Are you looking for practical support? Today’s episode is for you.

Kayla Moffitt went from zero to five children through foster care the same week that her dad passed away from COVID-19. She describes it as a “brokenness” that she started her parenting journey from, something that has been a core part of her own healing journey.

The children they took in were siblings living separated in foster care for the majority of their time in care. Kayla and her husband, Jerad, eventually adopted all of them, many of whom have received psychiatric diagnoses like Bipolar Disorder, RAD, Childhood Schizophrenia, and more.

After struggling to navigate the hard moments of parenting and how to support challenging behaviors and actions, Kayla became a Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Practitioner, which she says truly “saved our family.” In this episode, we dive into various trauma-informed parenting tactics and hope for those who are parenting children from hard places.

You are not alone!

Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/kayla-moffitt-201/

Join us as we celebrate our 200th episode of The Forgotten Podcast. In this special episode, roles are reversed as Jami Kaeb, the usual host, takes a turn as the guest, while Holly Gnuse steps in as the interviewer.

Since its inception in 2016, "The Forgotten Podcast" has been committed to sharing the stories of the forgotten in the foster care community. In this episode, Jami and Holly reminisce about TFI's podcasting journey, sharing stories from the early days and reflecting on the challenges they've faced.

Beyond the memories, they also discuss the profound impact the podcast has had on its listeners, providing strength and a sense of community during life's challenges. Whether you're a long-time listener or new to the show, this 200th episode is a heartfelt celebration of the podcast's journey, its influence, God's faithfulness, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Have you ever felt guilty that you couldn't do more? Wished you could simply help more children in foster care? Or perhaps you've felt like you've failed when you reach your limits?

You are not alone.

Anna Koon started her journey alongside the foster care community as a case worker and an adoption specialist. But she quickly wanted to do more, and was dipping into her personal finances to buy items to meet the needs of children in foster care. Anna and her husband couldn’t stand the thought of children sleeping at the DCS office when a foster family couldn’t be found, so they shifted roles to become foster parents specifically for respite and emergency placements.

Anna shares her unique journey with us from being a case worker to becoming a foster parent and insights along the way about supporting the foster care community. I was encouraged by our conversation and I hope you are as well!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/anna-koon-199/

Trigger Warning: As Kamille bravely and openly shares her experience, we want to make sure you know this episode mentions sexual assault between 11:30-13:00 and briefly again around 22:00.

“They are so resilient. I can see myself in them.” - Kamille Justus

Children in foster care are some of the most resilient people you’ll meet. They navigate continual change, traumatic experiences, and so much more, and their experiences often form a determination within them.

Kamille Justus is one of these resilient people. In her case, that determination was to be a cycle-breaker in her family despite the hardship she had experienced throughout her life.

Today, Kamille is a Lead Family Support Worker at The Center for Youth and Family Solutions, which has locations across Illinois. Kamille has endured her own experiences in what, now, could bring children into care and she is using her experiences to help connect with children and parents. She hopes that her experience can build those connections so that the families within the Knox, Henderson and Warren counties can be supported and reunited.

In this episode, Kamille shares her story, the triggers that have formed as a result of what she experienced growing up, why her trauma created a passion to support others who have gone through something similar, the importance of empathy and compassion, and so much more.

I am so grateful to Kamille for joining me for this conversation!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/kamille-justus-198/

The story I have for you today spans many roles in the foster care community. My guest, Raquel McCloud, entered kinship care when she was just a young child. Kinship care is when a relative or close family friend takes the role of foster parent instead of a caregiver previously unknown to the child. There are many instances of informal kinship care occurring as well as formal kinship care.

In many cases of kinship care, the relatives are left without many resources to help them establish boundaries with the biological parent who is also their own family member. In today’s episode, Raquel shares her personal story of growing up in kinship care, becoming pregnant as a teen, and how she was given no other option but to put her child up for adoption.

In spite of all she has been through, today Raquel is a birth mom in reunion with the very child she put up for adoption, a kinship adoptive mom to her half-sister, and an advocate for adoption, foster care, and other important topics. While Raquel wishes her life had been kinder, she is thankful that others can be inspired and learn from her experience going from a child in kinship care and biological teen mom to a birth mom in reunion and a kinship adoptive mom.

