Welcome to Our Family: A Child’s Perspective of Fostering and Adoption

Cornerstone Ballroom

In this student presentation, the focus is on resilience in cross cultural contexts as experienced by foster and adoptive families. The topic is explored from the point of view of the child primarily, and the parents welcoming that child into their family system secondarily; it is a bidirectional interaction. By reviewing literature on childhood turbulence, blogs written by foster/adoptive parents, and considering personal experiences, several distinct challenges stood out. Resilience is strengthened by mutual support to handle challenges constructively. The entire system can collaborate to facilitate and maintain resilience from a family systems perspective. A children’s book was written to illustrate a family’s transitional process in foster care/adoption. Stemming from unique personal perspectives on cross-cultural fostering/adoption, paralleled with a desire to make this information child friendly, this short story was told from the viewpoint of a young child learning to manage expectations and challenges while gaining a new sibling through adoption.