The Fearless Fostering Podcast

On today’s episode of the Fearless Fostering Podcast, I’m sharing a little encouragement for mamas who feel like they ALWAYS have to be the calm one (and beat themselves up when they’re not).  You’re not alone! 🩵 Find my $1 coping class for foster mamas here: stan.store/fearless_fostering  

I'm so excited to share this episode with you!  I'm chatting with Laura, the Foster Parent Partner, aka @foster.parenting on Instagram.  Laura has been an amazing resource for foster parents at all stages of the journey for many years through the content she creates on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube.  And now she's just published a book called First Time Fostering: A Practical Guide...

It’s 2 a.m. The house is finally quiet. Everyone’s asleep. You should be asleep. But instead, you’re lying in the dark, replaying that moment from earlier today. Or yesterday. Or last week. Or maybe even months ago. The thing you said during the meltdown. The way your voice got sharp when you were already running on empty. The look on their face when you snapped. The call with the caseworker where...

No one told me that foster care would require me to hold space for people I’d never met – people whose choices I didn’t understand, whose lives looked nothing like mine, and whose connection to my child would always run deeper than biology alone could explain. If you’re listening to this, you probably already know what I mean. You’ve sat in the car after a visit, watching your child’s behavior shi...

I remember sitting in the foster parent training before our first placement, imagining the story ahead of us. I had a version of it in my head — hazy around the details, but clear in shape. A child would come. We would love them fiercely. There would be hard moments, sure, but we’d rise to meet them. And eventually, whether through reunification or adoption, there would be resolution. A chapter th...

Becoming a foster parent had crossed my mind more times than I could count. But every time it did, I found a reason to push it off. Not now. Maybe later. When things settle down. For years, I lived in that space between feeling called and actually saying yes. And if I’m being honest, I was really good at making excuses sound reasonable. If you’re reading this and you recognize that tension — the q...

There’s a question nobody asks foster parents out loud, but we all feel it hanging in the air. Are you going to quit? People watch us. They watch for the cracks. They watch for the moment we throw our hands up and say we’re done. And honestly? I understand why they watch. Foster care is hard in ways that are nearly impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t lived it. But here’s the truth I rarely...

There are moments in foster care that no training prepares you for. The phone call from your caseworker. The quiet conversation at the kitchen table. The look on a child’s face when they learn that someone they love—someone from their first family—is gone. A foster mom in my community recently reached out to me with this exact situation, and it reminded me how isolating these moments can feel. You...

It’s time for another R.E.P.O.R.T. episode — my monthly check-in where I share what I’ve been reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending, and treating myself to lately. In this episode, I’m reflecting on the power of rereading What Happened to You? (and why I gifted it to my mom), keeping mornings simple with Fairlife protein shakes , the music that’s been on repeat, and the joy of con...

In this episode of the Fearless Fostering Podcast, I’m joined by Jeff Lovelace — school psychologist, Teacher of the Year, BCBA, and creator of Monkey Minds SEL . Jeff has a gift for making emotional regulation and behavior support simple, practical, and totally doable for parents. We talk about: What kids are really struggling with emotionally right now How to understand behavior as communication...

I can still hear her screaming. Three and a half years later, in the quiet moments when my house is still and everyone’s asleep, I can hear that primal, desperate wail that tore through my chest and left a hole that’s never quite healed. She was eighteen months old. Tiny fists clenched around my shirt, her whole body shaking with the force of her terror. “MAMA! MAMA!” she screamed, reaching for me...

“Teaching my teen to independently regulate before bed to help him sleep. Sticking to a bedtime routine with a teen when schedules are all over the place.” This message landed in my DMs yesterday, and my heart immediately went out to this mama. If you’re fostering teens, you already know the bedtime battle is nothing like what the parenting books describe. I’ve been there – wondering if the “exper...

If you’ve ever found yourself whispering “I just can’t do this right now” — and then immediately feeling guilt for even thinking it — this episode is for you. As foster moms, we learn early on how to stretch our hearts beyond what feels possible. We say yes when others might say no. We hold space for heartbreak, navigate uncertainty, and pour love into children who may not stay forever. But what h...