I am so grateful to Raquel for sharing her story!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/raquel-mccloud-197/

This is your fault. If you want to stay out of foster care, you’d better behave. If you don’t change your attitude, then they’ll separate you from your siblings.

Can you imagine hearing these messages growing up? This is often the message that is conveyed to children from hard places or who are at risk of entering foster care. They grow up carrying around this guilt and believing they are why their families fell apart. But what they don’t always come to realize is that it was never their fault.

I am grateful to have Dr. Danisha Keating with me on the podcast as she shares her journey of growing up in an abusive and neglectful household where she cared for her siblings. Danisha is a former foster youth and was a guardian to five of her siblings as an adult. She loves to encourage foster care advocates and foster youth to go after their dreams and goals. While Danisha’s journey has not been an easy one, it has helped her find her life’s work.

Thank you for joining me for this conversation with Danisha!

(Don't forget that through the month of August, a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000! Double your impact today.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/danisha-keating-196/

What are the factors that cause a child to enter foster care? Addiction? Abuse? The reality is, it's rarely a single situation.

Today's episode contains many factors that are all too common in foster care. For Jackie Polk, it was a combination of domestic violence and addiction that led to her children being removed from her care.

Jackie gave birth to twin boys, and 16 months later, the Department of Child Services (DCS) stepped in to remove her children. Her story includes addiction recovery, domestic violence, and eventually foster care reunification.

Today, she is coming up on six years of being clean and sober, is married, and has a two-month-old son in addition to her twins. Jackie's hope is that you find hope through hearing her story and realize that regardless of your circumstances, your story can be rewritten.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jackie as much as I did!

(Don't forget that through the month of August, a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000! Double your impact today.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/jackie-polk-195/

Do you remember how you first became aware of the foster care community? Maybe someone close to you started fostering? Maybe your spouse invited you to pray about pursuing this? Or perhaps a certain statistic impacted your heart?

Ryan MacDonald attributes becoming aware of the needs within the foster care community through his wife's passion for the topic and a class he took in school about how as followers of Jesus we can engage society. Ryan describes it as his wife pulling on one arm and the Lord pulling on the other. (Maybe you can relate?) He is now involved in the foster care community at a variety of levels—at work, through the church he pastors, and within his own family.

Ryan is a follower of Jesus, husband, an adoptive, foster, and biological dad, pastor, and the Regional Director of Foster the City over Los Angeles and Orange County in California. He is a self-proclaimed coffee snob but believes there is a time and place for diner coffee. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his wife, all things theology, basketball, and playing with his kids.

In this episode, Ryan shares openly about his experience as a foster parent, the importance of celebrating reunification, the reality that foster parenting is a skill you get better at over time, and so much more. This was one of my favorite conversations I've had on the podcast!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/ryan-macdonald-194/

Join Team 3:10: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/team310/

“Every kid, no matter what their circumstances are, should be celebrated and honored just like we do our children.”

Agency workers are the first responders of the foster care community. They are among the first to meet a child, they are keepers of that child’s history, and they know firsthand the needs that often go unmet. With many agencies experiencing unprecedented employee turnover, the challenges facing agency workers continue to increase as they experience secondary traumatic stress, lack of resources, and underappreciation.

Danika Briggs has been a close friend and worked with one of our TFI Advocates in Virginia for many years! She has been in social services for over 20 years and is the Assistant Director for Family Services at the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services in Virginia. Danika plays a vital leadership role in overseeing child welfare programs at their social service agency she also helps resource and encourage agency workers overall.

In this episode, Danika shares how partnerships with organizations like TFI can have an impact on the agency workers and the current challenges they are facing.

I really enjoyed this episode, and I hope you will too!

(Don’t forget that through the month of July, a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000! Join Team 3:10 today.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/danika-briggs-193

“Being a foster parent was always something that had been on my mind…”

I am excited to have two of my favorite people on the podcast today: Jonah and Sarah Wilson! Sarah is part of our team here at TFI and grew up with foster siblings. So becoming a foster parent was always something she personally wanted to pursue.

When Sarah and Jonah got married, their conversations turned to when the “right time” was to become foster parents and biological parents. While they knew they wanted to be in a stable place for either, they agreed that becoming foster parents would come first.

In our conversation, Jonah and Sarah share the details of what it looked like to become foster parents, where the journey differed from their expectations, how they navigated both the good and the hard parts of foster care, their perspective as both foster and adoptive parents, encouragement they have for other foster parents, and so much more.

