Parenting through Adoption Conference

In about a month Boz and I are heading up to Wheaton for an all day ‘Parenting through Adoption’ conference. I can hardly wait! The only downside… it starts at 7:30a.m. Which means we’ll have to leave our house around 6:00a.m. ACK! I hadn’t even thought of that…. that’ll be rough.

The keynote speaker (Adam Pertman ) is a Pulitzer Nominee and Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. He is one of the country’s leading experts on adoption and family issues and is widely quoted in the media and has appeared on radio and television programs, such as “Oprah”, “Today”, “Nightline”… kinda cool. Hopefully we won’t miss too much of what he has to say. LOL!

After the keynote address there are numerous workshops (24!!) we can pick from. I was hoping we could split up and cover a bunch of areas, but Boz thought it’d be more fun to spend the day together doing this. He didn’t have to twist my arm too hard on that one. So the four sessions we’ve decided to attend are (not all 24 sessions applied to us - some were for people considering adoption, others were focused on domestic adoptions...). . . .

Effective Adoptive Parenting Styles:
This workshop was developed for adoptive families but can be applied to any family system. It is hard to find a family that has not been touched by loss: divorce, death, moving from one part of the country to another, losing the extended family system. Because of the nature of attachment and how important it is to the development of empathy, belonging and identity formation, it is clearly a cornerstone of parenting. This workshop will explore what does and does not work, in both changing behavior and encouraging children's attachment. Implementing effective parenting and discipline styles requires that we be committed to parenting in a conscious, deliberate manner.

Medical Issues in Adoptions and Foster Care:
Presenter: Todd J. Ochs, MD
What should adoptive parents and workers be concerned about, in the rapidly-changing world of adoption and foster care? What health problems do international and domestic adoptees have, now, and what problems might we face in the future? Shedding light on medical issues present in international and domestic adoptees, and in foster children, will provide parents and adoption professionals with valuable tools to go forward.

Half & Half: Information For Raising Biracial Adoptees
What does it mean to be "Biracial"? How are "Biracials" perceived in American society, both in the majority and minority communities? What is the history of Biracial adoptees? How does one have their Biracial child build a positive self identity in a world that says "choose"? What are the additional challenges for parents raising a Biracial child who are not interracially married themselves? There are support groups, Biracial advocates, and a growing number of resources; this discussion is to give a quick primer on being Biracial in America.

Though I might see if we can switch that out with this one (it didn't dawn on me until this morning that we aren't adoptiong a BIRACIAL child - duh):

What Needs To Be In My Child's IEP?
Parents attend Individual Educational Plan meetings for their children with special needs but do not always understand what legally should be written into their child's IEP in order to ensure that their child receives all appropriate educational services provided under current law. This workshop will teach parents what should and should not be in their child's written IEP, and how the document needs to be written in order to be a legally binding document.

And we’ll end the afternoon with this one:

The Transracial 10
As a transracial adoptee, Mr. Hoffman is often asked what his parents did right and what they could have done better. So from them, he has come up with the 10 things he thinks all transracial adoptive parents, foster parents and professional should know when considering transracial adoption.

I CAN’T WAIT!!!