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Episode Summary
Kristin Orphan is a foster and adoptive mom and co-founder of Finally Home, and she knows how isolating it can feel to say yes to a child. She talks with host Micaela Tracy about why being safe and willing is only the starting point, and how anyone can help a family stay in their yes, beginning with the benefit of the doubt.
In This Episode
00:00 Cold open 00:15 Welcome and today's guest 01:10 Kristin's family and how foster care found them 04:00 How their own story led to Finally Home 08:45 "You're amazing," and why it can feel isolating 09:55 Helping families stay in their yes 11:50 Practical help, from meals to laundry 15:45 Safe and willing does not mean equipped 20:35 Signs a family needs more support 22:40 Start with the benefit of the doubt 27:00 How anyone can come alongside a family 30:15 Where to find Finally Home, and closing thoughts
About Our Guest
Kristin Orphan, MS, CFLE, is a foster and adoptive mom and co-founder of Finally Home, which has provided education, mentoring, and family support for foster, adoptive, and kinship families since 2008.
Resources and Links
Finally Home · finallyhome.net Voices for CASA Children · voicesforcasachildren.org National CASA/GAL Association for Children · nationalcasagal.org
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Episode Summary
Joan Ulsher is a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer who experienced foster care as a child, and the advocate she is today is the one she needed back then. In eight years she has served 36 children, often choosing the most demanding cases. On this episode, she talks with host Micaela Tracy about sibling visits, the silence that counts as a clue, and why the person who keeps showing up is the one a child remembers. Her ask is simple: if this is not your calling, find the one that is.
In This Episode
00:20 Welcome and season framing
01:10 What a CASA volunteer is, in plain language
02:35 Her husband's dare, and how Joan found CASA
05:25 Becoming the advocate she did not have
06:15 What the role actually involves, month to month
08:40 Seeing what everyone else missed
10:15 Why judges welcome a volunteer's input
11:30 The other children in the home
13:35 The first visit, and why coming back matters most
17:00 How trust actually gets built
21:35 "I was once you," and what stays private
22:20 Misplaced Childhood, and separating her story from theirs
24:35 The one child who reached her
25:40 If this is not your calling, here is what else you can do
27:25 Why kids in foster care are everyone's business
30:20 The neighbor who watched out for her
31:40 For advocates who are running on empty
34:55 Dressers made with love
37:20 Show up for these children
About Our Guest
Joan Ulsher is a CASA volunteer and CASA Education Advocate with Child Advocates San Antonio, where she chairs the Legislative Advocacy Team, and the author of the memoir Misplaced Childhood: A True Story of Resiliency and Child Advocacy. She served 20 years in the Army before turning to advocacy, and she has served 36 children in eight years as a volunteer.
Resources and Links
Joan Ulsher · joanulsher.com
Misplaced Childhood: A True Story of Resiliency and Child Advocacy
Dresser art on Pinterest · @JoanAkitas
Voices for CASA Children · voicesforcasachildren.org
National CASA/GAL Association for Children · nationalcasagal.org
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Episode Summary
When a woman she had just met told Turquoise Skye Devereaux, "I can tell, because you eat like you went to boarding school," she heard how a history she never lived still shaped the way she moves through a day. Turquoise is Salish and Blackfeet, a social worker by training, and the founder of Indigenous Skye, where she has spent more than eight years helping schools, agencies, tribes, and child welfare systems create culturally safe spaces. She talks with host Micaela Tracy about what cultural safety actually means, the Indian Child Welfare Act in plain English, and the questions that help a child feel known instead of tested. Most of the adults in the orbit of a Native child are not Indigenous, and her message is for every one of them: you only know what you know, being present matters more than being perfect, and for a child, culture and identity are not extra. They are part of safety itself.
