Episode #249 - A Thrill of Hope Advent Episode for Weary Foster & Adoptive Parents

“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine…For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And He will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…”  Isaiah 9:2, 6 

Christmas trees are up, homes are decorated, and Christmas music is streaming—all before Thanksgiving. It appears everyone is in need of the joy and hope Christmas brings.

For the month of December, we’re offering a 4-part Orphans No More podcast series inspired by the season of Advent. Advent means the arrival. Most of us are anxious for the departure of 2020 and the arrival of 2021. But first we have to navigate this crazy Covid Christmas season. To guide you on your journey, we offer our Advent series focused on hope, peace, joy, and love—specifically for foster and adoptive parents.

The first Advent episode focuses on the thrill of hope. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

FAFASD 50 Facts

FASD Success Podcast

FASD Hope Podcast

Positive Adoption Podcast

Episode #248 - Gratitude, Education, and Prayer for Foster and Adoptive Parents

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Colossians 4:2

As November 2020 and National Adoption Awareness month come to a close, we’d like to take the time to be thankful, stay educated, and arm ourselves with prayer. On this week’s episode of our Orphans No More podcast, host Sandra Flach, unpacks Colossians 4:2.

A mom of eight children, five through adoption, Sandra shares a personal update of gratitude for some 2020 blessings she and her family have experienced. In an effort to be alert and educated in trauma parenting and FASD, she shares parenting tips for caregivers of children with an FASD. Sandra rounds out the episode with a prayer for foster and adoptive parents.

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

FAFASD 50 Facts

FASD Success Podcast

FASD Hope Podcast

Positive Adoption Podcast

Episode #247 - Bridging the Gap Between Children in Crisis and the Church through Adoption and CarePortal

When we allow ourselves to be in close proximity to poverty and pain, God can break our hearts. With broken hearts, we are in a position to do justice. 

Kristin Langrehr and her husband, Trent, visited Haiti several times. Their proximity to orphans and their belief in the Gospel notion of adoption, led them to adopt. After a five-year wait, the Langrehr’s brought home two young sons from Haiti.

Kristen, a social worker and child advocate, believes the local church is the bridge between children and families in crisis and community supports. In her efforts to bridge that gap, Kristen helped to launch CarePortal in Baldwin County, Alabama. She’s now also an Area Director for CarePortal in Florida. Her role there is to connect child welfare agencies with churches to meet the needs of children in FL. 

On this week’s National Adoption Month episode of our Orphans No More podcast, host Sandra Flach, sits down with Kristin Langrehr to discuss how the church can enter into the brokenness of children in crisis. Listen in to their conversation about adoption and CarePortal in this episode. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

CarePortal.org

Episode #246 - Adoption and FASD with Adult Adoptee, Rebecca Tillou

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

What’s it like growing up adopted and struggling though life with challenges you thought were because you were adopted? Then, as an adult, you receive a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This is the life experience of adult adoptee, Rebecca Tillou.

Rebecca shares her story in her book, Tenacity. She describes navigating awkward relationships throughout high school, difficulty managing college pressures, and balancing marriage, children and career—all with an FASD. While she views her adoption as positive, Rebecca also details her search for her birth family. 

On this week’s National Adoption Month episode of our Orphans No More podcast, host Sandra Flach, sits down with Rebecca Tillou. Listen in to their transparent conversation about adoption and FASD from the perspective of the adoptee. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Tenacity, by Rebecca Tillou

FAFASD.org

FASD Success Podcast

FASD Hope Podcast

Positive Adoption Podcast

The Whole House

Episode #245 - Advocating for Foster & Adopted Children with FASD

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

About 70% of children in the U.S. foster care system have been exposed to alcohol in the womb and, according to FAFASD.org (Families Affected by FASD), 2-5% of babies born in the U.S. have FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). We can expect similar stats with children adopted internationally. FASD plays a huge roll in the lives of most foster and adoptive families.

JFO Executive Director and podcast host Sandra Flach is mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption including 2 diagnosed FASD. She believes it is vital for foster and adoptive parents to understand trauma and its impact on brain development and behavior—and exposure to alcohol in the womb is a trauma to an unborn baby.

On this week’s episode of our Orphans No More podcast, Sandra shares some FASD facts from the FAFASD website and weaves in personal stories about her family’s adoption journey with FASD kiddos. She discusses why parents must learn everything they can about trauma and FASD (or whatever diagnosis your child has or you suspect they may have).

As parents, we must pay attention to our kids and become experts in advocating for them. When we pray for our children, the Lord will show us what they need and how to parent them. He knows the plans He has for them. Plans to prosper them and give them a good future. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:
FAFASD.org
FASD Success Podcast
FASD Hope Podcast

Positive Adoption Podcast
The Whole House

Episode #244 - Homeschool Success for Foster & Adoptive Parents with Kathleen Guire

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables. Proverbs 24:3-4

Children are our most valuable resource. Parents need wisdom to raise them, especially in this season of Covid-19.

