Jelly Bean's Tale

Mary Osgood and her husband, Dean, live in a tiny town in rural Wisconsin with their five children (and five poodles). Three of their children were adopted through foster care and two were adopted after “failed” international adoptions from orphanages in Russia and Ethiopia. Their children’s struggles through foster care and adoption have inspired them to gain therapeutic parenting solutions that enable their family to thrive against many odds. Some of the trainings and techniques that have been instrumental in their kids’ healing process are working with a Trauma and Attachment therapist that specializes in foster care and adoption issues, horse therapy, sensory integration therapy, love and logic techniques, establishing a Reactive Attachment Disorder support group, and creating their kids’ healing stories. Creating photo books and reading and rereading their healing stories has made a tremendous impact on helping their children to process their traumatic pasts so that they can move forward and truly heal. When they realized how rare children’s books on overturned adoptions and other adoption issues were, they felt compelled to use their kids’ triumphs to help other children struggling with the healing process.