Nancy Spoolstra is the parent of two biological and three adopted children. All three adoptees exhibited serious emotional issues associated with early breaks in attachment and traumatic beginnings. The youngest and healthiest adoptee, Beth, joined Nancy ’s family after disrupting from her first placement two weeks before her third birthday. Nancy is the Founder and Executive Director of the Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN), a national organization dedicated to supporting families in their efforts to parent and live with traumatized children. Additionally, ATN advocates for appropriate services and mental health options for this special group of children. More recently, ATN has recognized the need for adult adoptees to access services, support and resources that would enable them to address their own issues of attachment and loss and progress in their journey towards emotional health and healing.

Finally, after several months of running hither and yon, I am starting to come up for air. This past few months, ever since I ceased blogging on another adoption blog site, my life has been pretty much non-stop. I have had a standing invitation to blog on this site for several months, but I haven’t had time to blog anywhere! 

I exhibited and/or presented at two conferences out east, traveled to Alaska with my family on a cruise, sandwiched a few days in between to watch the Olympic swim trials in Omaha (with my swimmer daughter …) and spent the last couple of weeks in computer hell, trying to rebuild my older PC and get my new one loaded with all my stuff. I did my first two stints as an “official” Stroke & Turn judge for Beth’s swim meets (in 90+ degree heat) two days in a row, and followed that with an all-day photography seminar where we took photos of several different models. Following the photographer/teacher into the tall grass to shoot this picture netted me some great shots and about 40 chigger bites. It has been a long, splotchy, itchy week.