The Essentials for Adoption Attuned Parenting

Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss how we can make our adopted children -- all children -- feel safer in a world that is currently experiencing many events that make us all afraid. It seems as if violence is permeating our world whether here in the United States or thousands of miles away. So what do we find ourselves doing to deal with this fear and what might we do differently that would be more effective? Your hosts of The Essentials for Adoption Attuned Parenting suggest 9 simple ways to help kids feel safe.

https://giftfamilyservices.com/9-simple-ways-to-help-kids-feel-safe/

Join hosts, adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they focus on mothering and how we can nurture respectful, healthy relationships between ourselves and our children's birth moms. With so many competing emotions in adoption, all three parties in the adoption constellation -- birth mother, adoptee, and adoptive mother -- can wrestle with fear of rejection and of not being good enough. It could be easy to fall into seeing one another as competitors, sometimes even as adversaries. How much better would it be if we can actually see ourselves as allies joined by a common mission: to ensure the health and wellbeing of our children. Join the discussion!

It is that time of year again -- we just honored mothers on their special day, graduations of all sorts are being celebrated, and Father's Day is just around the corner. Join hosts Susan David and Gayle Swift as they revisit a previous episode discussing how to manage holiday celebrations, the Adoption Attuned way.

Adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, are joined by special guest, adoption consultant Abby Jacobson as she shares her personal adoptee experience that now assists her in understanding the unique issues that adoptees face. Abby's candid sharing is refreshing, informative, and one of inspiration for adoptees and the families that love them. Learn more about Abby Jacobson at www.adoptionconsultant.net

Abby Jacobson is a professional Adoption Consultant bringing over 20 years of experience from her previous career as a psychotherapist & substance abuse counselor. Additionally, she has received training as a National Adoption Competency Mental Health Provider.

With her knowledge of family systems & networking, it is her aim to provide support to individuals who have experienced the process of adoption, both adults & youth alike. Coming from a family with 4 generations of adoptions, this is an issue she is very familiar with and which originally led her into the field of counseling.

Created in 2021, Abby Jacobson's Adoption Consultant business grew out of her dedication of working with others: being a former foster child, becoming an adoptee at age 14 & then completing her degree in psychotherapy, a field she practiced in for over 20 years.

Her mission is to provide a safe, trustworthy platform by which adoptees can share their stories while establishing their self identities. It is her goal to assist other adoptees as they navigate and define their own perceptions of identity.

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss Adoption Attuned parenting strategies. This month, they'll focus on 5 of the unique, additional, and essential characteristics that adoptive parents need to parent well. Parenting is surely a tough job and adoptive parenting is parenting on steroids! But parenting well is achievable with intention, preparation, and education. Listen in on the discussion of five of the most essential qualities adoptive parents need. And since we are in March, a little luck couldn't hurt either!

At the heart of every conversation is a desire to connect with another person. Too often our words land in an unintended way. Mismatches are not uncommon in conversations between parent and child. So what can we parents do to avoid these conversation mishaps?

Join hosts, adoption coaches and parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss how to listen so your kids feel seen, heard, and loved. As always, the discussion is Adoption attuned and child centric.

Join adoption coaches and parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift as they host special guest, adoption coach and consultant, and adoptee, Sharon Butler-Obazee. They'll be discussing ideas for making your new year's parenting resolutions Adoption attuned and child centric. Make resolutions that are solid for 2022 and beyond.

Ms. Obazee is a well-trained and experienced coach with lived understanding of the adoption experience. She recently joined Susan and Gayle as adoption coach and consultant at Growing Intentional Families Together, LLC and brings to adoptive and prospective adoptive families her unique perspective. You may also find Sharon at Coaching to Impact .

