ATN Angel: Billy Kaplan
In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children. By: Sarah Neal and Vincent Kennebeck When our children came to live with us, we recognized something wasn’t right almost immediately – they were […]
ATN Angel: Anna Paravano
In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children. By: Sheilah Davidson Even before I met Anna, she had an impact on me. One of my very early experiences with ATN was attending […]
ATN Angel: Julie Beem
In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children. By: Stephanie Reh Garde If there was an ultimate ATN Angel, it would be Julie Beem. I still have the email exchange we had […]
ATN Angel: Jane Samuel
In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children. By: Laura Dennis Well, at the beginning, Jane made a difference to me just by being in the same state! As most ATN members […]
ATN Angel: Nancy Spoolstra
In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children. By: Lorraine Schneider The first time I met Nancy Spoolstra, she threw her arms around me giving me a huge hug. She told me […]
ATN Angel: Stephanie Reh Garde
By: Sheilah Davidson In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children. Stephanie Garde: An angel among us. When researching solutions for my daughter’s attachment issues, I joined ATN and virtually “met” Stephanie […]
DON’T Muscle Through
by: Gari Lister I woke up this morning and checked my phone as I lay in bed (yes, I know it’s terrible. . . ) and here is what I read over and over again: “I’m done.” “I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t.” “He’s killed the best parts of me.” “I hate […]
I Believe Therapeutic Parenting Sets the Stage
by: Julie Beem Every day ATN gets calls and emails from parents struggling to find answers for their children’s behaviors. These behaviors are the result of early, often chronic, trauma. Whether the child has experienced abuse, neglect, painful medical procedures or witness violence, these Adverse Childhood Experiences alter the child’s social and emotional development. They […]
I Believe in ATN
by: Sheilah Davidson Nearly 19 years ago, my husband and I adopted a newborn. It took us years to learn that our beautiful, funny, athletic daughter was affected by the trauma her birthmother experienced while she was pregnant. After many, many therapies and social service interventions as well as endless complaints from teachers, administrators and […]
I Believe Square Pegs Need Trauma-Sensitive Schools
by: Melissa Sadin At ATN we believe that early childhood trauma and attachment disruption impacts brain development. A study found that children living in an Eastern European orphanage had larger more reactive amygdalae and smaller hippocampal volume than children in the same country that had never been in an orphanage. In addition, the same researchers […]