Tonight I watched "The Pregnancy Pact" on Lifetime Television. With one in six teenage girls becoming pregnant before age 20, the main premise of the movie - that the expectations of pregnant teenagers seldom turn out the way they thought, and…

Heidi Hess Saxton - who has written 59 posts on Catholic Exchange.
Posted on 30 January 2010
Tonight I watched "The Pregnancy Pact" on Lifetime Television. With one in six teenage girls becoming pregnant before age 20, the main premise of the movie - that the expectations of pregnant teenagers seldom turn out the way they thought, and…
Posted on 19 January 2010
It’s an unfortunate fact that each generation must uncover for itself: Love is a battlefield. Except for those who marry their first love, and early in life, most of us carry on our hearts the scars of broken, often ill-advised,…
Posted on 24 November 2009
This is a true story.
A supersized black kid wearing shorts and a polo shirt, carrying a plastic grocery sack, wandered aimlessly in the frigid night air. He had run from multiple foster homes, most recently from a black family that…
Posted on 31 October 2009
I rushed through the house, fixing dinner and straightening the house. The babysitter would arrive any minute, so my husband and I could attend a school fundraiser. As I swiped the bathroom mirror with a cloth, I caught my wedding…
Posted on 15 September 2009
The word “salvage” is not a pretty one. It always involves someone making the best of an undeniably bad situation. We salvage valuables after a fire, flood, or natural disaster. The Lost and Found Family reminds us that sometimes human lives…
Posted on 28 August 2009
Call me Booster Mom. My official title remains to be seen – President, Vice President, Chief Bottle Washer and Cookie Dough Pusher. It all boils down to the same thing: For the next school year, a sizeable chunk of Day-Timer…
Posted on 20 July 2009
In her most recent novel, Handle with Care, Jodi Picoult explores the intimate sufferings of family life, and brings into sharp focus the unique challenges of parenting a special-needs child. It also engages the reader with questions both timely and…
Posted on 06 June 2009
Sometimes when I speak or write about adoption, people approach me and ask me what to do when one half of a couple (usually but not always the husband) isn’t open to raising an adopted or foster child. Usually I…
Posted on 14 April 2009
One day listening to a Jeff Foxworthy “You Might Be a Redneck If…” routine, it occurred to me that — just as rednecks can blissfully scratch through life without recognizing their “red-neckiness,” so many potentially wonderful foster parents could be…
Posted on 28 March 2009
One of the most challenging aspects of parenting, I’ve found, is striking a balance, being “in the world, but not of it.” Certainly we want to protect our children from evil, at least until they are old enough to recognize…