Adoption Education Course for Adoptive Parents

This past weekend I took an adoption education course. It is one of the courses that agencies are using to fulfill the mandatory 10 hours of parent training, which is required for Hague accreditation. (If you’re wondering why we were fulfilling an adoption education requirement, stay tuned. I will be sharing our big announcement this week). Now focus on this useful information and stop trying to guess what we are up to!

The course we took was titled “Because They Waited” and it is produced by “Heart of the Matters Seminars”, whose tag-line states that they are “shedding light on adoptive parenting issues.” The course is four DVDs. It is broken into four sections to watch and then once you watch each section, you can log in online and take a multiple choice test (which you need to score 80% or better to pass).

I will be honest. I did not think that there was a whole lot that I was going to learn from this class. I have been an adoptive parent for almost six years. I have adopted seven children. I write this blog. I have read eight million books and articles on adoption. I have taken several other adoption education courses. My main goal in taking this class was to get it done so it didn’t hold up our paperwork.

However, I am happy to report that I learned quite a bit from this. I found it to be very well done and full of very good and very useful information for adoptive parents at all stages in the adoption process.

In the course, one of the speakers says that adoptive parents are stewards of good information regarding adoptive parenting, and have a responsibility to share that information with other adoptive parents. I thought that was a great concept.

So, as a steward of some good adoptive parenting information, I am going to share some of what I learned from taking this course.

Of course reading a few posts on this topic will not replace actually taking the course, and will not get you the credit hours you need if you have an adoption education requirement through your agency. If your agency offers this course, I do highly recommend it. It does not have much specifically on transracial adoption (except for a section on adoption and race at the end, after the testing chapters) but it has a whole lot of useful information for any and all adoptive parents.

Some of the big points (their core beliefs) they made in the introduction to the course were:

- Adoptive parents should realize that adoptive parenting is not just “business as usual”, and that sometimes typical parenting strategies and practices are not effective.

- Internationally adopted children and children adopted through the foster care system began their lives in less than optimal circumstances. Whether they were in an orphanage, an abusive and/or neglectful birth home, multiple foster homes, etc., it was less than optimal. Even children who were in only one, loving foster home are coming from less than optimal circumstances because it was not a permanent home and family. Because of starting off their lives in less than ideal circumstances, these kids often require different kinds of parenting than children who start their lives in the “typical” way.

- Only a very minimal percentage of adopted children will end up with severe issues.

- Most adopted children will have mild to moderate affects from their start in life.

- Kids with mild to moderate needs often have their needs overlooked, unaddressed or ignored.

- Adoptive parents must be proactive, and “hit the ground running” when their children are placed with them.

I will be sharing some of the great info I picked up from this course in my next few posts. If you have taken an adoption course that you think could benefit other parents, leave a comment and tell us about it.

Also, I would love to pass this on to another adoptive parent that thinks they could use it. If your agency isn’t offering this course or if your kids are already home and you think this would benefit you, I will gladly send it to you. Drop me an email at erinh@adoptionblogs.com.

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