of mistakes and I’ve had to apologize often. I’ve had to continually attempt to discern the difference between what I can and cannot control. I’ve had to do some intense problem solving to determine what I can do to nurture my individual children in ways they can accept, while patiently hoping for our family’s healing.

It hasn’t been easy to let go of every expectation of the parent/child relationship. It hasn’t been easy to parent in a way that constantly elicited judgment. It hasn’t been easy to structure our lives in such a way that has often isolated us from our physical community.

In fact, it’s been excruciating. At times I thought I’d sacrificed a life worth living to nobody’s benefit and our entire family’s demise. I wondered if I’d lost myself completely as I often could barely recognize the person I stared at in the mirror.

However, I can now say a child who was once so terrorized in my presence that he defecated on himself as I offered him his favorite meal, now enjoys healthy, trusting relationships. He knows himself, loves justice, and is confident enough to explore his individual interests. He smiles, laughs, and loves others well.

Was the extent of what I see in him today ever a promise? No.

But, knowing that how I learned to care for him was paving the way for his relational freedom, I can finally say that all the pain and problem solving was worth it.

Six Thoughts as Oprah Tackles Childhood Trauma

Learning about developmental trauma has changed the way I see most people. At one point I thought of the relationship that’s most stressful for me and I decided to measure that person’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) score and I wasn’t surprised that her score (from what I knew of her experiences) was unusually high.

No wonder she treated me so poorly!

For the first time since I’d known this person I began to look at her with compassion rather than being angered by her unfair treatment of me.

Parenting children from hard places, I have to understand how trauma impacts development, and, the more I learn, the more I realize childhood trauma is a pervasive problem that needs to be better addressed in our society.

Like many of you, I’m looking forward to hearing the conversation between Oprah and Dr. Bruce Perry tomorrow on 60 Minutes and I’m thankful Oprah is using her platform to join and initiate such a crucial discussion.

In preparation for tomorrow’s segment, I began gathering some of my often-too-scattered-to-share thoughts regarding developmental trauma, and they are summarized in the following six ways.

1. Language Matters

For the past twenty years I’ve worked with children in residential care and the diagnosis for those struggling the most from their early life experiences has always been “Reactive Attachment Disorder,” often shortened to “RAD.” The label is still used, although it seems many professionals are beginning to question the diagnosis. There’s been a movement to change the diagnosis to “Developmental Trauma.”

When a child has suffered from trauma that has interrupted his development, the ability to attach with a caregiver is impacted. However, “attachment” is a two-way street. If all a child knows from primary caregivers is neglect and/or abuse, he has to do what he needs to do to survive.

Labeling him with an attachment disorder insinuates that he must change when he does not have that ability. The only way for his attachment experience to change is for a loving caregiver to monitor his relational tolerance and consistently nurture him in ways he can handle until he can handle more. Then, his caregiver has to adjust nurture to match the child’s increased tolerance for nurture.

A friend of mine used to say that “Reactive Attachment Disorder” was a natural response to a very unnatural problem. When we label the child as “disordered,” it’s easy to forget that the caregivers must do whatever is in their power to create both real and felt safety so they can build their mutual attachment.

Once I made the shift away from using the term “Reactive Attachment Disorder,” to speaking more generally of trauma, it was easier to see that the behaviors I was so frightened by were survival strategies. It didn’t take long for me to drop the words “manipulation” and “control” once I realized these were tools my child used to survive and they weren’t premeditated. Again, it was all he knew to do to survive.

Once I began seeing my child as a survivor who was constantly in a battle, I began to have compassion on him rather than fearing him. Once my compassion grew, I had more clarity on how to specifically support my child.

2. The Behaviors often Associated with those Labeled with RAD are Real

As I’ve mentioned before, the behaviors of children who don’t feel safe and can’t regulate their emotions can be terrifying and, for years, I remember reading information that labeled these children with RAD and said there was little possibility of them ever developing a conscience.

The fear I had as a result of my reading led me to believe our children were doomed. Our family was doomed. When I first heard Bruce Perry MD speak about trauma and how children can make progress, I began to make a shift. Eventually, rather than being scared of my children, I began to notice their fears. Once I began to see their fears more clearly, I had the ability to begin protecting them from those fears. Once our children were less scared, their behaviors became a ton less scary.

