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INSTITUTE FOR FAMILY-CENTERED HEALING & HEALTH

When There Is Crisis

A Handbook for Christian Foster & Adoptive Families Facing Serious Struggle

You aren't alone as you face the most intense and overwhelming challenges of parenting.

Foster and adoptive parents long for their children to experience hope in places of deep and complex pain. Yet seasons of relational, emotional or behavioral crisis can be part of the journey — and may feel overwhelming.

As a parent, you may find yourself wondering:

How do I navigate this when I’ve tried everything I know and it still isn’t working? Is healing even possible, or will the hard things my child has experienced have the last word in their story?

When There Is Crisis is a handbook to guide you through these seasons as a parent or equip you to walk alongside families in these moments of crisis.

When There Is Crisis

You'll find tangible guidance to meet you where you are, including:

Curated Insights

drawing on research, biblical wisdom and real-life experience.

Curated Insights

This book sorts through the overwhelming volume of advice you hear as a parent to identify core principles and practices to focus on.

Practical Guidance

to help you respond to crises with clarity and confidence.

Practical Guidance

You’ll find immediate steps to keep your family safe, and helpful questions as you consider therapy or other interventions.

Key Principles

to guide decisions about residential care.

Key Principles

Find a compassionate and clarifying framework to help you evaluate residential care in particularly intense seasons of crisis.

Everyday Practices

that support long-term healing and growth.

Everyday Practices

Explore daily habits — from sleep and nutrition to time connecting with God and each other — that can contribute to growth over time.

Discover:

Immediate steps to take in a crisis

Honest reflections from parents about hard seasons

The complex factors that can compound crisis

Insights from young people on their own journeys

Your unique and influential role as a parent

Holistic approaches to care for your whole family

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Download a Free Sample Bundle

Foundational to navigating crises is understanding the complex web of factors that converge in the world of foster and adoptive parenting. This sample includes the Introduction and Chapter 1, which dive into these very ideas, providing an initial framework for understanding periods of intense struggle.

About the Author

Rachel Medefind

Rachel holds a Master of Science in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King’s College London, with a focus on children who have experienced early adversity. Rachel advises and walks alongside families across the US and beyond who are undergoing distinctive challenges. She has served on the boards of many organizations dedicated to bettering the lives of vulnerable children and families worldwide. After an early career in physical therapy, Rachel invested many years in cultivating the minds, hearts and bodies of her children and other youth from home education and co-ops to helping to establish a new private school. She is a founding board member of Tyndale Christian School in Arlington, Virginia, a classical Christian school committed to academic excellence and whole-person formation. Rachel and her husband, Jedd, have welcomed children through birth, adoption and foster care.
Rachel Medefind
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INSTITUTE FOR FAMILY-CENTERED HEALING & HEALTH

Read the book When There Is Crisis today.

Let this guide come alongside you in both the realities of struggle and the hope that can still break through. This book will help you keep walking with your child in the hardest seasons, while entrusting God with outcomes beyond your control.

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