Prospective foster and adoptive parents are welcome at any Open House listed on our website. Please call one of the regional coordinators listed at the bottom of this newsletter or

for more information or to schedule an individual appointment.

 Click here for the most current listing of open houses across the state.

 Click on the calendar at right to see upcoming events. 

Check out all the great information we've been posting on our collaborative Facebook page this past month!

•  Let's hear it for all of the CT families who finalized their adoptions on National Adoption Day! National Adoption Day in Connecticut reunites biological sisters
• Wow. Just wow!  EIGHT siblings adopted into ONE loving family
• For many of our kids the dreaded family tree project just reminds them of their losses. We'd like to suggest that educators choose an alternative project for the whole class.
  Discover How Family Tree Projects Trigger Loss and Trauma in Adoptees  
• Having a family matters. Always

       Before You Explode, Do This... A Simple Secret for Surviving Tough Times in Foster Care and Adoption

by Pam Parish 

Every Sunday for my entire childhood we would go to my grandmother's house after church. We would pull in the driveway and grab our little brown grocery bags full of "play clothes" and run full-speed into the house to change so that we could get down to the real Sunday business of playing with our cousins in the yard. The smell and sound of pot roast in the pressure cooker was always the first thing that greeted me when I opened my grandmother's backdoor. One day, as I stood at the stove waiting with stomach growling for the food be be done, I asked my grandmother about the jiggly thing at the top of the pressure cooker. She said, "It keeps the pot from exploding. If it doesn't let off steam every once in a while, it gets so hot in there that the whole thing could blow up." Needless to say, I backed away from the stove and was scared of the jiggly thing on that pot for a long time.

Our families can feel like a pressure cooker from time to time. The pressure can become so intense that you feel like the whole thing is about to explode. If we're not intentional, we might. Many families do.

The reasons you feel this way are understandable...you have...

• Broken up the fifth argument in the last five minutes.
• Heard thousands of lies this week alone.
• Dealt with severe tantrums.
• Lifted your child's mattress to find a mountain of food wrappers and molded leftovers.
• Wished you had a dollar for every eye roll, because yesterday alone would have made you a millionaire.
• and many other reasons....

When dealing with children from hard places, as a family unit, we sometimes find ourselves at a breaking point. This is really hard work and sometimes it feels very lonely. This is where I've found a simple secret to getting our family back on track and moving again. I call them "pressure release moments." In the same way that a pressure cooker has to release steam to keep from exploding, our families need to do the same.