Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
Are you thinking about adopting or fostering a child? Confused about all the options and wondering where to begin? Or are you an adoptive or foster parent or kinship caregiver trying to be the best parent possible to this precious child? This is the podcast for you! Every week, we interview leading experts for an hour, discussing the topics you care about in deciding whether to adopt/foster or how to be a better parent. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are the national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content: weekly podcasts, weekly articles, and resource pages on all aspects of family building at our website, CreatingaFamily.org. We also have an active presence on many social media platforms. Please like or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
Episodes
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Question: We have been matched with an expectant mom due in a couple of months. She is having twins. As we are preparing for the next steps, sleep training has come up frequently in newborn care books. What research is there on the cry-it-out method or other popular sleep training methods in relation to adopted children? We want to make sure they know their needs wil...
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Are you looking for practical ways to build your child's resilience and sense of safety, and to strengthen your family's connectedness? Listen to this conversation with Ginger Healy, MSW, LCSW, director of programs for the Attachment & Trauma Network and host of the podcast “Regulated and Relational.” Ginger speaks across the nation on trauma-informed s...
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Question: I would love to hear about family profiles for adopting older teens.
Resources:
- Adopting a Child of a Different Race or Culture
- Adopting Older Kids
- Evaluating Risk Factors in Foster Care Adoption
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to stre...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
What is it like to be the only biological child in a large transracial adoptive family? Our guest, Elaine Duncan, shares her story of how transcultural adoption impacted her identity and resilience. She is a writer, speaker, and strategist whose work bridges storytelling, healing, and social change. She has a passion for improving outcomes for underserved young peopl...
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Question: I have a friend whose 12-year-old adopted son (adopted at age 6) has been sexually abusing his younger siblings. She self-reported to CPS and law enforcement, but they have not done a formal removal yet, and their solutions involved bringing the child back home or kinship (not an option).
The offending child is currently in a temporary behavioral hospital,...
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We're thrilled to introduce you to our new Executive Director, Linda Fiore. Listen to today's conversation about her journey to Creating a Family and where we're heading in this next chapter under her leadership.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What first brought you into the world of adoption, foster care, and kinship care?
- When you started out, what wa...
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Question: Help for a youth dealing with being bullied because they are in foster care?
Resources:
- 5 Steps to Effectively Advocate for a Child Who is Being Bullied
- Are Transracial Adoptees More Likely to Be Bullied?
- Helping Our Kids Cope with Bullies at School
- StopBullying.gov
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.Creat...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Do you feel like raising a child with a history of trauma has stirred up your own traumatic past? If you wonder how to parent from a position of healing, listen to this conversation with Dr. Robyn Koslowitz. She is a psychologist, trauma expert, and author of the new book, Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle, Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be.
In this ep...
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Question: I have been fostering our grandchild since March. It is now almost September. Both biological parents had drug addiction. Bio mom was on a trial home visit, but used this as the reason our grandchild is with us. After the trial home visit ended, bio mom was still getting supervised visits 2x a week. After every visit, the little one was dysregulated and sta...
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Join us for a fun and inspiring conversation with Emily Cole, co-founder and co-owner of Banana Ball, the new sports phenomenon sweeping the country. We're talking with her about Bananas Foster, their non-profit that celebrates foster families all around the nation.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Please tell us the story of how Bananas Foster got started.
- What...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Question: Do you have trainings for children transitioning from foster care to adoption?
Resources:
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Do you sometimes feel that self-care is an impossible goal when you are parenting kids who have experienced trauma? There isn’t enough time in the day to do it all, much less take care of yourself. Or is there? Join us to talk about how to find time to take care of yourself. We will talk with Angelica Jones, MSW, Program Director of Intercountry Services and the Inte...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Question: We adopted our son at birth, and he is about to turn one already. I deeply care about his birth parents and have tried very hard to maintain a relationship with them. Even during many months of no contact, I think about them every day. Our only post-placement visit with them was at 2 1/2 months. They have no-showed for all the other visits they asked for, a...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Why do our kids melt down, act out, or regress during the holiday season? Listen to our conversation with Dr. David Adams to learn what is going on and what you can do about it to make this holiday season more enjoyable for you all. He is an adoptive and foster dad, a licensed psychologist, and a licensed professional counselor. He is the Founding Director and Presid...
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Question: My adoptive child was contacted by the birth mother, never contacted us, it has caused chaos in our family. The parents that adopt kids are never considered after raising a child for over 20 years to give them back.
Resources:
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
How do you handle sleep struggles when raising a child who has been impacted by trauma, prenatal substance exposure, or other challenges? Listen to our conversation with Dr. Chris Winter, a sleep researcher and neurologist who has practiced sleep medicine and neurology since 2004. He is also the author of The Rested Child: Why Your Tired, Wired or Irritable Child May...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Question: How should I deal with an adoptive child with a people-pleasing personality? I want to prevent the anxiety that comes with that, but I'm not sure how.
Resources:
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
How do you manage daily expenses and budgeting when you are a foster or kinship caregiving family? We speak with Nicole Valenzuela, a foster parent and founder of Fostering Finances, to learn about simplified budgeting practices and healthy mindsets for managing money.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What are the financial challenges that foster and kinship families c...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Question: My husband and I are considering whether we will open our special needs consideration to include children who are HIV+. We have already been approved to adopt from India, and as our home study update approaches, we are taking a good, hard look at the Special Needs list again. I was listening to your podcast episode on this topic from 2013 and wondered if th...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
What strategies can parents and caregivers implement in their homes to help reduce the risk that their children may be sexually abused? Learn practical parenting tools from this conversation with Dr. Eliana Gil, the founder of the Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma in children, especially those w...
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