Should We Expand Our Special Needs Checklist to Include HIV? - Weekend Wisdom
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
10/25/25
•12m
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Question: My husband and I are considering whether we will open our special needs consideration to include children who are HIV+. We have already been approved to adopt from India, and as our home study update approaches, we are taking a good, hard look at the Special Needs list again. I was listening to your podcast episode on this topic from 2013 and wondered if this was worth an updated episode? Has much changed for families living with HIV?
Resources:
- Factors to Consider When Adopting from India
- Country Comparison Charts
- Common Special Needs in International Adoption
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
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- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
Preventing Sexual Abuse
October 22, 2025
•61m
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What strategies can parents and caregivers implement in their homes to help reduce the risk that their children may be sexually abused? Learn practical parenting tools from this conversation with Dr. Eliana Gil, the founder of the Gil Institute for Trauma Recovery and Education. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma in children, especially those who have been sexually abused.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why should adoptive and foster parents and relative caregivers learn about the risks for sexual abuse of children in our community and how to prevent it?
- How can parents or caregivers tell the difference between normal childhood curiosity and behaviors that may signal a problem?
- What are some warning signs that might give parents or caregivers a clue to dig deeper into problematic behaviors they observe?
- If a child is showing some of these concerning behaviors, what are some practical and supportive ways caregivers can respond?
- Why is it preventative for parents and caregivers to use correct anatomical terms with kids?
- Can you offer a few practical suggestions for parents and caregivers to get more comfortable with correct terminology, if they find this an obstacle to equipping and educating their kids?
- What signs should parents and caregivers be on the lookout for – things that may suggest a child has been abused?
- 5 categories: fear/anxiety, depression, sexual acting out, attachment
- Emphasize that no single sign proves abuse but patterns and context matter.
- If a caregiver suspects abuse, what steps should they take?
- What is the parents’ or caregiver’s role once they have reported to the proper authorities?
- What are some everyday preventative practices families can put in place to keep kids safe while also allowing them to grow in healthy ways?
- Protective, not paranoid
- Open communication in the home
- Supervision by safe adults
- Safe boundaries in the home
- Teaching consent and respect
- Modeling healthy relationships
- Any last words of advice for adoptive parents, foster parents, or relative caregivers about protecting their kids from sexual abuse?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
Practical Financial Strategies for Foster & Kinship Families
October 29, 2025
•51m
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How do you manage daily expenses and budgeting when you are a foster or kinship caregiving family? We speak with Nicole Valenzuela, a foster parent and founder of Fostering Finances, to learn about simplified budgeting practices and healthy mindsets for managing money.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What are the financial challenges that foster and kinship families commonly face?
- How do those challenges differ between kinship caregivers and licensed foster parents?
- Are there particular challenges for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC foster or kinship families?
- What about single foster parents or kinship caregivers?
- What are the day-to-day costs that aren’t always covered by stipends or allowances?
- What hurdles might the informal caregivers face (those not participating in the foster care system while caring for a relative child) in accessing services or support?
- What financial supports may be available but underutilized by foster and kinship families?
- What are the Kinship Navigator Programs? How can they help — where are they found, etc.?
- What are some tax strategies or credits that families caring for foster or kin children may be eligible for?
- How can caregivers build a small financial buffer for the inevitable emergency that comes with raising kids?
- What advice do you give around savings or flexibility?
- Suggestions for simple budgeting or expense-tracking strategies that foster or kinship families might implement right away?
- What are some low-cost ways for foster parents or grandparents raising grandkids to meet these kids’ needs while preserving their dignity?
- What other effective community-level initiatives or organizations are you aware of that support these families?
- How can caregivers locate and tap into similar resources in their own communities?
- How do caregivers decide which financial strategies to focus on first?
- What practical steps can they take to set in motion a plan to stabilize their household finances over the next 6 months?
- What are some early small wins that build confidence—say, saving a few dollars a week, or successfully claiming a benefit?
- What is a scarcity mindset and what are signs that a caregiver might be struggling with scarcity mindset?
- What are the top three ‘practical financial strategies’ you’d want every foster or kinship caregiver to walk away with from today?
- Finally, what’s your best encouragement to caregivers who feel overwhelmed by financial pressures?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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