Sherrie's Blog

<p>This photograph is fodder for the imagination of foster and adopted kids who need to envision the awesome life God has planned for them. Sherrie provides truths and life purpose that often comes from painful beginnings.</p>

<p>What is a secret that adoptees and foster kids guard? It&#8217;s their feelings of not belonging. They feel like a square peg in a round hole. Parents sometimes hurt instead of help&#8230;unknowingly. Sherrie Eldridge offers a challenge to both parents and kids.</p>

<p>Many times we enter into relationships with unhealed moms and dads with unhealed pasts and chronic issues.</p> <p>We all can recognize physical abuse but emotional abuse is incredibly subtle. And, our propensity for connection blinds us to the hurtful elements of the relationship.</p>

<p>News flash: Adoptees and Foster Can Grow in Self-Esteem in the Midst of Parental Rejection My heart breaks for fellow adoptees and foster kids who are being rejected. It doesn&#8217;t have to a monumental, in-your-face rejection, but it is rejection nonetheless. For example: Teen waits for birth parent to pick up for movie date but [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Being a Lone Ranger doesn&#8217;t bring healing for those touched by adoption. When we are grieving deeply, we can&#8217;t see and even don&#8217;t want to see the pain of others. Pain twists our perspective. Sherrie Eldridge has been there and gives reason why striving for humble healing is essential&#8230;in the company of all that have been touched by adoption, whether first parents, adoptive/foster parents, or adoptees.</p>

<p>Being adopted is a life of adventure, constantly unfolding. My perspective doesn&#8217;t dismiss the pain, but sees it not as an enemy, but as a catalyst for growth and redemption. Most who have lost their first family would agree that we are forever searching for their missing faces. But, could there be an additional dimension [&hellip;]</p>

<p>What if your adopted/foster child or teen enters another day of school with a big smile. Can parents and teachers ever understand the full mindset of that child entering a new situation and school? Sherrie Eldridge helps parents know the back story realities and how they can be pro-active to help their kids not react in the extreme.</p>

<p>Is it reasonable for an adopted person to discover not only her biological roots but also her name? Sherrie shares how God enabled her to find clues that led to incredible discoveries. </p>

<p>Finding clues about birth family history sends me on an adrenaline high. I love being a sleuth and solving adoption mysteries. Just my first name&#8211;Baby X&#8211;makes me curious! Clues come in the most unexpected times and ways, oftentimes through the least likely people and circumstances. As I have turned over every stone possible to find [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Lately, I find myself asking, &#8220;If you knew before you were born, would you have signed up for the life you&#8217;re living? Would I have signed up for: Being an unplanned baby, called Baby X Not being able to see my birth mother&#8217;s face from birth until reunion at 47 years old Feeling ill at [&hellip;]</p>

<p>This photo of a child with a deer illustrates the world of the adopted and fostered child. Parents struggle big time to enter their child&#8217;s world when explaining relinquishment. Sherrie teaches how to communicate love vs. shame.</p>

<p>As details spill about Kate Spade&#8217;s depression and suicide, I am both sad and sickened, for it could have been me. Since mid-life, I have battled depression. Our move to Indy from Michigan, where I lost family, friends, and full-time ministry in BSF as a teaching leader, triggered me big time. Coming into unknown territory [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Oftentimes, adoptees struggle with the complexities of adoption. As a senior in the field of adoption, Sherrie Eldridge describes what it is like to look back on life as an older adoptee and then she gives a message for younger adoptees and foster kids.</p>

<p>The royal wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was something like a fairytale. We all dream of such a life. Their wedding illustrates a very important reality that adopted and foster kids and parents can look forward to in the midst of a broken world.</p>

<p>This baby&#8217;s cries are vital for developing connections between parent and child. You will be surprised at what the parental role is in this entire phenomena. Of course. adopted and foster babies have a cry that will reflect trauma&#8230;they may be daunting to listen to. Here&#8217;s how to begin.</p>

<p>When we adoptees and foster kids are hurting badly, we lack a lot of discernment about who to share our innermost thoughts with. This post teaches how to find safe people by looking at three characteristics that must be present to qualify a person as safe. This is also applicable to anyone who is hurting.</p>

<p>There are many adoptees who will nay-say the idea of being grateful for being adopted. Most of them haven&#8217;t lived as long as I have! Looking back over seven decades, I can see so many things to be grateful for and I say them in deep respect for fellow-adoptees who are in pain or anger.</p>

<p>I already hear boos coming about this post. Many people believe adoption is a bad thing that should be avoided at all cost. Sherrie provides a metaphor of adoption to inspire the adoption triad to affirm each person touched by adoption and how God sees it all.</p>

<p>Because adopted and foster children suffer great loss of the birth family and place of belonging, they oftentimes feel forgotten&#8211;by those in their lives and by God Himself. Sherrie provides Biblical answers of God&#8217;s inheritance to the fatherless.</p>

<p>Sometimes, life throws a double-whammy at us. Something that brings new limitations and a feeling of being totally out of control. Sherrie shares two parts of her life that run parallel, that she calls her double-whammy. Learn the incredible lesson she learned from a young man in a wheel chair.</p>