During the month of June, applications to become a TFI Advocate are open! TFI Advocates bridge the gap between churches and agencies right in their local community. Get the details and apply right here.
Whether a child has experienced foster care or adoption, there is history and trauma to navigate. As you can imagine, this can spill over into eating habits, behavior issues, and affect children’s sleep. Many foster parents and caregivers experience the difficulty of seeking help from someone trained in both foster/adoptive backgrounds and sleep practices.
That was the case for my guest, Allison Ezell. When her first adopted son came home from China in 2016, she spent years unsuccessfully searching for sleep help that took into account his history. Today, she now gets to do for others what no one could do for her all those years ago: build a bridge between sleep science principles and trauma-informed care.
Allison is a Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant and a mom of four through birth, foster care, and international adoption. She has a special passion for working with foster and adoptive families who are navigating sleep issues with their children.
In this episode, you’ll learn how isolating dealing with sleep issues in children who have experienced trauma can be, the importance of setting realistic expectations based on a child’s history and biology, navigating bedtime with multiple children, and so much more.
Find resources and more in the show notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/allison-ezell-239/
During the month of June, applications to become a TFI Advocate are open! TFI Advocates bridge the gap between churches and agencies right in their local community. Get the details and apply right here.
We cover many topics here on The Forgotten Podcast from how to know when to start fostering, real stories of people throughout the foster care community, how churches can get involved, and more.
But in this episode, we are talking about an aspect of foster parenting we don’t often address: What happens when you reach the end of the journey of active foster parenting? How do you know when you should be done fostering and begin providing wrap-around support?
My guest, Lisa Robertson, knows all about this journey as her family made the hard choice to stop fostering in October of 2023 after many years of active foster parenting. She has been a foster and adoptive parent and is the Executive Director for Hope Bridge, a non-profit that advocates for change in the Ohio foster care system by mobilizing churches and equipping communities to serve. Lisa has many years of experience in advocacy, biological family relationship preservation, and the preventative work of keeping families together.
It's never easy to let go of something that is so close to your heart. In this conversation, we discuss what questions foster parents should consider before closing their license, how to identify when it is time to stop fostering, the heaviest parts of letting go of such a large part of your life, the opportunities to still serve the foster care community after foster parenting, and much more.
Find links to resources mentioned and more in the show notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/lisa-robertson-238/
Applications to become a TFI Advocate are open in June! TFI Advocates bridge the gap between churches and agencies right in their local community. Get the details and apply right here.
Foster care and baseball. On the surface, these two things don’t sound related at all, but my guest this week would beg to differ.
Emily Cole is the co-owner with her husband, Jesse, of the Savannah Bananas, a baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia. Their vision is to make baseball fun, put fans first, and always entertain.
In addition to owning and operating a baseball team, Emily and Jesse are also biological, foster, and adoptive parents. They even use their baseball platform to further impact the foster care community through their nonprofit, Bananas Foster. Emily is passionate about helping the foster care community by celebrating and advocating for those involved.
In this episode, you’ll hear how baseball and foster care collide in Emily’s life, a vision for the future of foster care, how vital it is to have your village established as a foster parent, and so much more!
Get links to resources and key takeaways in the show notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/emily-cole-237/
Applications to become a TFI Advocate are open in June! TFI Advocates bridge the gap between churches and agencies right in their local community. Get the details and apply right here.
Court can be hard to understand and difficult to navigate for everyone involved. How does a case progress? Can a foster parent attend court dates for biological parents? Should they? Thankfully, I have an expert with me to help explain what happens at court from the lens of someone who is there every day–a judge.
I have the honor of speaking with Judge Brian Goldrick. He has been a part of the Child Protection Division of the court in McLean County for over 32 years. Judge Goldrick started in 1992 as an Assistant Public Defender, then served as the Contract Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) before becoming an Associate Circuit Judge.
In this episode, you’ll hear the process of a case through court, what rights foster parents have, how such weighty decisions are made, and much more. Listen in!
Get resources and takeaways in the show notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/brian-goldrick-236/