Fostering Voices Podcast

Welcome to Season 8 of Fostering Voices. We are thrilled you are here for this season opening episode. Jihae and Chris talk all about their highs and lows of the summer, including how some of our kids learned to fly - metaphorically and literally.  Welcome to Season 8 of Fostering Voices. We are thrilled you are here for this season opening episode. Jihae and Chris talk all about their highs and l...

In the final episode of the season Jihae has a deep, insightful, and powerful conversation with Peter Mutabazi. Peter is a single fostering dad who is an advocate for children. he is incredibly active and terrific on social media. His YouTube channel and IG feed are especially active and terrific. We can't wait for you to hear from Peter and hear his passion and commitment to fostering children. C...

This week we are interviewing the lovely Hitomi Mewhinney the Director of the Birth Parent Program at Foster Care Initiatives. She shares how she has been partnering with birth moms to walk with them through their journey. It is beautiful work, and you can join them!

This week we are interviewing the lovely Hitomi Mewhinney the Director of the Birth Parent Program at Foster Care Initiatives. She shares how she has been partnering with birth moms to walk with them through their journey. It is beautiful work, and you can join them!

It is easy to discard kindness as just a suggestion, but not something that actually makes a difference. And we beg to differ on that. We think that kindness is a big piece of what is missing in society at large. Don't overthink it. Just be kind. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Listen to understand, not just to respond. Show Notes: - Other podcasts we have been on recently: - The Forgotten I...

Show Summary: A wonderful and deep conversation with Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome, Rita!! 1:24 - Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption(Yes, *that* Dave Thomas!) 3:34 - Raising Awareness for Foster Care and Adoption 5:53 - Wendy's Wonderful Kids 13:44 - The Birthright of Every Child Is To Have a Home - Beginner's Guide to Adoption...

Technology is great and terrible for our families. Millions upon millions of families have come before us with little to no technology. And they did pretty well for themselves. But here we are with too much technology and what are we supposed to do now? Todd Watson, CEO of Showit (the sponsor of our podcast!) and Chris' cousin, is on the podcast! This interview is packed with so much incredible in...

Technology is great and terrible for our families. Millions upon millions of families have come before us with little to no technology. And they did pretty well for themselves. But here we are with too much technology and what are we supposed to do now? Todd Watson, CEO of Showit (the sponsor of our podcast!) and Chris' cousin, is on the podcast! This interview is packed with so much incredible in...

Parenting fails are always fun to hear, but less fun to live through - especially if you are the parent (or the child of that parent!) We have 7 kids, which doesn't make us parenting experts. It just makes us a couple that has more parenting fails than normal! Chapters: 0:00 - Opening - Welcome Back!!  0:58 - Parenting and Epic Fails  4:28 - Parenting Fail #1  6:46 - Parenting Fail #2  9:40 - Pare...

Guys! We apologize for being such slackers! We have lots of excuses as to why we missed posting a new episode last week, but we will keep MOST of those excuses to ourselves... one of the reasons is that I was in Virginia visiting my sweet friend/work wife, Cassandra! (This is Jihae, not Chris. He does NOT have a work wife!) Here are some things we talked about in this episode: Do Not Use Authorize...

We could not be more delighted to present this interview with THE Jason Johnson! He is the author of the incredible book "Reframing Foster Care", and he is also the Director of Church Ministry Initiatives with Christian Alliance for Orphans . He has an incredible blog that is a fantastic resource for families, individuals, and churches alike. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did! You c...

Too many of us prioritize big events as major milestones. Like a family trip to Disneyland. Or a romantic getaway to Hawaii. If this is you - then this last year of not being able to travel and experience monumental wins must have really sucked, eh? What if we found as much joy in washing our face at home every day, as we did in having a spa day? Cause who has time for spa days??? But we do have t...

Happy 2021! We recorded this episode on December 30th, 2020, with the intentions of releasing it the next day... Well, here we are almost 3 weeks later! Gotta love those good intentions! So welcome to season 7. We had an absolutely incredible season 6, and we are so thankful for all of the new listeners who joined us on our journey this last year. This episode talks about some of our favorite book...