Growing Intentional Families Together's Adoption Attunement Intelligence ("AQ") framework encourages adoptive parents to

*Operate with a child-centric focus

*Follow ethical practices

*Acknowledge the grief and loss issues of all members in the adoption constellation

*Understand the attachment process

*Respect birth parents and first families

*Recognize adoption as a family experience

*Honor a child's need to know and connect with their birth family

*Integrate a child's birth heritage

*Remember a child's story belongs to them

*Model, teach, and hold healthy boundaries

*Use sound adoption language

*Embrace, when appropriate, moments to enlighten family, friends, teachers, and faith communities about adoption

*Encourage playfulness and good humor as a family value

*Nurture and value a child's innate talents and encourage them to be themselves

*Recognize the Seven Core Issues of Adoption

*Adoptive parenting is different from bio parenting and incudes unique responsibilities and challenges

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss Adoption Attuned parenting strategies. This month, they'll focus on parenting with intention that is essential during the holiday season. Pressures, expectations, emotions, and fears all operate at an intensified level at this time of year. And what makes being Attuned to our adopted children all the more vital as we celebrate with family and friends.  

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they interview adoption author, adoptee, and adoptee genealogist, Lynn Grubb for an enlightening first discussion about genetic genealogy for adoptees. Lynn lets us in on what you need to know before starting and some other considerations you might not have considered. As always, your hosts focus on Adoption Attuned practices that help families raise healthy and happy adopted children.

Our guest, Lynn Grubb, offers a variety of perspectives: she is an Adoptee, a Kinship Adoptive Parent, and Editor of the The Adoptee Survival Guide: Adoptees Share Their Wisdom and Tools. Lynn also writes at her blog, No Apologies for Being Me.

Born in Chicago, Illinois in the middle of the Baby Scoop Era, Lynn grew up wondering where she came from and why she was given up for adoption.

At the age of 40, Lynn embarked on a search for her roots, had a reunion with her maternal family and fourteen years later, found her birth father thanks to genetic genealogy She is currently working on a memoir to be published in 2021. Lynn also serves as "The Adopted Genealogist" on Facebook where she uses her expertise to help other adoptees find family.

Lynn writes from the perspective of many hats: adult adoptee, kinship adoptive parent, step-parent, biological parent and child advocate. When not writing, you can find her at any live concert. She currently serves as President of the Adoptee Rights Coalition, which advocates for adopted people to receive equal access to their original birth certificates.

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss Gayle's recent book, co-authored with adoptive parent and adoption coach, Sally Ankerfelt, Reimagining Adoption: What Adoptees Seek from Families and Faith. Their book has been well received by both faith communities and those in the adoption constellation and blends personal experience, expert insights, adoptee interviews, trauma research, and scriptural interpretation so The Church and the Christian community can re-envision adoption to better serve adoptees and their families. Gayle and Sally's book has recently won the prestigious Illuminations Award, given to "honor the year's best new titles written and published with a Christian worldview."

Sally Ankerfelt has worked with individuals and families for over 26 years as an ordained Lutheran pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She also holds a Certificate in Trauma Studies from the University of Minnesota. Serving South Minneapolis congregants for 14 years, she guided them in their vision to become "a trauma-informed" congregation.

Sally is also an Adoption Coach with Growing Intentional Families Together, LLC. And as author, Sally's writing on ambiguous loss can be seen in the March/April 2019 Fostering Families Today national magazine.

Being a white adoptive parent of three children of color, she is committed to upholding conversations about adoption, race, and white privilege. She and her husband, Dan, are adoptive parents to three children: one child adopted internationally, one through an open adoption, and one through the foster care system.

Like Sally Ankerfelt, Gayle Swift is a co-founder of Growing Intentional Families Together, an adoption coach, and an adoptive parent. She writes both the GIFT blog and a children's book blog that reviews books through an Adoption Attuned lens. Gayle's articles have been featured on Adoption.com, AmericaAdopts.com, Portrait of Adoption and more. She writes about adoption for adults and children. Her books have all won awards.

Gayle is also the new co-host of this podcast, Essentials for Adoption Attuned Parenting.