Bonus Babies

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia Larson speaks with adoptee and survivor Kimberly Bell.  Kimberly is an inspirational speaker, minister, mentor, and the author of "The Epitome of Kimmy: Accept & Embrace It All” an eye-opening memoir depicting her true story of a life of abandonment, sexual and physical abuse from a very young age, and her healing journey that followed. She’s originally from...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Jeffrey Jamerson . Jeffrey has over 25 years of experience in the public sector serving at-risk youth and families in various capacities, most recently as the Vice President of Programs and Services at Aviva Family & Children’s Services in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past few years Jeff has created a shift in how therapy is conducted with foster children,...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Sana Latrease Cotten, who was trafficked by her mother and grandmother as a young child, put in foster care and was then adopted but even so never really felt she belonged with her new family. Later, when she learned of her own mother's traumatic past, Sana learned how to forgive her and also to advocate for others in need.   "Sana is the Founder...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Jordan Bartlett who was adopted at birth by a loving family . As a young college student, Jordan met his biological sister (for the very first time) who'd been placed in foster care, bounced from home to home, and had a very rough time. As a young businessman, he committed myself to helping kids in care as they age out, and he's a CASA too!  Jorda...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with foster parent, Mary Rathbone. Mary, her husband Alan and their daughter Chloe started their foster care journey in 2017. Their very first placement was a sibling group of four, aged 6, 4, 3 and 1.  Mary admits that after a month she nearly had a nervous breakdown with the adjustments in lifestyle and mindset fostering requires. Having worked at top hotels...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia Larson speaks with former foster youth and survivor, Lisa Marie Arnett. Lisa Marie endured 36 placements and horrific abuse from the age of 2 on until she aged out of foster care at 18. She was then homeless for 3 years but even so, she managed to put herself through college and then joined the Army. She's now a helicopter mechanic, and raising a beautiful young...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Raquel Wilson,  a former foster youth and now advocate from Compton . Raquel is the the program manager for the Fostering Media Connections Youth Voice program, and has been an advocate for youth affected by the foster care system, juvenile justice system, homelessness, or coined “at-risk” and has dedicated over 10 years to empowering youth and helping them...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with CASA Cathy Horan Walker. CASA Cathy Horan Walker is from Monterey, California. She promised herself she would become a CASA after her two sons graduated highschool and that’s what she did. Cathy believes it was her calling to become a CASA and her CASA kiddo Ryan Moses says she saved his life many times over.  “I was a middle school math teacher for 26 yea...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with former foster youth Ryan Moses. Ryan went into foster care when he was a small child and had 12 placements in 8 different school districts. At 10 he advocated for himself, called the Monterey CASA office and got himself a CASA who changed his life. But he still had to overcome massive challenges including substance abuse that almost took his life; he conti...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with Allison Lieberman. Allison is a licensed marriage and family therapist, postpartum anxiety expert, mom of 2, and 2x postpartum anxiety survivor. Part of Allison's early training including treating foster kids at emergency shelters and crisis centers where many of the young women and men are very vulnerable to being sex trafficked, and she describes ho...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with CASA volunteer and book publisher, Rachel Malley. Rachel  started volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate in 2019 when she learned about the power of best-interest advocacy for children who have experienced abuse or neglect. During that time she has worked with three wonderful children, and witnessed the ups and downs of Care and Protection case...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with adoptee Maria Harding.  Maria was adopted at birth but always considered a problem child by her mother. Her parents split when she was little and when her mother remarried, she was adopted by her mom's new husband but things only got worse for Maria with her adoptive mother.  Her mother put her in foster care when she was 11 , and she was in and out of...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Hank Fortener, the founder of AdoptTogether,  "who understands the burdensome blessing that is the adoption process". His family fostered 36 children and adopted 6 from 5 different countries while he was growing up. He knows firsthand how painful & euphoric adopting a child can be, and it is this experienced heart for adoption that drives Adop...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Megan Elizabeth Ward.  Megan and her wife,  Amanda McMillan, started fostering in the Fall of 2017 as a kinship family via ICPC. Following a successful reunification, Amanda and Megan transitioned to a DFCS partnership home and haven’t looked back since. Fast forward almost 5 years and 40+ placements, Amanda and Megan have provided a loving home to kiddos o...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Peace4kids.org Co-Founder and Executive Director Zaid Gayle. During his tenure at Peace4Kids, Zaid has had the opportunity to blend his experience in the film industry as a Coordinator and Assistant Director to ensure that media is an integral part of improving the lives of foster youth. Most specifically, Zaid was the lead in designing and launching the Pe...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia Larson talks with Dave Hudson who was born in Watts and adopted at birth. Later as an adult, with the help pf Pam Slaton,  he met his biological father and siblings but unfortunately his mother had passed before he could find her. David  is an Emmy® Award-winning creative executive with more than two decades of experience in creating content for both television and di...

