The Forgotten Podcast

In the foster care community, we often encounter stories full of pain, hardship, trauma, and difficulties. With each story, we can’t help but consider that this isn’t how God intended life to be. Even so, God is faithful, just like He has been in the life of today’s guest, Sean Myers. Sean, a pastor in Peoria, AZ, had a tough childhood. His parents struggled with drug addiction, and he experienced...

Whatever your role is in the foster care community, your life looks different from the lives of many others. You have some unique values that guide your decisions and lean your heart toward the foster care community. In difficult times, being able to actually name those values is core to being able to cling to your passion and purpose in life. My guest today is Beau Johnson, who is not only an exp...

Imagine going from zero children to five children overnight. That’s the story you’ll hear today! When Kristal and Jared Black decided to start a family, they quickly realized that their path would be different than they expected it to be. While walking through infertility and then an expected adoption that ended unexpectedly, God was working in their hearts to overcome the fear of foster care and...

Foster care rarely looks the way you expect it to, even in the “best” of circumstances. My guest today has been in the foster care community both as a foster parent and as an advocate. Caring for a child with secondary trauma has caused Jillana Goble to change her definition of “normal” and recognize the deep importance of walking alongside a child on their unique life journey. Jillana is a speake...

We all have habits in our life, both good and bad. In the words of today’s guest, “Our habits don’t change God’s love for us, but God’s love for us should change our habits.” Today I’m talking with Justin Whitmel Earley, a lawyer, speaker, and author of both Habits of Household and The Common Rule, and he knows a thing or two about creating habits. When it comes to our own life, intentional habits...

Over 12 seasons, 165 stories have been shared on this podcast. How cool is that!? We just closed out Season 12 of The Forgotten Podcast, and it was once again our most listened-to season of the podcast ever! This season alone had over 100,000 downloads. So incredible! In today’s bonus episode, I am joined again by Mitch Nelson, our Creative Director here at TFI, to reflect on some of our favorite...

Today I’m talking with Josh Ballard, who has a passion for foster care and building a community to support other foster dads. As a result of this passion, Josh started Flexible Fatherhood, a group (and a podcast!) that provides foster dads with educational resources and community to give them confidence in raising the next generation of children. In our conversation, Josh and I talk about his fami...

Today, I am joined by renowned author, speaker, pastor, marriage counselor, and adoptive parent, Paul Tripp. You may be familiar with Paul from any number of his 30+ books such as New Morning Mercies , Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family , and Marriage: 6 Gospel Commitments Every Couple Needs to Make . He truly is an incredible voice we have the opportunity to lea...

Hasn’t this month been incredible?  It is so important to learn from others and expand our perspective. If you missed it, for National Foster Care Awareness Month, we have highlighted stories every week from each perspective of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children—because every member of the foster care community matters and has a story to tell....

https://theforgotteninitiative.org/team310/ Did you know that May is National Foster Care Awareness Month?  To help raise awareness of this community that we love so dearly, things are looking a little different this month on the podcast. Every week this month, we are highlighting stories from each perspective of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and chil...

Support our podcast and listen with a purpose! - https://theforgotteninitiative.org/team310/ Did you know that May is National Foster Care Awareness Month?  To help raise awareness of this community that we love so dearly, things are looking a little different this month on the podcast. Every week this month, we are highlighting stories from each perspective of the foster care community—agency wor...

https://theforgotteninitiative.org/team310 Did you know that May is National Foster Care Awareness Month? To help raise awareness of this community that we love so dearly, things are looking a little different this month on the podcast. Every week this month, we are highlighting stories from each perspective of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and childr...

Today, I’m talking with Delaney Burns, who is an agency worker. Delaney grew up in a home where her parents fostered, which solidified her interest in becoming a foster care caseworker. In this episode, she shares openly about the hardest parts of her job, what a day in her life looks like, what she’s been learning through navigating hard situations, and the hope she holds on to through it all. ht...

