Hope’s Promise
Providing Foundations for Parenting Children from Hard Places
In this foundational phase of ‘Families Are Forever’ you’ll begin to understand the lives of children who come from a place most likely very different from your own. You’ll gain knowledge that many who have gone before you have discovered about welcoming a child from a ‘hard place’ into your home and family. We’ll also strengthen your family’s foundation so that as a parent, you have the tools and knowledge needed to best meet your child’s needs.
This phase totals 18 hours and satisfies Hague pre-adoptive training requirements.
Class 101:
Preparing for the Journey of Adoption
In this class, we’ll explore Dr. Karyn Purvis’s 7 Insights and 7 Gifts that you can give to your adoptive child. We draw heavily from Dr. Purvis’s and her colleague, Dr. David Cross’s work throughout this program and their words will inspire you for the journey ahead. This video introduces the challenges of adoption and the ways you can empower your child to trust and heal.
2 Hours • $35 basic | $60 with coaching
Enroll in Class 101
Class 102
Introduction to Trust-Based Relational Intervention™
This class lays the foundation for most of the Trust-Based Relational Intervention™ (TBRI) teachings of this entire program. Much of the information that we’ll examine will be drawn from this material.
2 Hours • $35
Enroll in Class 102
Class 103
Children’s Needs and Intercountry Adoption
In this class, we’ll go a little more in-depth into intercountry adoption processes. No matter what country you’ve chosen to adopt from it’s probably quite different from your own place and family of origin! We’ll respond to common questions from parents—including what your child is most likely experiencing in their foster home or institutional living situation, cultural differences and similarities as well as the laws and adoption processes from a country new to you in many ways. We’ll use this course as a foundation and then fill you in on many more specifics as your adoption journey continues.
3 Hours • $50
Enroll in Class 103
Class 104
Understanding Children’s Development
The mystery of how your child becomes the small person you will meet some day begins with their developing brain and body—how does this development affect their emotional and behavioral make up? In this course, we’ll learn from the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development’s “Children from Hard Places and the Brain.” This video covers topics such as institutionalization and development and challenges parents to think about what it means to come from a hard place. This teaching will start your exploration of what we hope will be a life-long desire to learn just ‘how and why’ children are who they are and how we as parents can be an enormous part of their healing. We’ll cover how the brain develops, the impact of trauma and institutionalization and how you can help change your child’s brain development through attachment.
2.25 Hours • $35
Enroll in Class 104
Class 105
Common Medical Conditions
You’ve most likely said ‘yes’ to a child with a potential medical condition. In this course, you’ll be challenged to think about your understanding of special needs and learn more about how to consider whether or not you are prepared to adopt a child with a medical challenge. We’ll cover some common medical conditions and we’ll do our best to provide answers to how you’ll parent a child with special needs. You’ll also hear from families who are parenting a child with a special need and how their life has changed. We’ll leave you with some resources to explore as you consider how to make these very important decisions.
2.5 Hours • $50
Enroll in Class 105
Class 106
Understanding Attachment
In this class, we will look at what healthy attachment looks like and how your attachment style as a parent can ease your relationship with a new child. Understanding attachment is an important part of every relationship—this video will give you the insights needed to start your own voyage of personal discovery as well as give you practical tools for purposeful connection with your child.
2 Hours • $30
Enroll in Class 106
Class 107
Developing Attachment
The more you know about how to engage your child in the ‘attachment dance’ the more healing you’ll be able to bring and the more peace there will be in your home. This course offers some tools for engaging with a child from a hard place. We’ll also learn about incorporating mindfulness about where your child has come from, where he or she is developmentally, and how to gauge your interaction for healing.
2.25 Hours • $35
Enroll in Class 107
Class 108
Transracial Adoption: Building Cultural Awareness
If your child is coming from a country where everyone looks different than what you see when you look in the mirror, then there will be ‘blending’ needed. Yes, we are all the same on the inside, but learning to acknowledge, celebrate, and understand cultural differences will be a life-long journey for your family. Take some steps with this course in deepening your sensitivity and opening your heart for those who are different from you. In this course, we’ll also explore transracial adoption from the point of view of both adoptive parents and transracial adoptees.
