On a good day, parenting will test the integrity of your character. On a bad day, parenting will test your will to live. Parenting children with trauma histories will cause you to test the integrity of everything and everyone you thought you knew, for the rest of your life.
~J. Skrobisz

Saturday, November 21, 2009

RAD blogging

I'm not new to blogging. I've kept a personal blog for six years or more. My personal blog,http://integritysinger.livejournal.com, is about me. This blog will be about our family's journey as we help our daughter recover from RADs.

Sissy will be 10 on the last day of the year. She came home nine years ago after 11 months of challenges in her first mom's care. Her RAD diagnosis came shortly afterward but it wasn't until years of other therapies, medications and doctors that we were finally directed to pursue RAD therapy as our last chance at helping Sissy recover and become functional.

But we were not prepared for the ramifications of the therapy and it only escalated Sissy's rage to the point of suicidal ideations. 9 years of difficult parenting and 5 weeks of RAD therapy, Sissy will be taking some time to stabilize at a residential treatment center while the rest of the Smith clan regroups, recovers from the malestrom and adequately prepares to reembrace Sissy in our home.

We are also proud adoptive parents of Sissy's biological siblings, Aspie Boy, turning 9 a week after Sissy's birthday, and Wonder Girl, age 5.

6 comments:

Dawn said...

Am so glad you are finding connections! Just added you to my feedreader. :)

Integrity Singer said...

thanks Dawn!

Lisa said...

You are fast Jennie! I'm going to try to get the package out to you tomorrow. Will be thinking of y'all tomorrow as you journey north.

Marty Walden said...

Hi. Lisa told us about you and I want to encourage you. My blog is http://waldenbunch.blogspot.com/
We also adopted 3 siblings, all with RAD, the oldest with sexual abuse history we didn't know about. Long story you can read bits of on the blog. She was in a residential faciliity after 4 years with us (age 14) but never returned home. Even longer story. It is really important that you get the right therapist. We also searched for years until we found ours. Please feel free to contact me. I'm in Greensboro, NC. This is a small club but we welcome you. Lisa is a great resource.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jennie,
I'm Mom to 6 kids, 5 of whom were adopted from Haiti over the last 5 years. Two of my kids are RAD. Our son has been in a RTC for the last 11 months and will not return home to us due to sexual "acting out" (read: BIG EUPHEMISM) that makes him not safe in our home. I blather on A LOT at www.watchingthewaters.wordpress.com . There is not enough adult conversation in my life, apparently. Praying for you as your daughter goes to RTC.

Linda said...

Hi Jennie,
I also came over to your blog via Lisa. We have 4 adopted kids, one with various diagnosis with one being RAD. We also adopted her at 11 mos old. She is 17 now. We knew nothing about RAD when we adopted her. We did no kind of attachment therapies either. Nobody picked up on it I guess. All along we knew something was different, but couldn't put our finger on it. She wanted to die when she was in 4th grade. She's been in some type of therapy since then. 11 mos ago we had to put her in residential. Her RAD and FASD really started amping up around age 14. Suicidal, homicidal. Sounds much like your daughter. I will be a regular reader and you can check me out at www.allcrazyhere.blogspot.com