“Placing my baby for adoption was hard but I have never wished that I would have single parented. There were five things that got me through that tough, sacred first year.”*

“I don’t know how to respond to my grief… I don’t know how to let the tears out when I feel they need to come. The reason why is because I’m afraid of people telling me how I’m supposed to grieve, feel and what to do. Nobody understands the level of grief I deal with, because the people trying to understand aren’t aware of what being a birth mom is like.”*

When children come into our care from hard places, whether as a newborn or an older child, they have experienced trauma. Our privilege as a parent is to walk with them through the healing that their hearts need. Is it easy? Absolutely not. However, shepherding a child in this process can be one of the most rewarding challenges in life. To give some practical reminders and actions for parents, we have put together the following list of ten ways parents can practically encourage healing in our children from hard places.*

“The first year of my son’s life we saw his birth family almost every single month. I loved getting to know them and I hope and pray that seeing him was a good thing for their hearts. The thing with open adoption, though, is it can come in like high tide and then draw back like low tide.”*