One major area of stress for families involves education. While some schools have reopened, the school day in most communities has been modified. And many parents are navigating the uncharted territories of remote learning or traditional homeschooling. Whatever route families have chosen this year, stress levels are high.

For foster and adoptive families, the journey is even more challenging. Children with trauma histories and/or capital letter syndromes (ADHD, ADD, FASD, etc.) are struggling more than ever. Parents are forced to balance working from home, ridiculous school schedules, home educating, and managing their child’s anxiety. 

This week Sandra Flach speaks with Kathleen Guire—mom of seven children, four through adoption, former National Parent of the Year, former homeschooling mom, author, teacher, speaker, and host of the Positive Adoption Podcast. Join them as they tackle the tough and timely subject of schooling through the pandemic. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Positive Adoption

The Whole House

KathleenGuire.com

The Whole House on FB

The Whole House on Instagram

Book: How to Have Peace When Your Kids are in Chaos

Article:  Homeschooling Mom are You Stuck in the Comparison Trap?

Article: School, Schedules, and Grace

Episode #243 - Foster Care, Adoption and FASD with Laura Poissant

Eighteen years ago, Laura and Steve Poissant became foster parents. Over the years they adopted five babies who are now teenagers. The Poissant’s, like most foster and adoptive parents, face many challenges raising children with trauma histories and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

FASDs are brain-based disabilities caused when a woman drinks alcohol during her pregnancy. Two to five percent of babies born in the United States have an FASD—that’s nearly nine million Americans. Studies show about 70% of children in the U.S. foster care system have been exposed to alcohol in the womb. And the numbers are higher in children adopted from eastern European countries where alcohol consumption is generally high. 

Unfortunately, 99% of people with FASDs are not correctly diagnosed. It is vital for foster and adoptive parents to educate themselves about FASD, advocate for their children, and arm themselves with the tools and resources to help them and their kids navigate the tedious journey of FASD.

Recently, Sandra Flach sat down with Laura Poissant. Enjoy their informative conversation as Laura shares her family’s story.

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Orphans No More Podcast

FASD Success podcast

FASD Hope podcast

Honestly Adoption

Positive Adoption

Empowered Parent Podcast

FAFASD.com

Episode #242 - Building Bridges and Fostering Love with Foster Mom Kelly Hughes

Becoming a foster parent is a tangible way to minister to families in crisis. That ministry opportunity is why, Kelly and Andrew Hughes, began fostering in 2013. Over the past seven years, they’ve fostered eight children and adopted two of them. 

Kelly sees foster care as a way to build bridges with struggling biological parents. These bridges can lead to family preservation and successful reunification of children with their birth families. 

In 2016, Kelly established the Foster Love Project—a Pittsburgh based nonprofit which seeks to provide love in action to kids in foster care as well as support to the families who are providing care for them. 

Recently, Sandra Flach sat down with Kelly Hughes to hear her story and talk about foster care and the Foster Love Project. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Foster Love Project

Orphans No More Podcast

Episode #241 - From Foster Care to CarePortal with Danielle Wright

“If you’re in it for yourself, adopt. If you’re in it for the kids, foster.” That statement, spoken during a foster care informational class, catapulted Danielle and Chris Wright into becoming foster parents. Seven years later, the Wright’s have fostered over thirty children. They adopted their very first placement, a baby boy who is now seven years old.

Danielle’s passion for children in crisis has led her to become an Area Director for CarePortal in Florida—a state with over 24,000 children in foster care. 

Through CarePortal, a technology platform, child welfare agencies connect churches with local families in crisis. These families are often struggling birth parents, while some are kinship, foster or adoptive homes. Every connection involves a child in crisis and a church that has the potential to transform that child’s life. 

CarePortal has been implemented in 21 states nationwide. So far, more than 2,300 churches have touched the lives of over 75,000 children.

Sandra Flach sat down with Danielle Wright to hear her story and talk about CarePortal. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.

Episode #240 - FASD Success for Foster & Adoptive Parents

The majority of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are not raised by their birth parents. Children in foster care are 10-15 times more likely to be affected by prenatal alcohol exposure than other children (National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome NOFAS). Studies also indicate that 30% of children adopted from Eastern Europe have FASD.

Children with FASD are easily frustrated and require a highly structured home and school environment. Adjusting to a new home, family, and school can be especially difficult. These children often have difficulty:

• Translating body language & expressions
• Understanding boundaries
• Focusing their attention
• Understanding cause and effect
• Controlling impulses

Parents of children with FASD often find themselves frustrated, lacking resources, and feeling isolated—but there is help out there!

Host, Sandra Flach, sat down with Jeff Nobel, Founder & CEO of Nobel Initiatives which provides resources and support to help caregivers of someone with FASD. Jeff also hosts the FASD Success podcast and leads workshops for frontline workers, educators, and caregivers—including foster and adoptive parents. 

Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media. 

Links mentioned in this episode:

FASD Success

National Org. on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome