Chrissy Gochnauer

Our kids’ adoptions have been finalized for a while now. It feels like it was just yesterday we said hello to teeny people, but the giants are consuming eve...

I’m sure we’ve all done it. You see someone you know in the grocery store or church lobby. You haven’t seen each other in a while and you don’t have time fo...

It’s here: the holiday season. We are somehow in December and I am still trying to figure out where summer went. November begins the cinnamon oil, slip-and-...

Is anyone else in full panic!-it’s-almost-Christmas-mode?  *Jumps wildly in the air waving hands* I am! Oh gosh . . . I am. It snuck up on me again. Ti...

I love music. I think that is a medium that so many talented artists have used to carve out thoughts, feelings, and places that invite us to take it all in....

Learning to Offer Yourself the Grace You Give to Others There is a song titled “Be Kind to Yourself” by Andrew Peterson. He wrote it for his then teenaged daughter who was in the middle of that awkward stage of life where everything about oneself…

How Parenting Taught Me to Accept My Sensitivity I spent most of my life being described as overly emotional by every report card and every exasperated adult who could not deal with a little girl whose heart broke over everything. As years went on, I…

So, you want to be a foster parent. Welcome! Buckle up, buttercup, because if you should follow through with this, you are in for a wild ride. It is nothing like you imagine. It is equal parts much worse and much better than you think. The first step…

Navigating Loss and New Beginnings Adoption in the media is often shown either as entirely good or entirely bad. I think quite often adoption lands somewhere in between. But if there is something that isn’t discussed enough it is endings in adoption.…

How Expanding My Reading Choices Broadened My Perspective on the World I am a book wyrm (like a bookworm, but more like a dragon on her hoard than a bug chewing up paper); and I spend an inordinate amount of time listening to audiobooks when I’m busy…

Practical Tips for Sensory Reboot and Care Depression is a misunderstood mental health disorder. The media often gets it wrong. As with many mental health and medical issues, real diagnosis terms are often used as casual shorthand for emotions. “I’m…

Parenting with Neurodivergence My family is officially more neurodivergent than neurotypical, as proved by scientific data. It’s . . . a lot. We are a lot—a lot of good, and a lot of mess. I’m a person who likes to know all the things. So when we got…

What we learned from ‘Inside Out 2’ I am the child of a generation that, by and large, dealt with anything remotely relating to mental health only a few ways. The most prevalent way was to simply ignore the problem, tell the person with the mental…

Giving myself space and grace to try again I’m not very good at this in real life. It’s not to say I don’t try very hard. But sometimes, all the knowledge in the world can do nothing to counteract the very human feelings I’m experiencing when, say, a…

Learning Patience and Care I love pufferfish. They are adorable to look at, from a safe distance at least. When they’re frightened, they puff up like a balloon by pulling water into their bodies. They do this because it makes them look bigger, and…

Star Trek's portrayal of adoption and found family resonates with our family's journey. It comes as no shock to anyone that knows us. We are a family of nerds. The best pre-children Christmas vacation we ever had was staying home with several new…

When I was a kid, I cannot remember a single time when my parents were sick. Or, at least, I don’t remember a time when they were camped out on the couch with saltines, jello, and Sprite while a cartoon droned in the background. For some reason,…

Defeated By Orange Plastic Folders with Brads and Pockets Guys. I know back-to-school shopping comes around every August. I try to prepare throughout the year; but, typically, if I buy something, my kids are likely to find it and use it up regardless…

Finding balance and sanity as an adoptive parent. If I had to list the most important people to the success of my family functioning, my husband and my two other best friends take the first three spots. If I didn’t have them, I feel that my story and…

Navigating the Complex Emotions of Foster Care and Adoption “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” If there was ever an opening sentence to a novel that succinctly described what foster and adoption was like, Dickens nailed it. I have…