One of the first things the Occupational Therapist had me fill out was a sensory profile.This is a screening tool that will help the Occupational therapist learn about our needs and the issues we are facing at home. It will enable our occupational therapist to create a sensory diet tailored to Livi’s exact needs and pin point what her sensory issues are all about. I’m looking forward to learning the results. The one I filled out was for ages 7 -36 months and had 38 questions. This is for caregivers/parents to fill out to give the OT an idea... more

What it's like to be the sister of someone who has borderline personality disorder........

I love you...get away!

Borderline Personality Disorder not only affects the people who have it but the lives of everyone else around them. I live with kids that have many problems. One of the hardest disorders to have in my house is BPD. Living with siblings that have BPD and that don’t receive any treatment is very hard. You know that their mood can change any second. It just makes it that much harder to live with them.... more

I took a teen daughter to therapy today. This particular daughter is one of the most angry kids to have come into our family and the therapist (and us) has work cut out for her! My daughter’s previous adoptive parents - and professionals that they’d used - felt that this girl might have borderline personality disorder. Today, our own therapist confirmed this as a possibility. It was at least confirmed that much of what we are dealing with are behaviors that someone with BPD might show.

This is not my first experience... more

I thought I would go over our Early Intervention Steps & Timeline. All states have an Early intervention program where every child birth-3 can get evaluated and if needed receive appropriate services & resources. Some states programs work more swiftly than others. Some states offer all services for free and some work on a sliding scale. Your Pediatrician or local school system should be able to put you in touch with Early Intevention services.

April 06- I placed a call to our Help Me Grow/EI Program shortly after getting over jet lag. Livi... more

Katherine and Daniel and Angela (and others) were outside. Daniel and Angela came in to report that Katherine had scratched someone. I brought Katherine in and told her that she would not be able to play outside anymore since she had scratched someone. Katherine became upset and insisted she did not do it, at one point yelling "You are going to believe a 'retard' over me?!?" (referring to Angela, who does have mental retardation)

HOLD UP, LITTLE MISSY!!!!!! She did get a tongue lashing for that - including a heavy reminder that, at this house,... more

My husband and I have purposefully adopted children with mental illnesses. One of these adoptions was a sibling group of three. The oldest child had obvious mental illness. The youngest child has FAS and mental retardation. The middle child, we were told, had no problems whatsoever. He was very cuddly, age appropriate, grade level, and sweet as can be – the previous mom called him “teddy bear”. The caseworker even once termed him the “bonus child”. It sounds offensive to write, but I never thought that to be her intent. I assume... more

Did you ever see that cartoon of the singing frog " Hello my baby, Hello my darling, Hello my rag time Gal" ? In this cartoon the frog only sang & performed in front of the one guy. Whenever the guy tried to show off the frogs amazing talent to the world he would just croak and ribbett and act like a normal frog and then as soon as the frog was alone again with the boy he would begin performing again. I could very much relate to the owner of that talented frog and that is about how I felt with Livi during her evaluations and at school....... until yesterday that is.

I... more

We went into our adoption process assuming that we would have to deal with some medical, physical and developmental issues as a result of our daughter spending the first 16 months of her life in two orphanages. I just had the mindset that this was a part of the process. I think having this mindset helped me in dealing with any issues that have cropped up in the ten months that we have been home. It was and still is my opinion that most adopted children are “special needs” children,at least at first and especially those who spent time in an orphanage... more

So Many people have told me “ Oh That’s Normal” when talking about my active sensory seeking daughter. How do you differentiate what is normal and what can be more of a red flag behavior? Many people have asked me how Livi’s behaviors are any different than just an active toddler. It is hard to tell, but working with children for so many years I just knew that something was a little different. So how is it different? Well for starters my girl is always bouncing, moving, hopping, climbing…she has a constant need to move. She is high endurance... more

We started the evaluation process with our states Early Intervention program in late December and Early January. We have completed five evaluations/screenings including speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and two general developmental screenings. We have a referral for occupational therapy and we are currently working our way off of the waiting list to receive center based services. I just want help already and often feel that while I get a sympathetic ear from my service coordinator, I’m not getting much in the way of anything else to... more