2 Hours • $30
Enroll in Class 108
Learning to Connect with Your Child
This second pre-adoptive phase offers 8 interactive courses created to take parents deeper into the subjects of bonding and attachment and the practical ‘how-tos’ of parenting a child from a hard place using Trust-Based Relational Intervention™ (TBRI). These classes – while both practical and idea-rich – will add valuable insights into the personalities and temperaments of each individual in your home. Through this series of articles, videos, and assessments, you’ll learn how to further connect and engage with your child. We’ll explore obstacles and challenges and the tools needed to develop a healthy, secure bond. In this series, you will also delve further into your own background and learn how you can heal & grow into even better and more prepared parents.
The 8 classes in this phase total 20 hours.
Class 201
The Importance of Playful Engagement
In this class, we’ll discuss how to confront challenging moments through playful interaction and provide practical tools for daily encouragement for children with a background of trauma. This section also explores ways to make play fun for yourself and your child and why play can often be difficult for adults.
2.0 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 201
Class 202
Healing and Healthy Touch
Everyone needs physical affection, but it can be difficult to know where to start when touch, or healthy touch, has been absent. This course offers practical tools for how to be affectionate with a child from a hard place as well as how to recognize and bring healing to sexualized behavior and understand healthy touch.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 202
Class 203
Exploring the Sensory World
This lesson explores the ways in which we experience the world through the 5 senses and different coping mechanisms for sensory overload. In this segment, we’ll also discuss the importance of respect for our own, as well as our children’s bodies.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 203
Class 204
Healing Through Attachment
Through an attachment assessment and detailed narratives, you’ll learn about the 4 types of adult attachment styles and discover your own attachment inclination. Gaining insight into individual strengths and challenges becomes a valuable tool in enhancing attachment to your own child and family.
3 Hours • $90
Enroll in Class 204
Class 205
Your Story: Healing & Attachment
Central to this class is the wisdom we’ll draw from Michael Orlans and Terry Levy and their book Healing Parents: Helping Wounded Children Learn to Love and Trust. Resources and valuable insights are provided to help parents develop their child’s trust and create healthy self-worth in every relationship.
4 Hours • $120
Enroll in Class 205
Class 206
Nurturing Secure Connections
In this class, we’ll explore the possibility that everything your child does stems from his or her natural desire to learn, explore, and grow, to launch and return to a loving embrace.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 206
Class 207
Parenting From a Secure Base
The longing to ‘belong’ is central to every heart – the child you are welcoming into your family is no different. The practical, grace-filled examples of the TBRI Empowering, Connecting, and Correcting Principles will become the bedrock of the foundation you are building as you parent your child.
3 Hours • $90
Enroll in Class 207
Class 208
Wrapping Up & Getting Real
In this class, we’ll remind you of cocooning and forming lasting bonds, what sort of transitional challenges could be ahead, give you some ideas for honoring your child’s origins, and maybe even pique your curiosity about how we want to support you and stay connected as your family grows.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 208
300 Level Courses
These single-topic stand-alone classes are designed to take a more intentional look into topics that many families want to learn more about, or need some extra assistance with.
Class 301
New Kids in the House: Siblings and Family Integration
Adoption impacts each individual in the family differently. Adding a new family member, and all of the likes, dislikes, passions, and personality that come along with them, can throw the groove off of even the most flexible of families.
