Foster adoption

Lauri Burns, Founder of the Teen Project, shares advice for new foster parents on how to be open and supportive when welcoming a new foster child into your family.
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Foster adoption

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My advise if you're a new foster parent is that you let the child be where they're going to be. Some kids are scared. If you could imagine you just got taken away from the only family you know. You're walking into a home where everything smells different. Everything feels different. The people are different. So if a child needs to be quiet and be alone for a while, let them. Let them be in their comfort zone whether that is being alone and being quiet or maybe it's a kid that wants to call you mom immediately. Just let them be where they need to be in order to be comfortable because this transition going from; what is your own home and own family to a very strange with a new people. They'll adapt at the pace they need to adapt that and try not to push them out of that zone. Something that I do when I have a new child at my home is to allow them to buy their own bedding and sheets. I mean, we go to the store and we pick it out because it's important that they know this is their bed. It's going to smell like them. It's going to feel like them. They're not moving into someone else's space which could also alienate them. So, I try and do as much as much as I can, I ask them what kind of food they like. So that I can go shopping for the foods that they're used to sing. So anything to simulate what looks like their normal home and make them feel more comfortable.

Lauri Burns, Founder of the Teen Project, shares advice for new foster parents on how to be open and supportive when welcoming a new foster child into your family.

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Lauri Burns

Teen Project Founder & Author

Lauri Burns was once a “system kid”, a heroin addict and a prostitute. She is now a self-made success: a foster mom, the founder of one of the most recognized new charities in the US, the owner of an Information Technology firm, and author of Punished for Purpose, which chronicles her life struggles and the formula she used to become a success.

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