What to consider before telling your RAD parenting story
RAD parents have unbelievable, and unbelievably important, stories to tell. Too often the issues around parenting kids with complex mental health issues, like Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), are told from the armchair of a clinician. But it's our stories of lived experience that have the unique potential to highlight the dysfunctions […]
A Chat about the Reality and Strategies Through the Hard Work of RAD #NAVRAD22
Tracey of RAD Talk interviews an adoptee who was diagnosed as a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) but is now thriving. @ NAVRAD22 […]
The Struggle For Love – How it All Began
Learn how ambition for adoption and loving a child blinded me to the challenges of loving and raising trauma affected children. […]
Book Review | Me, The Boy, and the Monster
By Hannah Meadows It’s hard to overstate how much I love this book. I had the joy of proofreading it for Cat (the author) in December and before I’d finished it I was telling my husband he needed to read it too. It’s one of those books that you just want […]
Navigating Reactive Attachment Disorder – And Succeeding!
Gina and her husband adopted Maddox only to discover he suffered developmental trauma and was diagnosed with RAD. Through years of therapy and specialized schools he's a successful and well-adjusted teenager with a bright future ahead. […]
Out Of Options, Parents Of Children With Mental Illness Trade Custody For Treatment
Illinois Newsroom-Jul 31, 2018 When Toni and Jim Hoy adopted their son Daniel as a toddler, they did not plan to give him back to the state of Illinois 10 years later. “Danny was this cute, lovable little blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby,” Jim said. There were times Daniel would reach over, put […]
Believing “children are resilient” may be a fantasy | Psychology Today
How did resilience become a standard? How did we come to view children almost as nuisances who just need minimal support? How did children's needs become dismissable? via Believing "children are resilient" may be a fantasy | Psychology Today […]
Adopted baby nephew
My youngest sister gave birth to a baby boy in 2008. She has had a substance abuse problem and has always been more concerned with what guy will pay attention to her rather than love her own son. For 18 months we watched as this little boy was always sick, always […]
I will only adopt cats from here on out.
Since I was about 16, I have wanted to adopt children. Not babies, children. I really felt God had called me to it to help fill a niche. Most people want babies so the kids get left behind. I helped my husband get hooked on adoption after I married at 32. […]
Alexandra
Today is Alexandra’s 12th birthday. Over the last 16 months we’ve had people reach out asking why she isn’t in pictures etc. I have also posted a few times about reactive attachment disorder. Alexandra no longer lives in our home. And she will not return to our home. That’s a powerful […]
Kyla
Rewind to five years ago. (Don't I wish I could?) My then husband and I have enjoyed an empty nest for about 3 years after raising one daughter and two sons now 28, 29, and 30. I begin to push my husband toward my life long dream of fostering, and the […]
Adopting family tortured by girl’s RAD illness | KSL.com
It took Jay and Jodi Bean of Alpine years to figure out why their new daughter brought anger and fear into the family and triggered maternal hate instead of love. Jodi has written a book to help others who may, unknowingly, be struggling with a rare condition called RAD. The emotional […]
Just
This is a devastating story of a family struggling to love and raise two adopted foster children. The unfairness and inadequacy of the system are clear as they navigate trying to raise children with mental illness. When the unimaginable happens, and they discover one of the children has been sexually preying […]