Wanna Love Your Body? Start With Loving Mine
As a life and wellness coach who works with women to improve self-esteem and body image, some people wonder how I became comfortable with my body. Did it come naturally or did I have to work at it?...
View ArticleMaking Friends With Reality and Zooey Deschanel
If there's any kind of blog post you'll want to stop reading immediately, it's the one that starts with the question, "What is reality, anyway?" Let me ask you people a different question. So ......
View ArticleThe Crunchy Day of Gift Giving and Radio Listening
I really questioned whether or not it was a good idea to run a coupon code for the "sales" days coming up here, mainly because we've been so busy with orders already, we have a hard time keeping up...
View ArticleDo You Have Shopping Cart Anxiety? — Part 1
It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon when Amanda Worthington lay her life bare for all to see. "It was the worst day ever," she whispered tensely. "I was about to start my period, my boyfriend and I broke...
View ArticleDo You Have Cart Anxiety? (Deal With It) – Part 2
It's of utmost importance that I be transparent with you all right now, and not just about the pair of parachute pants I still own from 1987. No, the truth you should know is this: If there was one...
View ArticleWhat’s All This Crunchy Betty Stuff, Anyway?
The very first entry in Crunchy Betty's Food On Your Face category was written on May 9, 2010. It was called "Five Good Reasons To Put Food On Your Face." At the time, I was fumbling around in the...
View ArticleWe Are Delicious
It's dark-thirty, midnight, the house is silent. And I just had a conversation with a lump of sourdough. It may not have been as much me conversing with the dough, but the dough working magic - some...
View Article3 Days of Silence
So, well, um ... if you haven't heard, there's quite a bit of buzz going around about our privacy (and not just the privacy of American's, but that of the world). It's a slight bit unsettling,...
View Article… And That’s the Story of That
I noticed that the world would go on without me. It would change despite my input; it’s always changing, it doesn’t need me as much as I thought it did. I realized that all of my worries – every single...
View ArticleFor-Giving & Forgiveness: Food For Your Soul
'Tis the season of giving. Giving, buying, making, giving, giving, giving. We get so caught up in the giving (and in the stress of finding the right giving to give) that we forget about the other kind...
View ArticleHow to talk to family and friends about your open adoption.
By Lindsey Martin, Counselor, LCSW. All relationships create opportunities to enhance our communication skills, but perhaps none more so than open adoption. Despite the trend in adoption towards...
View ArticleTalking with your child about their adoption.
By Jan Jamieson, OA&FS Counselor. Some adoptive and birth parents find conversations about adoption daunting. Even with openness, regular visits, and pictures hanging on the wall of one another,...
View ArticleDeveloping Resiliency: Seven Core Beliefs
By Katie R. Stallman, LICSW, CGE. People who are part of a close and loving open adoption seem to have a little something extra in their back pockets that makes their relationship work no matter what....
View ArticleOpenness as an attachment enhancer: Finding and strengthening your connection.
By Katie R. Stallman, LICSW, CGE. Attachment. No other concept or word is uttered more when discussing parenting in general, but particularly parenting and adoption. Do you have a healthy “attachment”?...
View ArticleMake lasting connections with other adoptive families through groups.
By Courtney Moscariello, MSW. The seminar, waiting family gatherings, annual picnics and holiday parties all provide opportunities to connect with other adoptive families in a more formal setting. We...
View ArticleMy Story: Open Adoption
By Taylor, OA&FS Birthmother The very first time I dialed the number for Open Adoption & Family Services, I was sitting on the steps outside the public library. I was 18 years old, six months...
View ArticleTransracial Adoption – When my validity as a father was casually questioned...
By: Rich Kocher, OA&FS Adoptive Father My daughter M has naturally fine blond hair cut in a short bob that frames soft, delicate features. Her eyes are bright and blue with lashes that are enviably...
View ArticleA Story of Empathy and Love.
by Shari Levine: Josh and Matt are natural stewards of open adoption; the core tenets of compassion and respect are reflected in their relationships. It’s a worldview that is deeply meaningful to them....
View ArticleBirth parents share long-term open adoption experiences
By Shari Levine: What are the core components of a genuine and fulfilling open adoption? I set out to identify and explore the unique ingredients that birth parents and adoptive parents bring to the...
View ArticleIdeas to ink: How I self-published a children’s book on open adoption.
By Gabrielle LaFrank, Open Adoptee. I was in first grade when I understood that my reality was foreign to nearly everyone around me. Diversity was everywhere, but it didn’t include me. In school we...
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