I loved this episode, and I know you will too!

(Don’t forget that through the month of July, a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000! Join Team 3:10 today.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/jonah-sarah-wilson-192/

Welcome to a bonus episode of the podcast! We don’t do these very often, but we wanted to give you a little extra surprise content that we hope is an encouragement to you this week.

It’s always special when we get to share the work of our TFI Advocates, volunteer leaders across the nation who are working to support their local foster care community by bridging the gap between the needs of foster care agencies and the people and resources to meet those needs in local churches.

At our TFI Advocate Retreat last year, we got to share an interview between Lisa Jacobsen, an Advocate in Carver County, MN, and a local pastor as well as a local agency worker to share how they have built trust and started working together to meet needs in their community. In this bonus episode, we get to share that same interview with you! This conversation will give you such a great look into some of the work we’re doing here at TFI, and it brings us so much joy to hear stories just like this one.

(By the way, if you want to make ministry like this possible, we have a matching grant up to $20,000 through the end of July, so your gift can be doubled right now! Double your gift today.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/bonus-lisa-jacobsen/

It’s not uncommon for children impacted by foster care or adoption to desire to find answers, know where they came from, and understand the reason their life has looked the way it has. It can lead many children to question their identity or even wonder if they will ever find a sense of peace at all.

Anna Bernacki grew up in an adoptive home after being placed in foster care as an infant. As a teenager, she began to long for that special biological bond she felt would come from her biological parents. But after meeting her biological mother, Anna was disappointed to find that in her experience, that special connection she had longed for was still missing.

It wasn’t until Anna and her husband, Brian, were foster parents for six years and then adoptive parents to two sibling sets of two (four adoptive children in total!) that she would find healing and come to terms with the identity she carried outside of biological connection.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Anna and appreciated her openness about her story and experiences. I hope you do too!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/anna-bernacki-191/

Back in 2009, trauma-informed care wasn’t discussed as much as it is today and many families were not as open about the hardships that came along with an adoption. Kara Higgins always knew she wanted to grow her family by adoption, and she and her husband, Ryan, later had the opportunity to do so when adoptions opened up in Rwanda. That’s when she came face-to-face with trauma at a time when very few realized what it meant.

Kara is the mother to six children through foster care, adoption, and biology. She and her husband founded Imana Kids, which is an orphan care ministry with an educational sponsorship program in Rwanda focusing on trauma-informed interventions, learning, and care. Kara has more than twenty-four years of experience as an international healthcare provider and orphan care advocate for some of the most vulnerable populations of women and orphans, and it was an honor to speak with her today.

In this episode, Kara shares openly about her journey to understanding trauma-informed care, how her expectations of adoption matched up to reality, when she discovered that trauma isn’t just for foster children, and why connection makes all the difference in the world.

This really is one you don’t want to miss.

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/kara-higgins-190/

Join Team 3:10 (a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000!): https://theforgotteninitiative.org/team310/

Welcome to a VERY special episode of The Forgotten Podcast. We are going to be doing things a little bit differently because we just hit and surpassed a huge milestone. The Forgotten Podcast has reached the 1 million download mark! Can you believe this?!?

We have listeners in all 50 states and over 150 countries around the world. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to you for being a part of this amazing community. Thank you for sharing, listening, and supporting our work here.

It is a joy to walk with you and to share a big opportunity with you in this episode. A generous ministry partner has offered a matching grant for $20,000 to help us double our impact through the month of July. This means when you join our community of givers with a gift of any amount now through the end of July, your gift will be doubled!

Team 3:10, which is based on the Bible verse in Malachi 3:10, is our community of podcast listeners and other givers who share the dream of seeing God throw open the floodgates of Heaven so that every child, parent, and worker in foster care will know they are not alone.

In today’s episode, I am reminiscing about some of my personal favorite parts of the podcast, reviews we’ve received, what’s on the horizon, and more about this matching grant. Listen in and celebrate this milestone with us! 🎉

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/one-million-downloads/

Team 3:10: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/team310/

My guest today experienced a childhood filled with painful circumstances, parents who struggled with drug addiction, and the death of his father at the age of seven. You can imagine the amount of trauma and instability he experienced growing up.

