Struggling to build or maintain a strong relationship with your adopted child during their challenging pre-teen and teen years? Let's talk about the importance of connection, understanding, and unwavering love in the face of adolescent rebellion and identity crises. 

Get ready to embrace the beauty and complexities of parent-child bonds and learn how to be your child's biggest advocate, even when the journey gets tough.

You've been told that the key to helping your adopted children thrive is to exert control over their every move. But instead of empowering them, it leaves them feeling powerless and defeated. 
The pain of watching your children struggle with a lack of resilience - despite your best efforts -can be heart-wrenching. It's time to discover a better approach that truly nourishes their sense of control and cultivates resilience within them.

Join me in this episode as we:

• Uncover the factors that build resilience in our adopted children.
• Learn how to create a nurturing and secure environment at home
• Understand the power of personal autonomy in shaping an adopted child's life.
• Learn about providing decision-making opportunities to instill a feeling of control in adopted children.
• Get to the heart of defiant and "unruly" behaviors in our adopted children.

Ready to get your family on the same team again? Apply for family coaching at www.livewithjoyrenewed.com.

Welcome back to another episode of the Living with Joy Renewed podcast! This episode is the first in a series all about "resilience" — not the grit-your-teeth-and-bear-it kind of strength, but a deep, psychological resilience that comes from learning to deal with triggers and developing effective coping mechanisms.

We explore how resilience can play a significant role in the healing process of our children. You'll learn how we can respond to our children's adverse behavior in a way that doesn't just limit further trauma, but begins healing the effects of trauma.

You'll also learn the seven key factors in navigating trauma:

1. Positive relationships and social supports.
2. Personal control and empowerment.
3. The ability to experience more positive emotions while controlling the negative ones.
4. Using cognitive skills such as problem solving and acceptance.
5. Being able to control life pursuits and personal values.
6. The quality of social, emotional, and financial resources.
7. The ability to confront adversity without avoiding or denying the feelings and emotions that come from them.

In the upcoming episodes, we'll dive deeper into these factors, offering you practical strategies to help your children build resilience.

In this episode, we learn the basics of Attachment Theory: the exploration of how relationships shape our brain's ability to participate in close relationships and regulate emotions. By understanding how our adopted children build trust and form attachments, we can guide them along their healing journey and help them build (and maintain) healthy relationships.

It's the moment every parent hopes will never happen: that deeply emotional moment when our child screams that they hate us. In this episode, we explore the two ways we can choose to act - REACT or RESPOND - and the possible consequences of each choice. And, importantly, we discuss practical strategies to prepare you to respond to these intense moments with grace and empathy.

Where does our kids' anger come from? What do we need to understand about them in order to respond with love and understanding? In this episode, I'll attempt to answer those questions and share some significant moments in our family's life - moments that gave me an opportunity to better understand how my children think.  I hope our story inspires, educates, and reassures you that you are not alone in this journey.

In this episode, I share the details of our adoption journey, from unexpected challenges to beautiful moments of connection. We discuss the deep emotional impact adoption has on children, the importance of awareness and understanding, and how adoptive parents are called to a higher standard of love and care. I believe that awareness is power, and I hope my story inspires others navigating the adoption journey.

Join me as I share our family's story and the realization that led us to embrace non-traditional parenting, focusing on our children's unique needs and experiences rather than societal expectations.

At Joy Renewed, we want to help families create a home environment that's a safe haven for their children as they navigate their world and what it means to be an adoptee in this world. Join me as I share my family's story - how we grew from our first child to a crew of adopted, biological, and "acquired" children.

Hear about the love, growth, and challenges that have shaped our family's unique story and prepared us for the journey ahead.

Join a Life Group or sponsor a family at www.livewithjoyrenewed.com ❤️