The Speak Up

Amber Canales shares her powerful story of prenatal trauma, abuse, life in a shelter, and years in kinship care inside the foster system. She describes the daily hardships, emotional and physical abuse, and the turning point when teachers, CPS, and a caring aunt helped her and her siblings find safety and stability. This episode highlights resilience, the long road to healing, and ways listeners c...

In this episode of Speak Up, Naomi Castillo tells her powerful story of being raised by her grandmother after her parents separated and struggled with instability. She shares memories of visits to her mother in jail, summers living with relatives, and the sacrifices her grandmother made to keep her safe. Naomi also describes reconnecting with her paternal grandparents and father, setting boundarie...

In this enlightening episode, Misty sits down with Christina, a licensed professional counselor supervisor and a registered play therapist supervisor, to delve into the transformative world of play therapy. Christina shares her extensive knowledge and passion for working with children, providing invaluable insights into how play therapy serves as a powerful tool for emotional and psychological hea...

What does foster care look like when you're standing just outside the story—but still close enough to feel every ripple? In this episode, I sit down with my good friend, Rita Robledo, who didn’t grow up knowing about the system and wasn’t trained to navigate it—but found herself walking alongside me through the thick of it anyway. She asked the questions, held the space, and stayed when things got...

What happens when family steps in—not because they have to, but because love pulls them in? In this episode, I sit down with my dear friend Lori Sofet to talk about her unexpected journey into kinship care. When she said yes to caring for her toddler relative, she wasn’t prepared for how hard—and how healing—it would be. Together we unpack the quiet, behind-the-scenes battles of kinship caregivers...

This episode is deeply personal. I’m sitting down with Jennifer Borrego—who I met because our daughters are biological siblings. We were both fostering, unaware of each other, caught in a system that never connected the dots. What started as confusion and frustration slowly turned into something redemptive. We talk about what it was like to find each other, to figure out how to trust, and to choos...

In this eye-opening conversation, Martin shares what he’s witnessed working overnight at a local children’s shelter—stories that are hard to hear but even harder to ignore. From heartbreaking sibling separations to the unheard cries of infants who’ve learned no one is coming, this episode exposes the unseen realities of emergency shelter care. Because awareness is the first step to action.   🛠️ Wa...

In this episode, Morgan shares her journey as a single foster mom—how she learned to advocate for herself and the children in her care, build a support system, and develop lasting relationships with bio families. Her story is honest, courageous, and full of wisdom for anyone navigating foster care—or wondering if they can do this too.

In this very first episode of The Speak Up, I sit down with my husband to share the deeply personal story that opened our eyes to the reality of foster care — and ultimately changed the course of our family forever. We’re pulling back the curtain on how an unexpected call turned into a calling, the heartbreak and beauty that came with it, and how our journey began not with a plan, but with a story...