Upside Down is now available in its entirety – complete, revised, and expanded – through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and WestBow Press. Enjoy this excerpt here. :)
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Thank you for voicing what we live with in one of our two adopted boys. Unfortunately, he is 21 and still knows the dance steps. This information was not around 19 years ago…it is scary, humbling and painful to see how the past can interfere with the present. And the future. Your words are a good reminder to this tired momma. Trust is a HUGE issue. Ill ok forward to your future posts.
As an adoptive sister, thank you, thank you for writing this series. Trying to explain, ignore, excuse, correct, laugh-off, butt in…it’s exhausting. Sometimes I think my aunts and uncles will never “get” their nieces and nephews, my siblings. It takes a lot of patience.
I came back to reading this after reading part one. this whole adoption spectrum is mind-boggling to say the least. Trust and control are huge issues that we encounter nearly daily. who knows what becomes engrained before 9 months of age and how that affects the rest of ones life. It is most definitely a learning process filled with trial and error and the exhaustion of trying to help others outside the house understand – even the grandparents. Thank you so much for telling this story that is still being written for your family and for my family and so many others.
Your thoughts and words are so encouraging to me, even though I am not an adoptive parent, but teach in a rural village. These kids though, due to similar circumstances react in ways that are very hard to process sometimes, and if it were not for the grace and love God has given for me for them, I would pack my bags and run. I am not in a forum where I can love and speak openly to them, but their behaviors and words are fierce and cry out for you to care enough to stay and teach, even when they are mean and do all within their power to push you away. The truth is, most teachers do leave after their first year, or some after the first few weeks, because it is difficult. God has graciously been showing me how to love these kids, and teaching me that I don’t always get to pick and choose what I, in my romantacized ideals, think would be the changeable, lovable, child. He is also teaching me much about myself, which isn’t always very pretty. I love your writings and appreciate the time you take to write and share your heart, talents, experience, and your amazing talent!! Thank-you!!
I missed this when you first posted it, but at 15 months home our son still can not handle wrestling with or being turned upside down or tossed into the air…all ways my husband tries to interact with him, just like the rest of our kids and it has been hard that our son can not handle it. Thank you for writing this series!
God Bless you and your family. My heart gets full every time I read one of your posts about adoption. It takes me back to where we were and where we are now. God is full of grace and mercy. So many days of parenting I needed truck loads of both. Thank you for writing it reminds me of what God has given us. We have gone from a baby that wouldn’t let us hold her to a tender hearted teenager that loves God, her family and her friends.
Thank you Karen! That is so (soooo) encouraging to me!