What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting

Jen Lilley and Dr. John DeGarmo | Called to Foster — The Honest Guide to Foster Care and Adoption Foster care. Adoption. The calling that changes everything. If you have ever felt that quiet pull on your heart — that nudge that says maybe we are supposed to do something — this episode is for you. In this episode of the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting Podcast, Christine Marie sits down...

Welcome to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast! I’m Christine Marie, adoptive mom, former foster parent, and biblical mindset coach. Whether you’re considering foster care, navigating adoption, supporting birth families, or trying to hold it all together in the middle of the unknown, you’re in the right place. In today’s episode, I sit down with Jeremy Walden, foster and adopti...

Welcome to Season Two of the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast! I’m Christine Marie — adoptive mom, former foster parent, and biblical mindset coach. Whether you're navigating foster care, adoption, or parenting a child with trauma or mental health challenges — you’re in the right place. In this season premiere, I’m joined by Donna Kirkwood — former special education teacher, ado...

Welcome to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast. I’m Christine Marie — adoptive mom, former foster parent, and biblical mindset coach. Whether you’re in the early stages of foster care, navigating adoption, or standing in a season of unknowns — this space was created for you. Today’s episode is different. It’s not polished or perfectly planned — it’s real. It’s raw. It’s what I’...

This week’s episode is one I hope every adoptive and foster parent listens to - and listens with an open heart. I’m honored to sit down with Sydney Curtin - birth mom, author of Courageous Considerations, speaker, life coach, and founder of Curtin Call - as she shares the raw and painful truth about her adoption story, and why she’s now advocating for ethical reform across the entire industry. In...

If the college admissions process feels overwhelming… you’re not alone. And if you’re a foster or adoptive parent? There are even more layers to navigate. This week on What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting, I had the absolute honor of sitting down with Cynthia Nash, a college admissions and financial aid coach with over 20 years of experience at top-tier universities like Northwestern and Va...

This week on What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting, I had the absolute honor of sitting down with April Ficklin, a TBRI® Practitioner, adoptive mom, and the Director of Family Support Services for Flourishing Families of South Carolina. April brings both professional wisdom and personal experience to this conversation. Her work is centered on helping adoptive families find real connection, h...

In this episode of What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting, I’m sitting down with my friend Rebecca Del Pozo- an adoptee, an adoptive mom, and a fierce advocate for families who’ve walked this road from every angle. This conversation is honest, vulnerable, and deeply encouraging. Rebecca doesn’t just talk about adoption- she’s lived it in every form. From the unexpected twists and tender momen...

Welcome back to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast! I’m Christine Marie — adoptive mom, former foster parent, and biblical mindset coach — and today’s guest is someone whose voice and impact in the foster care space cannot be overstated. I’m honored to sit down with Dr. John DeGarmo, founder and director of The Foster Care Institute, international speaker, best-selling author...

This one is for the foster and adoptive parents carrying the weight no one sees—who keep showing up, even when it feels like everything is falling apart. Today, I’m sitting down with Devin Schubert—an adoptive dad of three—for a conversation about the cost of obedience, the depth of trauma, and the God who restores what we thought was lost forever. After adopting his son, Devin walked through five...

Today, I’m joined by the incredible DJ Noble, a former radio host, teacher, and long-time foster parent with a powerful 15-year journey that spans across Virginia and Kansas. In this episode, we’re talking about the REAL side of foster care—the emotions, the relationships, the red tape, and the redemption. Together, we unpack: ✨ What it’s like navigating two different state systems ✨ How to hono...

Welcome back to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast — a Christ-centered space for foster and adoptive moms navigating the complex, beautiful, and often messy journey of parenting children from hard places. I’m Christine Marie, an adoptive mom and certified Biblical mindset coach, and I’m so thankful you’re here. In this powerful episode, I’m joined by Nicole Barlow — fellow ado...

***SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING.*** In this powerful episode of the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast, I sit down with Joseph Pedroza, a man whose story will leave you speechless. His journey is one of pain, resilience, and divine transformation—a true testimony to the power of God’s redemption. Joseph’s childhood was marked by deep trauma—placed in foster care, experiencing horrifi...

Welcome to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast! I’m Christine Marie, an adoptive mom and former foster parent, and I’m so glad you’re here. In today’s episode, I’m joined by James McLamb, the visionary founder and CEO of Generation Youth, known as America’s Youth Coach. With a background in Agricultural Education and Youth Development Leadership, James has dedicated his life to...

Welcome to my latest episode of the "What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting" podcast. I’m excited to share this heartwarming conversation with my special guest, Steve Wormer—a proven leader who embodies integrity, strength, and compassion in every area of his life.   Steve’s journey is nothing short of inspirational. He was a proven leader in corporate america, is the executive director of a...

Welcome to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast—a space created to provide guidance, encouragement, and real talk for foster and adoptive moms navigating the challenges of the system. In this episode, we’re tackling one of the biggest struggles in this journey: fear. It’s so easy to let worry and uncertainty take over, but today, I’m sharing how to shift from a fear-based mindse...

Welcome to the "What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting" podcast! I’m Christine Marie, your host. In addition to being a biblical mindset coach and a former foster parent of 10 years, I’m also an adoptive mom to our two beautiful daughters. I know firsthand the ups and downs of the foster care and adoption journey, and I’m here to help you navigate it with confidence and faith. Having cared fo...

In this episode, I am joined by Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist, audiologist and clinical neuroscientist, to explore the powerful concept of neuroplasticity and its impact on healing trauma in children. Dr. Leaf specializes in psychoneurobiology research, has published 19 bestselling books in 24 languages, has over 50 million downloads on her award winning podcast, "Cleaning up the...

Looking back there is a few very pivotal lessons I wish I didn't have to learn but I am so thankful to share them with you today. These are the top 5: 1. How does your foster child's  behavior reflect on your parenting.  2. Chronological age vs. emotional age. 3. Your feelings are valid. 4. Being authentically you. 5. Putting your family first.  There are so many more lessons that I learned but th...

Today is a very special episode as we welcome the first guest to the show and recognize them as a Foster Parent Impactor.   Not only has he personally impacted my life but also those of hundreds of foster children.  He is a successful entrepreneur and we are honored to have him sharing his powerful story today. He shares about his challenging upbringing in an abusive home, his path to success in b...

Welcome to the "What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting" podcast, hosted by Christine Marie, a biblical mindset coach, previous foster parent of 77 children and adoptive mom of 2.  This episode dives into the complexities of adopting through the foster care system, addressing common concerns and providing insights into balancing the journey with grace and faith. The topic today is if adopting...

On today’s episode, we will talk about the emotional highs and lows, the moments of judgment, and the lessons of grace. It wasn’t until I had fully exited the world of foster care that I truly looked back and analyzed my heart’s posture. Knowing the intimate stories of the 77 children that entered our home and the hundreds more that I helped mentor the families of; my heart was broken. It in a pla...

Whether you are a foster parent hoping to adopt, already adopted or a long-term foster parent, this episode is for you if you struggle with anxiety, overwhelm and desire to keep Jesus at the center. I will share vulnerably several ways that I tried to maintain control and perfection while battling anxiety and worry. I had found myself fully shifted into a mindset of striving to control every aspec...

Welcome to the What to Expect While Fostering and Adopting podcast show. If you're a foster mom on the journey to adoption, already adopted, or somewhere in the middle, you're in the right place.  Today, I will take you on the journey of deciding to continue with my podcast. Over the past 2 months, God has been refining and pruning my heart and showing me how to more completely depend on Him. If y...

On today's episode, we will conclude this 2 part series and talk about parenting children with attachment disorders. We will cover 6 key points to helping foster children feel safe and secure, comforted and supported, connected, experience consistency, feel encouraged and help you as the foster parent maintain boundaries in the foster home. All of these will help in developing bonds with your chil...