Corey Johnston, in spite of the instability of his mother, always longed to feel like her son. God was gracious to invite Corey into a relationship with Him. And as an adult, he gave his life to Christ and started a church plant.

But even after that, he would encounter unmet hopes through a miscarriage that would eventually open the door to fostering and then later adopting his son. Corey shares with us why it feels so difficult when hopes are unmet, how to process grief, and many more nuggets of wisdom along the way.

I was blessed by Corey’s story as I have personally experienced unmet hopes through a failed adoption. If you’ve ever wondered, “God, how can you make this good?,” then you won’t want to miss this episode.

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/corey-johnston-188/

Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

My guest today is proof that awareness leads to action, and that a passion for supporting the foster care community can span generations. Once you become aware of the needs, have seen them firsthand, or have seen your own family foster, it is hard not to answer the call to take on a supporting role within the foster care community.

Sarah Hamaker first saw foster care in action from her own parents. They started fostering when she was a teenager and had a total of more than 40 children in their home over 30 years. This is initially what inspired her to be a foster parent herself. In addition to being a second-generation foster parent, Sarah is a therapeutic foster parent, speaker, award-winning author, podcaster, biblical parenting coach, and certified Leadership Parenting Coach™. She is passionate about helping parents develop strong relationships with their children.

In this episode, Sarah is sharing about how your impact goes beyond the children that are in your home, what you should do if you feel a pull towards foster care, why crying when a child in foster care leaves your home can be a gift to them, and so much more.

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/sarah-hamaker-187/

Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

Today’s guest defines trauma as something that impacts your ability to cope in everyday life. Trauma can also affect multiple generations and start a cycle that is difficult to escape.

Cordelia Cranshaw Skeete has experienced this cycle of generational trauma. As a former foster youth, she experienced the deep trauma of multiple transitions, the loss of connection to biological family, and other traumatic events. But through all the struggles she experienced, she was able to find beauty too.

Cordelia is a former foster youth, foster system advocate, coach, author, speaker, former Miss District of Columbia USA 2019, founder of Acts of Random Kindness (a nonprofit that provides resources to children and families facing life challenges), and Licensed Graduate Social Worker. Her greatest passion is to bring healing to children and families who have experienced trauma.

This was such a special conversation. I hope you are as encouraged as I was by Cordelia’s willingness to share her story and her powerful perspective on generational trauma. She is a cycle-breaker!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/cordelia-cranshaw-186/

Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the various perspectives of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children.

Did you know that 30% of children who enter into foster care are teens? The shift into foster care is a lifelong challenge for children of any age, but uniquely so for teens. That grief journey is deep and complex, as it also often involves giving up a role in life that they are used to fulfilling.

Melissa Smallwood found herself in the foster care system as a teenager and, along with the trauma she had experienced, her foster care experience had a lasting impact on her life. She moved from being a primary caregiver to her two brothers to the role of a foster child. Through her journey, she has found healing and pursued a career as a therapist who works primarily with children and teens who have been or are in the foster care system.

Melissa is now a wife and mom of seven, several of which joined her family through adoption and foster care, as well as “Mimi” to five. I hope you find encouragement and support through her story!

(Remember: Only until the end of May, applications are still open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. This only happens twice a year, so learn more and apply here.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/melissa-smallwood-185/

Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the various perspectives of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children.

Sometimes seeing another family involved in foster care can change someone’s mind from “I could never be a foster parent” to “I can do this.”

Sarah Butler, TFI Advocate in Conecuh County, AL, didn’t imagine she would be able to be a foster parent. But after seeing another family foster, she saw it was possible and she and her husband felt God’s call to pursue it. Immediately after completing the requirements to be foster parents, they were told there was a child that needed a place to stay that very night. Since then, the Butlers have had over 30 children come through their home in four years.

In this episode, Sarah shares the challenges, blessings, hardships, and joy that comes from fostering, and what it looks like to take a step past the fear of the unknown and into the call that God may have for your family. I hope you are encouraged and inspired by Sarah’s story today!

(Remember: Applications are still open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. This only happens twice a year! Learn more and apply here.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/sarah-butler-184/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the various perspectives of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children.

Will I be able to protect my biological children?
Do I need to keep the natural birth order of my biological children intact in order to foster successfully?
I’ve heard that children are resilient, so do I need to worry about my biological children?