As foster and adoptive moms, we sign up to hold space for big emotions — ours, our children’s, and often the system’s. But what happens when your child’s emotional world collides with your own? When their anxiety, anger, or attachment behaviors stir something deep within you — and suddenly you’re not sure who needs the comfort more: them, or you? You’re not alone. Many of the moms I work with in t...

Every once in a while, a post comes through our community that stops me in my tracks.  A foster mama recently shared about her sweet little one—let’s call him Aiden —who’s been with her since he was just a week old. He’s 20 months now. He’s her joy. And soon, he may be leaving. Reading her words—about anticipatory grief, exhaustion, the stress of parenting multiple children with high needs, and a...

There’s a kind of heartbreak that doesn’t get talked about enough — the quiet, complicated grief of a relinquished or failed adoption. The world often doesn’t have a name for it, but you do. You know what it feels like to have hoped , to have attached , to have planned … and to have it all unravel. Maybe you were days away from finalization when everything shifted. Maybe you made the incredibly br...

This week, I'm sharing what I've been Reading, Eating, Playing, Obsessing over, Recommending, and Treating for the month of September...including admitting what made me cry at the EPCOT firework show...only God can judge me! Haha! Join the Foster Mama Lifeline Community Here Grab my Freebies and other Resources Here The Bookish Life of Nina Hill book Don't forget to subscribe to the...

Foster parenting is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking, stretching, and transformative journeys a person can take. It’s a path filled with late-night calls, endless paperwork, uncertain outcomes, emotional highs, and devastating lows. And while so many foster moms step into this role with open hearts and the best intentions, the truth is: fostering can sometimes feel like  too much . That’s...

If there’s one word I hear over and over again from foster moms, it’s this: guilt. We feel guilty for not doing enough, for not being enough, for wanting rest, for saying no to one more visit, one more placement, one more request from a caseworker. And when we do say no, we often sit with the heavy weight of second-guessing ourselves: Am I letting someone down? Am I failing as a foster parent? But...

One of the hardest parts of parenting children from hard places is the constant question: am I doing the right thing? Every decision feels weighted: Do I push or do I give grace?  Do I set the boundary or soften it? Do I make the accommodation or hold steady? If you’re parenting a child with trauma or anxiety, you’ve likely asked yourself these questions on repeat. And you’re not alone. Recently,...

Let’s be honest — most foster parent training programs are designed to check a box. They’re full of important information, but they often leave out how it actually feels to be a foster parent. If you’re a foster parent or considering becoming one, you’ve probably heard something like: “Just complete your training hours, pass your home study, and you’ll be ready to welcome a child into your home.”...

One of the things I’ve come to love the most about creating content is pulling back the curtain a bit. Foster parenting, motherhood, and entrepreneurship can be so intense sometimes—and while I’m always here to support you through the hard parts, I also love sharing the things that bring me joy, comfort, and just a little bit of fun. So today, I’m kicking off this month’s R.E.P.O.R.T. , where I wa...

There’s this unspoken pressure in motherhood — and especially in foster motherhood — to be the “fun mom.” The one who always has energy, creativity, smiles, and Pinterest-worthy crafts. The mom who never seems to lose her cool and always has time for play. But what happens when that’s not you right now? What happens when life feels heavy, and you can barely summon the strength to get through the d...

And why you were never meant to carry it alone. There’s a lot of talk about the logistics of foster care. The background checks. The home studies. The training hours. Even the bedtime routines and trauma-informed parenting techniques. But what no one really talks about — at least not out loud — is the emotional load that comes with foster parenting. It’s not just heavy. It’s complicated. And most...

And why I built Fearless Fostering to give it to you. When I got the call for our first placement, I wanted to feel ready. I had taken the classes. I had read the books. I had organized the bedroom. But when that little one crossed our threshold for the first time…I realized how much I wasn’t prepared for. Not because I didn’t care. But because foster care is not just logistics. It’s a thousand em...