It was a few years ago when our family collectively decided to take a giant step and become a foster family. Our four children were leaving elementary school, and we all wanted to open our home to children who needed it. We were able to foster many children and care for them in their time of need. It was through this process our family adopted two more girls. During this time, we were noticing not only behavioral challenges with our little ones, but also our middle schoolers. We thought it may have been the adjustment of adding to the family, but there seemed to be more to it. We tried traditional parenting methods, but they seemed to make matters worse. Our family was literally beginning to fall apart.

Desperate for help and keeping our family unit intact, we sought help from professionals. Unfortunately, this added zero benefit for our struggling teens. We were left with multiple diagnoses, and a referral to therapy, which seemed to help in the beginning, but truly did not...

by Aubrey Page, Collaborator/CEO (originally published July 30, 2020 on aubreypage.org)

In honor of World Trafficking Against Persons Day, July 30, I want to discuss the intersectionality of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Human Trafficking. I have been a passionate advocate for human trafficking for years, but one of the reasons that it was easy for me to be passionate about FASD was that I saw this link.

Human trafficking is a complex series of people grooming children and adults in order to exploit them. Let's look at what steps these take. Many professionals reference the AMP Model which stands for Action Means Purpose.

The AMP Model is widely accepted as how to identify the existence of trafficking, but it is important to note that children cannot consent and do not require means.

 

So then if we look at how FASD can be impacted, we will see that individuals with FASD struggle with cause and effect. That can mean that individuals can be more easily...

Guest Blogger Hishu Wea McGrady, Student at U of M and Diagnosed FASD

I was formally adopted at 2 years of age and told I was adopted when I was approximately 8. I kept asking why I was darker than everyone else, why were my features different. I felt peculiar and separate and the time came where my adoptive mom couldn’t keep it from me any longer. The fact she told me I was adopted never changed my profound sense of not belonging, no matter how much she told me she loved me. I felt every single dissonant nuance of connection and communication between those in the adoptive family and me and anyone who knew I was adopted. It was like a nightmare. It wasn’t made any easier by the abuse and my extreme emotional breaks (now diagnosed FASD). In every practical sense, I was deduced to a troubled child, a troubled teenager and a troubled adult.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, lemme tell ya. I’m sure we adoptees could all write a book! So when asked about the...

Guest Blogger Hishu Wea McGrady, Student at U of M and Diagnosed FASD

Rarely I hear people acknowledge the first “Thanksgiving” as a day the Puritans celebrated having survived their first winter in the “New World” in 1621, plundering and pillaging from the Wampanoag people for their food. The Plymouth colony had built a wall around their settlement to keep Indigenous people out and needless to say, that first unofficial “Thanksgiving” excluded Narragansett, Pequot and Wampanoag tribes. In fact, “Thanksgiving” had its first semi-official day of feast in celebration for the massacre of over 700 Pequot men, women, and children in where is now known as Mystic, Connecticut, in 1637. Afterward, year by year all of the colonies (13) would make this celebration an annual event. In 1789, President George Washington proclaimed it, 'National Day of Thanksgiving' and finally, in 1863, President Lincoln (by way of Sarah Josepha Hale) declared it a...

Guest Blogger Hishu Wea McGrady, Student at U of M and Diagnosed FASD

My name is Hishu Wea McGrady. I am named after my great great great great grandmother, Hishu Wea. It is Hidatsa and in English is translated to Peppermint Woman. I am enrolled at Ft. Berthold, ND, Three Affiliated Tribes. Mandan (Nueta), Hidatsa and Arikara (Sahnish). My maternal grandmother was also Ft. Peck Assiniboine (Nakona) and Sioux (Dakota) and my biological father, Northern Cheyenne (Tsitsistas and So’taeo’o). My tribes have lived primarily in this northern area of Turtle Island for thousands of years. Suffice it to say, this is home. Born and currently living in Montana, I have also lived a bicoastal life. From Washington State to Pennsylvania and stops in-between, all have been learning experiences, various and unique. They have all left an indelible impact in the construct of how and who I am, to which I am so grateful for.

During my travels, I have met so many different Indigenous people...

by Shannon Iacobacci, Collaborator

Have you ever just sat and held your little one with FASD after a major episode and just sobbed? Have you ever just laid by their bedside after it was all said and done and cried out to God to help you do this better? Well I just did…again. 

I have just spent the last 30 minutes crying my eyes out because I continue to see the challenges of this disability. I mean, I know it, I’ve seen it in others, but I am in the trenches more and more every day. It’s like my baby has snapped and things are getting worse. Here I am learning more about brain-based disability so that I can help others understand it, and advocate for children with this disability. Here I am being the “teacher” on what to do when this happens, and yet in the moment, when this is happening in my own real life, I get triggered too.

Why? Why can’t I just recognize it in the moment of daily life and just roll with it? Why am I finding...