Happy 2021! We recorded this episode on December 30th, 2020, with the intentions of releasing it the next day... Well, here we are almost 3 weeks later! Gotta love those good intentions! So welcome to season 7. We had an absolutely incredible season 6, and we are so thankful for all of the new listeners who joined us on our journey this last year. This episode talks about some of our favorite book...

None of us know what we are doing as parents and are always looking for solid parenting advice. Julie Lythcott-Haims has some strong suggestions. She may possibly be the most quoted author on our podcast. She is the New York Times Best Selling Author of "How to Raise an Adult: Break free of the overparenting trap and prepare your kid for success" , our most recommended book on parenting. Julie has...

Leadership is something we talk about a lot on the podcast, because we are all leaders! It is your choice if you are going to be a good one, or not. Parenting is some of the hardest kind of leadership, because you are maxed out in your pay grade, because oh yeah - you don't make any money doing it! We talk about 2 books that we are reading and have read, but that came to our attention via podcasts...

We are beyond honored to have The Honorable Justice James Beene on our podcast! Justice Beene, aka Jim, has served on the supreme court in Arizona for the last year, and had served in Family and Juvenile court for over 4 years, here in Arizona. There is just SO much great stuff in this podcast, and we hope you enjoy this fantastic interview with a wise, and kind guest who truly cares for the futur...

We are beyond honored to have The Honorable Justice James Beene on our podcast! Justice Beene, aka Jim, has served on the supreme court in Arizona for the last year, and had served in Family and Juvenile court for over 4 years, here in Arizona. There is just SO much great stuff in this podcast, and we hope you enjoy this fantastic interview with a wise, and kind guest who truly cares for the futur...

Trauma is something that is common to all humans. But trauma and abuse are not a part of everyone's story, but it is for this week's guest. Monica was put into foster care as a baby, and was soon adopted by an abusive family. She was actually put back into foster care a few years later, but then returned to the previous adoptive family. Talk about a traumatic childhood! But Monica is not defined b...

Foster care according to our 8 year old bio daughter, who has been a foster sibling for over 6 years, and our 10 year old daughter who we adopted out of foster care. This week's interview is sweet and short, but still has lots of great nuggets to encourage you and your family on your personal journey. The Good Word of the Day "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord , I will be joyful in God my Savior. The...

It's easy to forget why we are fostering, or why it's important to be involved in foster care. And this week, I (Jihae) became a licensed foster care trainer. Which means I will start teaching prospective foster parents to get licensed. And having to go through Foster Parent College as part of my training, helped me to remember the trials and tribulations that come with foster care. But not for th...

This week's episode focuses on building community in your actual neighborhood! We talk about the importance of community all the time. But it's easier to build community at work, or at church, maybe in a foster support group, or sports' team. But how about where you actually live? Do you know your neighbors' names?  All of us want to help out people in need - like if your neighbor was going throug...

Let's try this again! We are definitely going to give you some great tips and tricks on how to run a big (or small, or medium!) household efficiently. But, I just need you guys to know that this episode was a real pain to get out into the world! I posted it once - and it just disappeared. So I rewrote the show notes, much shorter than the first time; and then the audio was SO BAD that we had to ta...

Thanks for joining us for another episode of our podcast! This episode is a conversation about RACE, and why we need to check ourselves, and our thoughts on race. Books on Race We read this great book called  Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria  by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD. She discusses race in such a way that makes you really try to understand the many issues faced by o...

Welcome back to our podcast, friends! We took a few weeks off, and are so excited to be back with you all.  Over the last few weeks, we have: - Gone to San Diego for 48 hours (we live 6 hours away via car) and jammed 13 people into a 3 bedroom Air BnB. - Gone golfing 3 times! Two times it was 109 degrees, and therefore much more affordable, but also kind of miserable. - Did a 36 hour staycation wh...