Children from Hard Places | Danielle Huddleston Photography

Back in October I shared some pics of Nick and I.

At the same time I took some pics with my girls but could not share them.

I had not intended to take pics with them that day, they just saw the tripod and asked.

So of course I said yes.

I struggle to focus on these happy moments.

I have had very little hardship in my life so having children from hard places is a struggle.

I am used to choosing the easy way.

There is no easy way.

Nick is so good at making choices based on what is in his circle of influence and not stressing about the stuff outside of it.

I want to stress about the outside stuff.

Ha!

This is a journey is a marathon, not a sprint.

Pictures help me focus on something beautiful and happy.

Looking at them helps me feel like there is hope.

What gives you hope?

These are some of the resources that I highly recommend to foster parents/adoptive parents or even just parents with difficult children.

They have totally changed how I parent and how I see my children’s behaviors.

A lot of children just need to be taught how to deal with frustration and how to calm themselves in the same way they need to be taught how to read.

It is a rough hard road and if I help make it even a little easier for just one family than I will be happy.

Parents of children from hard places we can do this!

For Parents:

This book really helps introduce the concept of collaborative problem solving and helping teach kids how to deal with frustration.

There are some videos on youtube also of Dr. Ross Greene teaching on this concept.

Such a good book about how to parent children from hard places and answers a lot of the why’s behind the behaviors.

Goes with the TBRI training.

Similar to the connected child but with more biblical principles added in.

They have the study guide available for free on their site!

Trust-Based Relational Intervention^®Training(we bought the training videos but there are free online resources as well).

Similar to The Connected Child and Empowered to Connect but more in depth.

For the kids:

The Angry Octopus

Teaches easy to follow relaxation techniques in a fun story about an Octopus that gets angry.

A great kids book that gives them ideas of what to do when angry.

We read this book every night!

It has helped so much with reluctant sleepers!

Another great book to help teach little one’s how to calm down and relax.

Danielle Huddleston Photography