In This Episode
00:00 Cold open
00:20 Welcome and season framing
01:50 Meet Turquoise: Salish and Blackfeet, and how Indigenous Skye began
03:10 What cultural safety actually means, and where the term comes from
05:00 Learning from the people you serve instead of assuming you know
08:10 Making it normal to not know: the zipper response
08:50 Asking about a child without putting the work of teaching on them
10:45 Native students are here to get an education, not to educate
12:30 The gap between what adults were taught and what a child needs
14:50 ICWA in plain English: why the law exists
17:40 The Indian Adoption Project, AIM, and 1978
19:45 ICWA in practice, and why it is hard on the people carrying it out
22:20 Well-meaning assumptions that land as harm
24:40 "Maybe I'm not Native enough": what a child internalizes
26:10 Better questions to ask about home and belonging
28:45 Intergenerational resilience and what else gets passed down
29:50 Seven generations in one body: epigenetics and trauma
31:45 "You eat like you went to boarding school": the story behind the cold open
35:30 Where to start learning on your own
39:30 Being present is enough: showing up where children already are
42:45 The pedagogy of discomfort, and why growth requires it
45:20 One thing to do differently tomorrow
46:15 Reflection and close
About Our Guest
Turquoise Skye Devereaux, MSW, is Salish and Blackfeet and the founder and lead consultant of Indigenous Skye, LLC, where she has spent more than eight years helping schools, agencies, tribes, and child welfare systems create culturally safe spaces for Indigenous youth and families. She is completing a PhD focused on identity in Indigenous communities in Arizona and Montana.
Resources and Links
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Episode Summary
When Jamole Callahan was fifteen, he realized the adults were meeting every few months to decide his future, and he was never in the room. He spent six years in foster care across nine homes and aged out at eighteen into the kind of instability that pushes so many young people straight into homelessness. Twenty years later, the rooms have flipped: lawmakers now invite him in, and he has helped shape the federal housing policy that gives young people leaving care a longer runway of support. He talks with host Micaela Tracy about the meetings he fought his way into, the foster-agency worker who finally leveled with him, the science teacher he now calls dad, and why housing is the foundation everything else depends on. His message reaches past the system to anyone listening: throw the pebble in the pond, because your expertise is someone else's learned skill, and the ripple reaches a shore you may never see.
In This Episode
00:00 Cold open
00:30 Welcome and season framing
01:00 Fifteen years old, and the meetings he was never invited to
04:00 "Nothing about us without us": finding out decisions were made without him
06:00 Boycotting school, and the agency worker who finally leveled with him
07:00 The aging-out plan: an apartment, six months of help, then "you're on your own"
08:00 Practicing decisions while there's still a safety net
09:00 Why youth get left out: caseloads, staffing shortages, and old mindsets
11:00 Throwing the pebble in the pond: grassroots change from the ground up
14:00 Did he have an advocate? The people who took him under their wing
16:00 The lasting impact of one adult showing up for a teen
18:00 Aging out by the numbers, and why housing equals stability
18:30 Helping create the Foster Youth to Independence housing voucher
21:00 Getting housed is one thing, staying housed is another
22:00 The Permanency Pact and building a real support list
23:00 "Just like a CASA": the volunteer who stayed nineteen years
25:00 On connection, broken attachments, and being a gumbo pot of every home
25:30 What he's working on now: housing and a healthy workforce
27:30 How the community can support from the outside
28:00 What any volunteer can give: your time and your expertise
30:00 Making it easy to say yes, and getting back to grassroots outreach
31:00 Donating your small talk
32:00 Find your niche: closing words for the system, parents, and youth
34:30 Reflection and close
About Our Guest
Jamole Callahan spent six years in foster care across nine homes and aged out at eighteen. Today he is a co-founder of ACTION Ohio, a national speaker and trainer known as Mr. Motivator, and an advocate whose work helped advance the federal Foster Youth to Independence housing voucher for young people leaving care.
Resources and Links
Jamole Callahan · [email protected] · @Jamole Callahan on social media
ACTION Ohio (Alumni of Care Together Improving Outcomes Now)
Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) vouchers — HUD
Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act (2019)
Permanency Pact — FosterClub
Voices for CASA Children
National CASA/GAL Association for Children
Share Your Voice
This season is about the many different voices in the room when a child is in foster care. If that's you, whether you've been there as a professional, a foster or birth parent, or someone who lived it, and you'd like to share your perspective on the show, host Micaela Tracy would love to hear from you. Reach out at [email protected].
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content note: this episode discusses aging out of foster care and homelessness, and includes brief strong language.
