Fighting for Answers | Monthly Archives: November 2016November 2016

National Adoption Month – A thank you

Adoption story – A thank you Readers may remember more than 4 years ago when I wrote about Ronald McDonald and Houdini. That four post series is still among the more popular posts on this site. My brother and I are adopted. Our father, adopted us when I was 3 and my brother was 4. In doing so, he gave us a chance at a normal life. A chance. Life has a strange way of showing you normal. There are no regrets. Every time I am in the city where dad lives, I make an effort to get together with him for coffee and conversation. Each time we are together, about once a month, I thank him for saving us. For giving us his name. It’s a simple thing really. He didn’t need to adopt us. He did. In the process he gave us his name, a grandmother, an Uncle

SMI and the Tragedy of Adulthood

SMI – Serious Mental Illness The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which defines SMI (Serious Mental Illness) as: A mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders); Diagnosable currently or within the past year; Of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV); and, Resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. So, what does this have to do with David? David came to us when he was 18 months old. We became his parents, legally, 6 months later. In truth, since he was just months old, he has been a part of our lives. Mom had a home daycare. And we filled in as needed for his foster family‘s day care provider. David is 15 now, in the blink of an

Race Conversations

The Race Conversation This isn’t a Black Lives Matter post, yet it is. Does that make sense? Today, we had a meeting with David at his school because he got caught hacking the school network and surfing pornography during class time. His punishment is loss of technology privileges for the rest of the semester. In addition he has two days of in school suspension. The suspension has to be successful without redirects from the school principal. He will have redirects from the teacher, this is a given, but if the principal gets involved, then his day in suspension won’t count. Make sense? I have no issues with that. All of this is merely the setup for the conversation I had to have with him. The Conversation David wasn’t expecting to see me today. I happened to be in the city near his facility and school, so stopped to see him