The Forgotten Podcast

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the different perspectives of the foster care community – agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children. To kick off our episodes for this month, today I’m sharing my conversation with Candace Franklin, who is not only a Social Worker Supervisor, but also a foster parent and advocate for the foster care community. In this episode, Candace reminds us that there is a place for you to step into this community, and shares what her life as a worker is like, how challenges with infertility have influenced her journey, and the joy she gets to see when reunification is possible. I hope this episode is a support to you this week! (Starting today, applications are open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. Learn more and apply here!) Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/candace-franklin-181/ Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Here at The Forgotten Initiative, we get to support incredible volunteer leaders called TFI Advocates who are leading local foster care ministries across the nation. Joining me for today’s episode is one of our TFI Advocates, Tess Dykstra. Tess has been an Advocate for Cobb County, GA since November 2021, and she is an incredible leader! In addition to her role as a TFI Advocate, Tess is a foster parent, mom to two boys (one through adoption), and works remotely in logistics and supply chain operations. Tess is going to give us a look behind the curtain of what it means to be a TFI Advocate. She shares more about what a TFI Advocate does, what skills they might need, and her own story of getting involved. Too many in the foster care community feel forgotten. They feel unloved and even uncared for. It’s our passion to change that reality. Coming up in May, we are opening up the applications for additional TFI Advocates. We only accept applications twice a year, so I want to invite you to consider if this role might be for you! Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/tess-dykstra-180/ Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

TW: This episode does contain mentions of abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and Satanic Ritual Abuse that we want you to be aware of before listening. We know that youth in and out of foster care are a very vulnerable population and at risk for trafficking. However, what you might not realize is that 60% of all child sex trafficking victims have histories in the child welfare system, according to the National Foster Youth Institute. My guest today knows the reality of human trafficking on a very personal level. Tiffani Price is a survivor of human trafficking and Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). She deeply understands the many difficulties facing this vulnerable population as she was trafficked by her adoptive parents. Today, Tiffani has founded a nonprofit called GloryB to help support other survivors. In this episode, Tiffani bravely shares her story and helps us understand how we can protect children in our care by recognizing signs of grooming and trafficking. Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/tiffani-price-179/ Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Tyler Daily wasn’t planning on becoming a foster parent. But his work in education as a middle school teacher ended up becoming the gateway to foster care. Foster parents are so important in the foster care community, and single foster parents are an incredible group of people. There is no specific data on the number of single foster parents nationwide; however, the 2019 Child Welfare Outcomes report shows that single parents make up 29% of the adoptive family structure with just 3% of that number being single men. Parenting alone presents a lot of challenges that other foster parents may not encounter. As Tyler has fostered 7 children in the course of one year, he says, “It’s a circus, but it’s a fun circus!” I pray you are encouraged by his story and experience this week. Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/tyler-daily-178/ Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Welcome back to The Forgotten Podcast! I am eager to share another story from the foster care community with you this week. My guest today is a foster parent herself, but she primarily works alongside birth parents and infants recovering from drug withdrawal. Heather Simpson is a mom to four biological boys, a foster parent, and a charge nurse at Brigid’s Path, an infant recovery center. In today’s episode, she is sharing how she got connected to the foster care community, what it looks like for infants to withdraw from drug exposure, and the perspective shift she has made from working closely with birth moms. Listen in as Heather shares her important perspective with us! Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/heather-simpson-177/ Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast

Bethany and her husband, Benji, originally planned to foster school-age kids or older and did not plan to accept any babies. But when they got the call for Journey, they couldn’t say no. Little did they know she would be diagnosed with a brain tumor with an unknown prognosis and months of appointments and treatments that followed. Today on the podcast, I’m thrilled to be able to have one of our TFI Advocates, Bethany Riley, with me. Bethany first had a heart for international adoption but as newlyweds, her husband Benji and herself were led to foster care in the United States. She has been a foster parent to teens and little ones for the past 15 years. Her story isn’t just one of diverse experiences of foster parenting, but also of adoption and loss and grief. Their daughter, Journey, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. As they walked through the challenges of her complicated medical treatment as foster parents, they made the decision to adopt her regardless of the outcome of her treatment. They finalized her adoption just eight days before she passed away. The journey isn’t always easy, but it is worth it. I think that’s the message you’ll walk away with after today’s conversation. Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/bethany-riley-176/ Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

When loss, grief, hardships, or tragedy hit our own lives, most of us are ill-prepared to deal with it.  Davey Blackburn experienced an unbelievable tragedy when he came home to find his pregnant wife had been shot during a home invasion. She would pass away just 24 hours later, leading him on a journey of learning to process the loss and grief he felt at the sudden loss. While Davey’s story isn’t directly about foster care or adoption, it is about a topic that I think affects many of us in the foster care community. This is the question of what we do with pain and how we handle traumatic events. In this conversation, you’ll hear Davey’s story, truths he has learned about the healing process, where many of us need to shift our view of God, and much more. I hope this episode is as meaningful to you as it has been to me. Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/davey-blackburn-175/ Use code "forgottenpod" for 10% off the Who Loves Series: https://www.wholovesseries.org/  

TW: There are brief mentions in this episode of abuse, self-harm, and suicide, which we wanted you to be aware of before listening. There are some episodes of the podcast that simply pack so much wisdom into a short conversation. This is one of those episodes. Children enter foster care for many different reasons. And despite some of the hard work we do to overcome and heal from the past, our stories can still be messy. My guest knows this all too well! Kristen Thomas entered into kinship care after suffering abuse, but experienced deep-rooted challenges when she felt misunderstood, unsupported, and became homeless after aging out of care. As an adult, Kristen has taken the time to move towards healing those parts of her past. Today, she is going to grad school for Counseling and is an adoptive parent to her daughter, with only a 10-year age difference between them. Kristen is very well-spoken and I greatly appreciated her coming onto the show. I know you will be encouraged by her story! Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/kristen-thomas-174/ Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi

Welcome back to The Forgotten Podcast! In this episode, I have the opportunity to talk with Shyann Skelton. Shyann came from a broken home where she did not know her biological father. After her mother’s death, she was adopted by her grandmother, but experienced deep pain through loss, bullying, and hardships as she was rejected by family for being biracial. Shyann’s story begins with odds that were stacked against her, but she has taken those experiences and used them for good! As an adult, Shyann is a foster mom to teen girls and soon will be working with a nonprofit whose goal is to fill the gap while children are waiting for foster homes. Thank you for listening to her story! Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/shyann-skelton-173/ Use code "forgottenpod" for 10% off the Who Loves Series: https://www.wholovesseries.org/  

We love bringing you stories from the foster care community as a way to encourage and equip you in your foster care journey. I’m excited to be able to share my conversation with not only a foster parent and adoptive parent, but the Executive Director of a non-profit whose mission is to help aging-out youth.  My guest is Nick Sgarlata. Nick and his wife, Carrie, started fostering in 2015. Today, he works closely with aging-out youth through Bridge to Brighter in Wisconsin. Nick has three biological children, two adoptive children, has fostered 15 children, and they just renewed their foster care license.  My hope is that you will benefit from hearing about the unique work that Nick does with aging out youth and connect with his experience as a foster parent. He has a generous heart, and I’m eager to share this episode with you! Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/nick-sgarlata-172/ Get 10% off BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/tfi