Voices for CASA Children | By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care
Episode Summary
For thirty years, neonatal nurse practitioner Tara Sundem watched newborns go through opioid withdrawal under bright lights, separated from their mothers, and for a long time she believed those mothers had brought it on themselves. Then she learned what she had been missing, and she set out to build the opposite of what she had been part of. As co-founder and executive director of Hushabye Nursery in Phoenix, she now cares for substance-exposed babies and their mothers together, treating the two as one patient. She talks with host Micaela Tracy about the night a baby in withdrawal changed her mind, why dignity is a clinical intervention and not a nicety, how she partners with the Department of Child Safety instead of against it, and what families navigating addiction and recovery actually need. Her message holds for anyone who has ever judged a parent from the outside: this is a brain disease, not a choice, and the earliest moments of a child's life can shape everything that follows.
In This Episode
00:00 Cold open
00:30 Welcome, season framing, and a content note
01:30 Meet Tara: Hushabye Nursery and the whole-family model
02:00 The nurse who didn't understand: Tara's own change of heart
03:30 Adverse childhood experiences and rethinking the whole approach
05:30 What the research says about keeping families together
09:00 Open child welfare cases, and getting a baby home with mom
10:30 One little win, and changing the safety narrative
12:00 Back to 2015: the hospital and the 2:30 a.m. morphine call
14:00 The night it clicked: soothing a baby through withdrawal
17:30 "So what about the moms?" the question that reshaped the mission
19:00 It isn't a choice: understanding addiction with dignity
21:00 The HOPPE model: meeting mom, baby, and family together
23:00 Same room, six feet, and partnering with DCS
25:00 What a family actually hears when DCS arrives
28:00 Community, staying engaged, and giving back
29:30 Relapse without writing a parent off: the "oopsie"
34:00 Former clients who now do the work
36:00 A mother's impossible math
38:30 What Tara wants anyone who has judged to understand
42:30 Where to find Hushabye
43:00 Reflection and close
About Our Guest
Tara Sundem is a neonatal nurse practitioner with more than thirty years in intensive care and the co-founder and executive director of Hushabye Nursery, a Phoenix nonprofit that cares for opioid-exposed newborns alongside their mothers rather than separating them. Since 2020, Hushabye has cared for more than 1,000 babies and walks alongside the families learning to care for them.
Resources and Links
Hushabye Nursery · 480-628-7500 (call or text, available 24/7)
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime — Dr. Nadine Burke Harris (TED Talk)
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — CDC
Voices for CASA Children
National CASA/GAL Association for Children
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of substance use, addiction, and sexual violence, and may be difficult for some listeners.
Voices for CASA Children | By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care
Episode Summary
Phoebe Johnson spent her childhood living in foster care. Today she runs the kind of home she once needed. As executive director of Firm Foundation Youth Homes and Gigi's Cottage, she talks with Micaela about what it took to get there, the foster mom who never gave up on her, and the two models that shape how the girls in her care are met every day: Trust-Based Relational Intervention and Grace Based Parenting. Her central message holds for any adult showing up for a child carrying complex trauma. You can't redirect a brain until it feels safe, and connection is what heals it.
In This Episode
00:00 Cold open
00:15 Welcome, season framing, and a content note
01:30 Meet Phoebe: Firm Foundation Youth Homes and Gigi's Cottage
03:00 Phoebe's story: foster care, a pastor's family, and seven years to permanency
08:00 Losing Ona, a scholarship she didn't know existed, and the people who walked her into adulthood
12:00 Stepping into the executive director role
14:30 Empathy for a system under pressure: community problem, community solutions
17:00 Why loving your staff well is how you love the girls well
20:00 Length of stay, permanency, and meeting each girl where she is
23:00 Trust-Based Relational Intervention and how complex trauma lives in the brain
26:00 Grace Based Parenting: connection before correction, and play as a regulator
30:00 Staying connected with girls who age out
33:00 What general audiences misunderstand about group homes
36:00 The gaps Phoebe sees, and how anyone can step in
38:00 Where to find Phoebe's work
39:00 Reflection and close
About Our Guest
Phoebe Johnson is the executive director of Firm Foundation Youth Homes and its DCS-licensed group home, Gigi's Cottage. She grew up in foster care herself and now leads the kind of home that shaped her.
