Foster Movement Podcast

We had the opportunity to sit down with Lauren Lawson who grew up living with various family members and then eventually went into the foster care system at age 12. Lauren shares her story and offers insight into some of the issues and behaviors that might exist in adolescents within the foster care system. Now a foster mom, she shares wise guidance that encourages us to consider what might be behind some of the behaviors of the children in our families. We are then joined by Ryan North, the Executive Director of Tapestry, the Adoption and Foster Care Ministry of Irving Bible Church and leader of Empowered to Connect. Ryan and his wife Kayla train others from around the country to help couples tend to the hearts of children from hard places. In this episode, Ryan offers practical advice for foster parents on how they can learn to address and meet the needs that sometimes occur beneath the behaviors.

We had the opportunity to sit down with two former foster youth who grew up together in a group home, Jimmy Cisneros and Jacob Mendez. Jimmy and Jacob share about their foster care experiences and the commitment they had to break the cycle that existed within each of their own families. Jimmy and Jacob believe that changing foster care can change the world. We are then joined by Jedd Medefind, the President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans and the Author of Becoming Home. Jedd dives deeper into this idea of how changing the outcomes of foster care would have a profound impact on so many other areas of society from child trafficking to homelessness to incarceration. He discusses some of the statistics and the implications for the Church as it thinks about these issues.

In this episode we visited with former foster youth and adult adoptee, Mercedes Russaw. Mercedes entered foster care at a young age and was adopted by her foster mom. She discusses the desire she had as a young adult to explore her biological family relationships and talks about the dynamics of how that impacted her relationship with her adoptive mom. With beautiful faith and clarity, Mercedes talks about the role her relationship with God has played in her understanding of her relationship with both of these important women in her life. We are then joined by writer and foster and adoptive dad, Johnston Moore, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Home Forever. While Johnston and his wife Terri have come to be strong advocates for building relationships with biological family members of kids that have come into their home, they didn’t always feel that way. Johnston shares about his journey to understand the importance of these relationships and how God has used this in amazing ways.

In this pilot episode of the Foster Movement Podcast, we visited with former foster youth, Jessica Francis. Jessica entered foster care at 12 and aged out before going to college. You’ll hear her amazing story of persisting through college as a single mom, her time as a caseworker for the state and how she now uses her experience to step into the lives of other aging out youth so that they have the connection to mentors that she never had. We are then joined by author and adoptive mom, Pam Parish, who is the Founder and President of Connections Homes out of Atlanta. Connections Homes helps followers of Christ provide trusted relationships for young adults who have aged out of foster care. She shares practical tips on beginning this same kind of inspiring and vital work in your church and community.