I finally realized that the place I needed to begin was to be safe and create safety and routine for my children. After time, my children were calm enough around me to hear some of my words. It seemed to take forever before I could begin helping them problem solve verbally, but, in a way that seemed to make our relationship more natural. The parents of a newborn are constantly watching for signs and patterns so they know how to provide for their child’s needs. I had the opportunity to mirror this process with my adopted children until they felt safe and confident enough to verbally process with me.

3. Parents often Feel Isolated, Judged, and Hopeless

Our families need help that is rarely available to us. Before our children feel safe with their primary caregivers, they often need frequent, long, and predictable breaks from their caregivers because, for many of them, primary caregivers are their number one fear- for good reason. Their caregivers also need predictable breaks from their lovely children.

Getting these breaks is nearly impossible though. Even school rarely seems like a break. In fact, until babysitters, camps, and schools understand some trauma basics, the time our children spend with them does more harm than good- leaving the entire family feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.

Those supporting our family need to know that it isn’t cute when a child they’ve never met jumps into their arms and starts kissing them on the cheek- it’s survival. They need to know how to respond kindly to that survival. [For example:  Hi. What’s your name? We don’t know each other yet, but I hope you’ll still like me on Friday. If so, maybe you can give me a hug then. It’s not safe to hug strangers.]

When our friends see our families, our children often present their best behavior. Our friends see this behavior and don’t understand that being around strangers brings our children’s stress levels down and they are able to function higher as a result. They also don’t understand that our children have often depended on strangers to safely meet their needs when the adults in their lives have been untrustworthy or that they’ve often learned to charm strangers as a defense mechanism.

As a result of friends seeing only charming behavior from our hurting children, the parents in our families are often dismissed as having gone crazy post adoption and the result is often painful isolation from healthy community.

4. The Support our Families Need

I’m going to limit this bullet to education, childcare, and therapy for brevity.

The first years our children were home it seemed their education was nearly impossible. Their schools weren’t trauma informed. The information we shared with schools was rarely considered. Our children suffered. Our family suffered.

Even when children who have experienced developmental trauma seem to function high, there are often gaps in their education, sensory needs, language, and social skills that need more attention than I had ever imagined. Our children had to spend so much of their effort surviving the way they knew how that they often missed opportunities to develop skills necessary to thrive in a healthy environment.

Our children need years to work on those skills in a setting that is low stress. Most of the children in care I’ve worked with over the years would have benefited greatly if they’d been provided with tutoring, speech therapy, occupational therapy, in a low stress environment- rather than in a traditional classroom- to develop skills they are lacking. The classroom is swarming with relationships that are often overwhelming for our children during the years they are building their general relational tolerance.

As I mentioned, school was an unhealthy place for our children during their first years at home. During that time, we only saw our children thrive in one setting: nature camp.They loved the wide open space. The nature was calming to them. Their sensory needs were met as they explored. The only problem we ever had was one of my children refusing to return to the building for lunch!

If I could develop a program to help families heal and build healthy attachments, it would begin with nature. There would be a wide open natural space to explore, clean portable restrooms, outdoor sinks, and picnic tables. Children would not need to go through any unnecessary transitions as transitions are often felt as threats/losses. The staff would be trauma informed and would work closely with families to be sure they were encouraging rather than hindering healthy attachments.

Beyond what our children need, their parents need excellent, trauma-informed coaching. In my experience, during our earliest days, this was far more valuable than sending our children to therapy. We’ve had great experiences with a trauma-informed therapist, but excellent therapists who understand our children are challenging to find. Our experience is that any therapy that isn’t helping is hurting. Finding parent coaches can be far less stressful. Parents can choose coaches from all over the world and meet with them via Skype when their children are sleeping. Our family needed coaching to know how to help our children feel safe and how to lower their stress so we could eventually build trust and enjoy being in a trusting relationship.

5. There is Hope

Seven years ago, I imagined by this time our family would have at least one child living in a residential treatment center. While it’s possible that’s still in our future and we do not see residential treatment as a failure, we’re in a much brighter place than we ever imagined. One of our children wants to go to a small, private school so he can develop and nurture closer friendships. Another child spent a couple of unexpected months home from school this year and he jumped right into the homeschool community without reservation. He knew it was a safe community because I brought him there and because I was present.

6. Our Families Need to be Heard

While those of us parenting children who have a history of trauma need to be heard and understood, even greater is the need for our children to be heard and understood. Like Oprah said, “The question that we should be asking is not ‘What’s wrong with that child,’ it’s ‘What happened to that child?’”

Our children speak loudly through their behavior before they feel safe enough in a trusting relationship to communicate using their voices.

They don’t need to be judged. They need to be heard.