Resources and Links
Firm Foundation Youth Homes
Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development
Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel
Voices for CASA Children
National CASA/GAL Association for Children
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Voices for CASA Children | By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care
Episode Summary
Dr. Scott Lyons explains why trauma is not about the event, it is about what it does to a body. He walks through co-regulation, why safety can stop feeling safe, and the one thing any caring adult can do differently tomorrow: play.
In This Episode
00:00 Cold open
00:15 Welcome and episode framing
01:15 What "somatic" actually means, in plain language
04:45 What the body carries: trauma in the body, not the event
05:45 Memory, temporal collapse, and lifebooks
10:15 An ordinary Tuesday for a child: oxytocin, vasopressin, and why safety doesn't always feel safe
15:15 Why play and movement undo learned helplessness
22:10 Co-regulation, grounding before a visit, and "Mommy needs a moment"
32:50 Behavior is communication, and where CASA volunteers connect the dots
34:50 Hope, and the one thing to do tomorrow
37:30 Reflection and close
About Our Guest
Dr. Scott Lyons is a holistic psychologist, founder of The Embody Lab, and author of Addicted to Drama. He hosts The Gently Used Human podcast.
Resources and Links
Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others
The Embody Lab
The Gently Used Human podcast
Dr. Scott Lyons Website
Voices for CASA Children
National CASA/GAL Association for Children
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Voices for CASA Children | By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care
Author and national speaker Tori Hope Petersen joins host Micaela Tracy to talk about the people who shaped her: the court advocate who said "I'm not going anywhere," the foster mom Tanya who let her be a kid without turning every moment into a lesson, and her own decision to become a healed person instead of a hurt one. For anyone wondering whether small acts of consistency really matter, Tori's answer is clear: the seeds you plant today shape generations you may never see.
Content note: Tori reflects on childhood abuse and family instability. Listener discretion advised.
In This Episode00:00 Cold open
00:30 Welcome and episode framing
01:00 Tori's story: foster care, reunification, and re-entering at 12
07:00 The court advocate who said "I'm not going anywhere" 1
3:00 The group home and a perspective shift
16:00 Choosing to be a healed person, not a hurt one
20:00 Tanya's house: not every moment is a teaching moment
28:00 Adoption and learning to receive family
34:00 Generational impact: the long game of showing up
37:00 Tori's books and where to find her work
38:00 Reflection and close
Standout Quotes"Not every moment needs to be a teaching moment. Some moments just need to be: I'm here for you."
"I don't want to be a hurt person that hurts people. I want to be a healed person that helps heal people."
"You're not just breaking cycles for one person. It impacts generations."
About Our GuestTori Hope Petersen is a national speaker and author of Fostered and Breaking the Patterns That Break You. She grew up in the foster care system and was later adopted. Today she is also a foster mom, adoptive mom, and biological mom, and writes and speaks about identity, healing, and breaking generational patterns.
Resources and LinksBy Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Host Micaela Tracy opens Season 3 with Jason Lewis, a student at Grand Canyon University, entrepreneur, and aspiring nonprofit founder who spent ten years in the foster care system. Jason talks about what it felt like to grow up alone inside a system that moved him 28 times and through 13 schools, and about the adults who actually got through to him: an advocate who never sugarcoated anything, who asked what he wanted, who took him to summer camps and arcades, and whose presence "screamed I love you" without ever needing the words. His message to CASA volunteers and any caring adult: earn the right to be heard before you try to help. It's a fitting opening to a season about understanding every voice in the room, beginning with the young people at the center of it all.
In This Episode:
00:00 Welcome and Season 3 framing
01:00 Safety and consent note
01:30 Meet Jason: GCU, mentorship dreams, and life on campus
03:00 Ten years in care: 28 moves, 13 schools, and the loneliness of growing up that way
05:00 Being misunderstood as an eight-year-old in the system
07:00 The advocate who didn't sugarcoat and asked Jason what he wanted
09:00 What advocacy looked like in practice: arcades, summer camp, advocacy
14:00 The adults who left a lasting impression
17:00 Faith, ministry, and the future Jason is building
22:00 The friends who became family
26:00 What he'd change about how the system shows up for kids
28:00 Advice for caring adults: don't try to be a parent. Be a friend.
30:00 Reflection and close
Standout Quotes:
"You have to earn the right to be heard."
"That tender love that screams I love you with just your actions is the best thing that I could have asked for."
"Don't try to be a parent with them. Just try to be their friend."