1.5 Hours • $45
Enroll in Class 301
Class 302
When Your Adopted Child Comes With a Past, Not a Pacifier
Bonding with a teenager or an older child who has spent time in a home, a foster home, and/or an institution unprepared to meet their needs comes with its own set of challenges. Welcoming an older child into a forever family or a child that’s beginning to question their adoption can require a whole new list of best practices for parents.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 302
Class 303.1
Empowering, Connecting, Correcting – I
This course provides the practical examples and role-playing needed for parents to learn how to empower a child to physically and emotionally attune to a loving caregiver. You’ll come away with the tools and encouragement needed to connect with your child in a meaningful, healthy way, while also learning strategies to help a child course-correct when things get hard.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 303.1
Class 303.2
Empowering, Connecting, Correcting – II
This course continues the practical examples and role-playing needed for parents to learn how to empower a child to physically and emotionally attune to a loving caregiver.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 303.2
Class 304
Facilitating Behavioral Change
Discover the science behind the behaviors of vulnerable children. Dr. Purvis provides dozens of examples of strategies to deal with the behaviors of children from hard places—all while showing a different side of her usual college professor self! It’s a joy to watch Dr. Purvis bring order, security, and contentment into tough situations with children.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 304
Class 305
Family Mission Statement
A wise person once said, “if you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time!” In this interactive for-the-whole-family class, you’ll have the chance to hear from each other, brainstorm, be creative, and build on what makes your family special. Together, you’ll find a purpose each family member understands and an overall direction that you can head toward together. By the end, you’ll have created a working Family Mission statement together!
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 305
Class 306
Racial Makeup of Families & Identity of Adopted Children
Families adopting children with ethnicities different from their own face unique challenges in family life, community, and culture. Your child’s experience will be different from your own—and there must be space for them to express those experiences and feelings. This course will help families discover ways to honor their child’s birth culture as well as the community that they’ve brought their child “home” to join.
2 Hours • $60
Enroll in Class 306
Class 307
Safety and Children with Sexualized Behaviors
Sometimes children from hard places have had almost unspeakable experiences that loving parents can’t even imagine. To bring healing, we must fiercely and unashamedly come alongside our children. In this course we’ll address topics of safety for every family member, how the symptoms of sexual abuse often present in children of all ages, and steps toward health for the wounded child.
1.5 Hours • $45
Enroll in Class 307
Class 308
Developmental Milestones
Although every child’s development is unique, children who come to us from challenging backgrounds take ‘unique’ to a whole new level. As parents we want to empower these children holistically – to facilitate growth in mind, body and spirit – so they can reach their full potential. This course will provide a deeper understanding of child development, examining potential emotional triggers that will help you better meet your child’s needs as they grow.
2.5 Hours • $75
Enroll in Class 308
Class 309
Exploring the Realities of Transracial Adoption
AGCI is partnering with Be The Bridge in the important conversation surrounding the topic of transracial adoption. Be The Bridge is a faith-based organization that believes in truth-telling, humility, respect, confession, grace, and justice. The vision of Be The Bridge is for people and organizations to gain awareness and respond to the racial brokenness and systemic injustice in the world and that people are no longer conditioned by a racialized society but grounded in the truth where all are equipped to flourish. This course will allow you to step into an intentional study of race, adoption and culture.
6 Hours • $90
Enroll in Class 309
Class 310
China Heritage
As you prepare to adopt a child from China, part of your preparation includes becoming knowledgeable about the country and giving thought to how you will honor and educate your child about the land of their heritage. This class fulfills the Hague requirements to understand the history, culture, traditions, racial, religious, ethnic and linguistic background of your child.
1 Hour • $25
Enroll in Class 310
Class 311
Talking to Kids about Race and Racism
Family should be the place where children feel precious and beloved. It’s also the place where their identity is nurtured and strengthened. When everyone in the family doesn’t ‘match’ we have the unique opportunity of learning and growing together and then championing the differences. What you say, and often more importantly, what you don’t say as parents will be foundational to the identity your child takes into their teens, young adulthood, and the rest of their life. This course will help you guide the thinking, reading, and conversation for your whole family.
3 Hours • $90
Enroll in Class 311
Class 312
Developing an Adoption Profile
For a Domestic Adoption, creating an adoption profile that highlights how and why your family is prepared to bring an adoptive child into your home is an important step. In this class, we’ll examine the best practices and examples of adoption profiles that you can use to create your own profile.
1 Hour • $35
Enroll in Class 312
Class 313
FASD for Pre-Adoptive Families
A child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders can display a range of behaviors both challenging and puzzling to parents. From signs and symptoms to diagnoses and treatment strategies, we’ll hear from medical professionals and adoptive families who have experienced, and are currently walking, the daily adventure of raising children with FASDs.
2 Hour • $60
Enroll in Class 313