If you’ve ever tried to talk through behavior or feelings with a child who is clearly dysregulated, you already know this truth: You can’t reason with a nervous system that feels unsafe. Before kids can reflect, apologize, problem-solve, or even name a feeling, their bodies have to calm first. In our home, especially with theContinue reading “Helping Kids Regulate Their Bodies: Proprioceptive, Vestibular, and Rhythmic Input Explained”
Tag Archives: #FamilyDynamics
Anchored in Love: Why I Started This Podcast
Anchored in Love is a new podcast rooted in real-life experiences with foster care, blended family life, healing, and boundaries. In this post, I share why I started the podcast and how it connects to the stories already shared here on the blog, now spoken out loud and available on Apple Podcasts.
For a Little While: Our Foster Care Journey – As Featured on the Mind, Body & Wallet® Podcast
Curious about what foster care actually looks like? I sat down with Mind, Body & Wallet® to share our story, from pandemic fostering to adopting our son AJ.
We talk treatment-level foster care, aging out, family transitions, and the power of showing up even when you don’t know how the story ends.
The Fear of Messing It All Up: Motherhood’s Silent Weight
Motherhood comes with a quiet kind of pressure, the fear that no matter how much we love, we’re still somehow getting it wrong. I’ve felt that weight more times than I can count, especially while balancing a blended family. But I’m learning that love matters more than perfection, presence matters more than performance, and our children don’t need flawless moms, they just need us.
The Truth About Fostering Teens: What I Wish More People Knew
When most people think of foster care, they picture toddlers or young children, but the reality is that nearly one in three kids in foster care is a teenager. Despite that, teens are often the least likely to find stable placements or permanent families. According to national data, over 20,000 youth age out of fosterContinue reading “The Truth About Fostering Teens: What I Wish More People Knew”
🎙️ Behind the Mic: Why I Said Yes to Talking About Foster Care
When I first got the invitation to join Guardian’s Mind, Body, Wallet podcast for an episode about foster care, I felt both excited and humbled. Talking about fostering is something deeply personal to me. It’s not just something we did; it’s something that forever changed who I am and how I see the world. OurContinue reading “🎙️ Behind the Mic: Why I Said Yes to Talking About Foster Care”
Life Lately: A Family Update from the Heart
It feels like life has been moving at full speed lately, the kind of season where every time I blink, another milestone has passed. I’ve been meaning to sit down and share what’s been going on with our family, but between work, school, travel, and all the transitions, time has had a way of slippingContinue reading “Life Lately: A Family Update from the Heart”
Helping Children Process Grief or Loss While Embracing a New Family
Bringing a child into a new family structure—whether through adoption, foster care, remarriage, or guardianship—can be a time of hope and new beginnings. However, for many children, this transition is accompanied by grief and loss. They may be grieving the loss of a biological parent, the life they once knew, or even a sense ofContinue reading “Helping Children Process Grief or Loss While Embracing a New Family”
Beauty and the Blended: Finding Love and Harmony in a Blended Family
Blended families are becoming more of the norm these days. While the idea of a nuclear family breaking apart is often seen as tragic, I firmly believe that staying together “for the kids” when a relationship isn’t working does more harm than good. Kids don’t need a household filled with tension, resentment, or emotional distance—theyContinue reading “Beauty and the Blended: Finding Love and Harmony in a Blended Family”
The Anker Homestead 