About Our Guest:
Jason Lewis is a junior at Grand Canyon University who experienced foster care as a child. He's working toward starting a nonprofit that will mentor young people aging out of foster care.
Links and Resources:
Voices for CASA Children
National CASA/GAL Association for Children
About the Show
By Their Side: Advocating for Children in Foster Care is produced by Voices for CASA Children. Season 3, "Understanding Every Voice in the Room," features practical, human conversations with professionals and people with lived experience. Hosted by Micaela Tracy. New episodes biweekly.
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of VOICES or its affiliates. Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
Welcome to By Their Side, everyone! This episode features an interview with David Ambroz, a national poverty and child welfare expert and the author of the bestselling memoir A Place Called Home: A Memoir! Ambroz shares his powerful personal story of growing up homeless and in the foster care system and how those experiences shaped his lifelong mission to help children and families break the cycle of poverty!
David explains that for him, "home" as a child was simply wherever he and his family could find shelter at the time - a church basement, a bus stop, or the subway. He describes the trauma of entering the foster care system, where most of the homes he was placed in were not truly "homes" filled with love and safety. As he's gotten older, David has come to define home not by physical walls but rather by the people and mission that sustain him.
Our conversation explores how the child welfare and foster care systems have improved over time, with more policies and programs to support vulnerable children. However, David highlights the fact that there is still much work to be done to address the root causes of childhood poverty and homelessness, and he passionately argues that as a society, we need to stop treating these issues as just statistics and start seeing them as a moral necessity that affects the lives of real children.
David also shares some inspiring stories of the "occasional angels" - teachers, social workers, and foster parents who made a profound difference in his life, even via small acts of kindness. He stresses that everyone has the power to be an "occasional angel" and make a big impact, whether by becoming a CASA volunteer, hiring a foster youth intern, or simply having meaningful conversations about these issues.
The interview closes with David's call to action - for all of us to get involved, get uncomfortable, and do more to end the intergenerational cycle of poverty and trauma. He believes that with collective passion and action, we can create a society in which every child has access to the resources and support they need to thrive!
Highlights:
[1:45] - Home wasn't a place for David but rather the people and purpose that he chose. [3:38] - David argues that it's important to celebrate progress in child advocacy while continuing the work that remains unfinished. [5:09] - David reminds us that all wins are important, even imperfect ones. [8:36] - David encourages people to show children the same passion we give sports and celebrities. [9:52] - David believes that communities tend to step up during visible crises, but we need to shift to collective responsibility. [10:58] - David asserts that we need to address immediate crises like hunger while also fixing the systemic causes that create them in the first place. [13:41] - What did it feel like for David, as a small child, to be suffering yet completely ignored? [14:19] - Hear how David learned early on that society ignored his suffering, revealing to him how little his life mattered to others. [16:54] - Everyday "occasional angels" doing small, compassionate acts can drastically impact a child's life! [19:48] - How might David's life have been different if more people had simply helped in small ways? [20:18] - David points out how a consistent adult presence such as a CASA could have guided him and profoundly changed his life trajectory. [23:44] - Hear how a question from David's mother awakened the idea of choice and sparked his first real hope. [26:00] - Having someone show you options and hope can transform survival-focused minds toward seeing a better future. [27:25] - David describes forgiveness as a lifelong discipline that enabled him to survive unbearable circumstances. [30:49] - Illness, not moral failure, explains many troubling behaviors. [32:35] - David argues that people misunderstand foster care and ignore their duty to oversee its power. [34:33] - David reiterates that kids living in foster care aren't broken and argues that we need to stop judging struggling families and workers. [37:08] - David feels that kids living in foster care aren't broken. [39:58] - The foster-friendly workplace certification encourages employers to support foster parents, and doing nothing is unacceptable. [41:22] - Don't wait for perfect conditions; show up with heart, take action, and always do more! [43:49] - Where can David be reached online? [44:56] - David expresses gratitude toward adults who helped him, but ending child poverty requires all of us to act.
Links & Resources:
David's Website
David's Instagram Page
David's Threads Page
David Ambroz - A Place Called Home: A Memoir
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and host and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Voices for CASA Children or its affiliates.
Content Warning: This episode may include discussions of sensitive topics that could be triggering for some listeners.
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