I’ve heard questions like these from many in the foster care community, and I remember asking some of them myself when we first started the process of becoming foster parents.

Just as much as a new placement brings up challenging emotions for children in foster care, the same is true for our biological children. However, there isn’t as big of a focus on supporting biological children as they navigate the transition of welcoming new children into your home and dealing with the grief when they have to say goodbye to someone they may consider their sibling.

To help us understand more about how to support our biological children as we foster is Daniela Coats. Daniela is not only a Licensed Master Social Worker, but she is also a biological child of parents who fostered and eventually adopted. So she knows firsthand the difficult emotions that many biological children face alone. Daniela and her husband live in Texas with their six children, four by adoption and two by birth.

Listen in!

(Remember: Applications are now open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. This only happens twice a year! Learn more and apply here.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/daniela-coats-183/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the various perspectives of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children.

In today’s episode, I have the opportunity to talk with Dairius Kawewahi. Dairius entered foster care due to the abuse he and his brother suffered from their biological father. Although Dairius was unaware that the abuse he suffered wasn’t normal, the effects of his early childhood and time in five different foster homes would have a lasting impact on his life.

Just like Dairius’s middle name means, he is a young man with so much wisdom. I am grateful that he shared his story of overcoming impossible circumstances, learning to offer forgiveness, and discovering how to release the grasp his past held on him. His life is now marked by hope and healing, and I know it will serve as an encouragement to you. Listen in!

(Applications are now open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. This only happens twice a year! Learn more and apply here.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/dairius-kawewahi-182/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the different perspectives of the foster care community – agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children.

To kick off our episodes for this month, today I’m sharing my conversation with Candace Franklin, who is not only a Social Worker Supervisor, but also a foster parent and advocate for the foster care community.

In this episode, Candace reminds us that there is a place for you to step into this community, and shares what her life as a worker is like, how challenges with infertility have influenced her journey, and the joy she gets to see when reunification is possible.

I hope this episode is a support to you this week!

(Starting today, applications are open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. Learn more and apply here!)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/candace-franklin-181/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Here at The Forgotten Initiative, we get to support incredible volunteer leaders called TFI Advocates who are leading local foster care ministries across the nation.

Joining me for today’s episode is one of our TFI Advocates, Tess Dykstra. Tess has been an Advocate for Cobb County, GA since November 2021, and she is an incredible leader! In addition to her role as a TFI Advocate, Tess is a foster parent, mom to two boys (one through adoption), and works remotely in logistics and supply chain operations.

Tess is going to give us a look behind the curtain of what it means to be a TFI Advocate. She shares more about what a TFI Advocate does, what skills they might need, and her own story of getting involved.

Too many in the foster care community feel forgotten. They feel unloved and even uncared for. It’s our passion to change that reality. Coming up in May, we are opening up the applications for additional TFI Advocates. We only accept applications twice a year, so I want to invite you to consider if this role might be for you!

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/tess-dykstra-180/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

TW: This episode does contain mentions of abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and Satanic Ritual Abuse that we want you to be aware of before listening.

We know that youth in and out of foster care are a very vulnerable population and at risk for trafficking. However, what you might not realize is that 60% of all child sex trafficking victims have histories in the child welfare system, according to the National Foster Youth Institute.

My guest today knows the reality of human trafficking on a very personal level. Tiffani Price is a survivor of human trafficking and Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). She deeply understands the many difficulties facing this vulnerable population as she was trafficked by her adoptive parents. Today, Tiffani has founded a nonprofit called GloryB to help support other survivors.

In this episode, Tiffani bravely shares her story and helps us understand how we can protect children in our care by recognizing signs of grooming and trafficking.

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/tiffani-price-179/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Tyler Daily wasn’t planning on becoming a foster parent. But his work in education as a middle school teacher ended up becoming the gateway to foster care.

Foster parents are so important in the foster care community, and single foster parents are an incredible group of people. There is no specific data on the number of single foster parents nationwide; however, the 2019 Child Welfare Outcomes report shows that single parents make up 29% of the adoptive family structure with just 3% of that number being single men.

Parenting alone presents a lot of challenges that other foster parents may not encounter. As Tyler has fostered 7 children in the course of one year, he says, “It’s a circus, but it’s a fun circus!” I pray you are encouraged by his story and experience this week.

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/tyler-daily-178/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast