Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

I've been comfortable with the idea of counseling since I was in high school. That was when I first visited one to get help dealing with my emotions & to learn strategies to deal with certain situations. I found one again in college when I struggled with depression. And again when we were newly married and I had new situations to navigate. So when our oldest needed therapy for attachment and other issues, it was no big deal to enter into a 2.5 year relationship with a new therapist (since retired). Along the way, we've spread our dysfunction  needs to others; we now have a stable of 2 therapists who do counseling, a psychologist who does testing, & a psychiatrist who prescribes the medication three of us need to stay emotionally balanced. We've become well versed in the mental health field. In fact, I was jokingly offered a job at Easter Seals last week when I described how we handle emotional meltdowns . Enter the kiddos. Girl came to us already seeing a therapi...

It's difficult to find the correct line between allowing the kiddos to see their previous family members & working to make them a part of our family. I think it's so important to keep a connection with their blood relatives; at the same time, they are so dysfunctional. Girl acts out for a day or two after seeing them too. What's best for the kids? The ability to speak to blood relatives is important to me, as being adopted myself I never had that chance. But kiddos need to be safe, and definitely don't need to be exposed to certain things... ever. All throughout the fostering we made sure that they saw a particular grandparent who was involved, and occasionally saw an aunt & another grandparent too. Girl has expressed not caring if she sees them; but you can't always believe her attitude. She has accused me in the past of keeping her mom away from her, at the same time. And speaking of - they still see her, at our discretion. And boy, does Girl go through ...