Recommended Resources
Several of our foster families have helped us compile a short list of helpful and supportive resources that we hope will provide encouragement for your foster care and/or adoption journeys.
The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family, by Karyn Purvi, David Cross, and Wendy Sunshine
Karyn Purvis and David Cross started the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU to teach parents Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), the gold standard of parenting for any child. TBRI is all about helping parents connect to their children from hard places, especially foster children, to build trust and heal from trauma. The Connected Child specifically helps families who have adopted a child from hard places. From the Amazon description: “The Connected Child will help you:
“Build bonds of affection and trust with your adopted child”
“Effectively deal with any learning or behavioral disorders”
“Discipline your child with love without making him or her feel threatened”
Empowered to Connect
Empowered to connect takes TBRI training and applies Scripture with it. One of the things they do well is show how TBRI is for teens too, not just young children. This website has blogs, trainings, videos, and a ton of other resources. We can’t recommend this enough.
Adopted For Life, By Russell Moore
Russell Moore provides a Biblical foundation for understanding our own adoption into the family of God through Jesus Christ and equips us to consider the priority of adoption for families and churches. You will be equipped with gospel compassion in opening your hearts and home to children in need. In this resource you will also find practical answers to the most common questions most families ask before beginning the foster/adoption process.
Faith to Foster, by TJ and Jenn Menn
From the publisher: “Over the last decade TJ & Jenn have welcomed twenty-four foster children into their home. This is a story they wished they'd read before starting their foster parenting adventure.
“Faith to Foster openly describes their decision making process, how the children arrived, the birth parents' struggle to rehabilitate, help from friends and family, emotional goodbyes, and how faith in Jesus empowered them through it all. They share their experiences and feelings in a way that encourages any reader to love their neighbor, not just become foster parents.”
Parenting, by Paul David Trip
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family
There is no shortage of books on parenting, but this book by Paul David Trip is excellent and is certainly our favorite. We recommend this wholeheartedly! Parenting will equip you with gospel practices in raising your children
Reframing Foster CAre. by Jason Johnson
From the publisher: “Foster parents face a unique set of circumstances and experience a wide array of emotions that few can relate to. Their journey is one of equal parts beauty and brokenness, joy and heartache, excitement and exhaustion. There is no textbook on how to be a foster parent, no formula, no simple three-step guide.
“ReFraming Foster Care is a collection of reflections on the foster parenting journey designed to help you do just that—find hope—and to remind you that your work is worth it and you are not alone.”
Fostered, by Tori Hope Petersen
From the publisher: “If you want to hear the true tale of an unlikely overcomer, this book is for you. If you want to learn more about the foster care system from a former foster youth’s perspective, this book is for you. If you want to better dwell in the reality of your own spiritual adoption by our Heavenly Father and better understand the orphan and the widow that He loves dearly, this book is for you. Ultimately, if you want to remember who God is, and what He can do through the most unlikely of people, Fostered is for you.”
Foster the Family, by Jamie C. Finn
From the publisher: “featuring real-time gospel principles that apply to the unique calling and challenges of foster parenting--offering ‘from the trenches’ advice, hope, and encouragement for foster parents.”
Foster Parent Partner
One of our foster moms said, “This YouTube channel helped me a lot when I was preparing to open my home to fostering.”
TBRI Podcast
Did you know there is a TBRI podcast? TBRI training is intensive, and its not practical to take the training repeatedly, even though we think refreshers are extremely helpful. The Karyn Purvis Institute says, “The TBRI® Podcast features conversations about Trust-Based Relational Intervention®, an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children. On this podcast we talk about the elements of trauma-informed care and chat with experts in the field about implementing TBRI® across different communities of care and practice.”