Foster Care & Adoption

Through the journey of knowledge, bravery, and strength, the child and adoptive family make a significant and meaningful impact on one another. The child and adoptive family allow for vulnerability in getting to know each other and open their hearts to begin a new chapter together.

Youth in foster care and their care providers experience many transitions. Foster parents play an important role in helping youth navigate these difficult transitions by providing stability, emotional support, and being an advocate for their needs. Take a look at how you can best support a child during an emotional time.

As a new foster parent who just completed mountains of paperwork and all the necessary training, you may wonder what exactly is next. Cherie Johnson, Foster and Adoptive Parent, shares her experience as a new foster parent with some action steps you and your family can take to prepare.

In honor of National Foster Care month, we wanted to share a list of books and workbooks for youth in foster care or in adopted families that are a wonderful way for children to explore other people's life experiences, while at the same time seeing their own stories represented and know they are not alone in their feelings.

In the world of foster care, you will encounter more family dynamics than you even knew existed. This isn’t always because these families are broken, sometimes we distance ourselves from family members who have emotionally or otherwise harmed us. How do you navigate all of this? Foster and Adoptive Parent Cherie Johnson shares tips and guidance to help you navigate a variety of family dynamic situations.

March is recognized annually as National Social Worker Month. Social workers are true advocates for the youth and families they serve. Here are some ways you can meaningfully recognize a social worker in your life.

Social workers have very thankless jobs, but very meaningful and important jobs. Cherie Johnson, Nexus-Kindred Foster and Adoptive Parent, shares her experience with and appreciation for Nexus Family Healing social workers.

Our youngest daughter was acting out at school, and she is usually our most angelic child, the one we rarely worry would misbehaving. Naturally, we were concerned for her and a bunch of questions and scenarios jumped to mind. And then it hit me… How would I know the answer to any of these questions if I can’t even remember the last time I had concentrated one-on-one time with her?

A foster parent shares her family's journey with reactive attachment disorder. Reactive attachment disorder is a rare but serious condition in which an infant or young child doesn't establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers, often developed from early trauma.

Am I doing anything right? This question could easily be muttered by my teenagers or by me. Daily. Hourly. Parenting teenagers is no easy feat, especially parenting teens with traumatic backgrounds. Learning to parent your teenager's inner child while they emerge as a young adult can help you navigate this difficult stage.