For so many in the foster care community, the passion for foster care or adoption started through awareness at an early age. This is the story for Jessie Barnes. While other teenagers were searching for music videos, she was searching for adoption stories and begging her parents to consider adoption, leading her mom to suggest she take licensing classes (as a high schooler!) to learn about foster...

Foster care is hard, and it can often feel confusing. It can be even more confusing when you’re rooting for reunification, and alternative outcomes you weren’t prepared for are pursued.   Dorothy Mendoza and her husband, Chris, began fostering because they wanted to see children reunified with their biological parents. In their first 3 years as foster parents, they fostered 9 children, and only on...

Jamie Finn is back on the podcast this week! On top of being a foster parent, Jamie is the host of the Real Mom Podcast, co-founder of Goods & Better, and the director of Foster the Family. Most recently, Jamie authored Foster the Family: Encouragement, Hope, and Practical Help for the Christian Foster Parent , which covers the rewards and challenges in foster care that can leave you feeling deple...

With 20,000 teens aging out of the foster care system each year and many of them unprepared to navigate adult life, this is a real crisis. The need for families who are passionate about teen foster children is great. In today’s episode, we are talking with Peter Amico. Peter and his wife are foster parents who are passionate about finding families that are willing to show up for teens in the foste...

If you are part of the foster care community, you likely have seen the impact trauma has on a child. It can affect how a child learns, their ability to feel safe, how they view the world, and even cause them to question who they are. In this episode, we are joined by Tina Bauer. Tina was a former foster youth who was adopted at the age of four along with her biological brother and has spent a life...

Today I have a story of abundant resilience and defiant hope to share with you. In this episode we get to hear from Sandhya Oaks, a Transracial Adoptee adopted from India at the age of one. When she turned 18 years old, after years of experiencing trauma, Sandhya was disowned by her adoptive family. As she has intentionally worked on healing from the past of being an orphan for the first year of h...

Brandon and Cherith Craft are no strangers to doing hard things. In fact, it is such a part of who they are that they put it in their family mantra: “We’re Crafts. We do hard things and we try new things.” But when God nudged them to start foster care nearly 10 years ago, their initial response was, We don’t think we can do this right now. Several years later, God would prompt them again to foster...

Welcome to Season 12 of The Forgotten Podcast! To kick it off, I have a helpful conversation with Emily Smithhart, an incredible woman who is a biological and foster mom, as well as a TFI Advocate in Sacramento County, CA! In addition to hearing her story and experiences fostering, we’re breaking down what it looks like to get involved with foster care! You’ll hear Emily share about adjusting expe...

We just closed out Season 11 of The Forgotten Podcast, and it was our most listened-to season of the podcast ever! SO exciting! In today’s bonus episode, I am joined by Mitch Nelson, our Creative Director here at TFI, to reflect on some of our favorite moments and takeaways from Season 11. Creating and sharing this podcast is such a privilege and honor to us, and we hope revisiting some of these c...

Tod and Gretchen Sawyer’s world was turned upside down when they lost their first biological daughter. They decided to honor her memory by sponsoring a child through the local Department of Social Services, which was the beginning of their foster care journey. God led them to become aware, which led them to take action. In addition to being some of our newest TFI Advocates in Aiken County, SC, Tod...

Content / Trigger Warning: This episode does contain mentions and descriptions of abuse, rape, attempted suicide, self-harm, and trauma. If any of this may be triggering for you, we recommend you either listen carefully, listen with someone else, or you may even consider skipping this episode.   Tricia Collins’ primary memory from her childhood was one of fear. Tricia grew up in and aged out of th...

Did you know there’s a lot of crossover between the characteristics that make someone vulnerable to human trafficking and common characteristics of children in foster care? Did you also know that a significant percentage of victims nationwide have a history in the child welfare system? Whether you are a foster parent, adoptive parent, or someone that wants to learn how to spot the warning signs of...