Send us Fan Mail J ayne Amelia talks with amazing, astounding and ever persistent Gay Courter. Gay Courter is the author of 7 bestselling novels with over three million copies in print worldwide including The Midwife, The Midwife’s Advice , Code Ezra , River of Dreams , Flowers in the Blood , and The Girl in the Box.   Her non-fiction works include The Beansprout Book and How To Survive Your Husba...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Nia Garcia. The smart and lovely Nia Garcia is a former foster youth who was abused by her drug addicted mother and stepfather who then threw out of her family home when she was only 13… she ended up living in shelters after several foster homes, then on the streets.  She self-harmed for many years and then got addicted to meth to try to numb her pain, but...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with CASA Debbie Dullabaun who has been of service to her community for close to 30 years. In 1998 after the death of her six year old son, Dale Lee Dullabaun III, Debbie began to work in his memory with several non-profit organizations. Along with volunteering for many years with the American Red Cross and the San Fernando Valley Domestic Abuse Response Team (...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with the lovely and gracious Kanesha Allison. Kanesha and her five siblings were taken into kinship care with her grandmother when she was a little girl until eventually reunited with her mom five years later,  but she was able to see her mom everyday and that made all the difference. Now as an adult and single mom, she has taken in her young nephew who needs sp...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with powerhouse foster care alumnus, performance artist, and founder of  Reel to Reel Global Youth Film Festival, Johna Rivers. Johna Rivers is a 28 year old trailblazer. They are a foster care alumnus from WATTS who was abused, starved, neglected as a child and teenager but turned trauma into triumph. They are the co-founder for Real To Reel Global Youth Film...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with Dennis Rosenbaum  who was a school psychologist for 38 years and then became a CASA. "I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in a middle-class Jewish household where the importance of education was emphasized. Yet, as a young person who came of age in the 50’s and 60’s, the racial disparity in opportunity available to some people and not...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with former foster youth and LGBTQIA+ advocate Rob Rodriguez. Rob Rodriguez is a proud gay, nonbinary, Latino, born and raised in New York City.  Currently residing in Los Angeles, they are now making social impact in the LGBTQIA+ community one movement at a time. They are a survivor of abuse and an inspiring success story of what it takes to survive the foster...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia speaks with the powerhouse Leslie Nolan who was trafficked at a young age after fleeing an abusive family; she eventually put her father in jail for his sexual abuse to prevent him from abusing others.  "Leslie Nolan is the Design and Wellness Labs Associate Lab Leader at Karana Rising. She assists the Design and Wellness team in the execution of workshops, progr...

Send us Fan Mail Jayne Amelia talks with Melanie Velasquez. Melanie is a former foster youth from the San Fernando Valley who was abused by her own family at a very young age, and then as a young adult had the courage to put her father in prison. She’s a brave young lady with a terrible but ultimately triumphant story to tell. She's 24 years old now and living happily on her own.  She says: ...