Foster Further

 On Friday I speak with our therapist via Zoom. He is part of a group that specializes in adoption. We've met about 4 times now and it occurs to me that I should be writing down some ideas and suggestions he has for me. And then recording how it goes when I try to follow through.  Last week we discussed Jane's habit of baby talking. It irritates the hell out of me and nothing I've tried has worked to extinguish the behavior. After listening to all my strategies that have failed he said something along the lines of, "meet the need while ignoring the behavior". Meaning--she's baby talking as an expression of a desire for mothering/care/attention so meet that need without reinforcing that she has to baby talk in order to get it. Rather, ignore the speech altogether.  This sounds like an excellent idea. It is also almost impossible to do in practice. I'm pretty much failing utterly. Can't think of a single successful example.  All I can say is that I am su...

 We had a therapist for nine months of the year the girls were in foster care. She was useless. The girls, literally, did the exact same activities with the exact same toys without any more input from her on the last day of therapy as on their first. I never did understand what the purpose of any of it was. And I did ask! Her answers were fluffy and vague and almost as if she had to hide her intentions from even me.  We took about a year off but I know we need help. I've been searching for awhile. It started with asking friends for references. That was a dead end. Then I did a big search with an online tool for finding the right therapist for you! Every single one offered to help me transition from one gender to another...not so much expertise with adoption. I did find seven therapists to contact, though. Every single one responded saying they weren't taking new patients.  A few days ago I did another big search. This time I just did a Google search for "adoption therapis...