Welcome to episode 22 which features an interview with 22 year old Parker Pearson. I couldn't have planned that out better if I had tried!!! Parker was born in South Korea, and has been with his adoptive family for 21.5 years. Check out this interview to see how Parker has managed to keep a positive outlook on life.

In this episode, we discussed:

• Daycare costs. DCS does cover a lot of your daycare costs for your foster kids, unless you live in Chandler, or go to a private daycare, or both.
• We talked about how we used to go to Childtime in Mesa, and they charged us a $5/week co-pay for our 2 year old to go to daycare full time. Only $5! We used to pay $40-$80 (either 5 x $8= $40, up to 5 x $18= $80. I can't do math on the spot! I need more time, or a calculator...) a week for Wesley when he was still covered under DCS. I called Childtime to see how much they charge for a full-time infant - and it's $25! We were paying $116 a week for our Winston Churchill. That's quite the swing!
• Dillon is the adoption agency that Parker's parents used to adopt all three of their kids from Korea. I have heard great things about this agency, beyond Parker's experience. And their website has many resources for adoptive families. Go and check it out here.

The (Good) Word of the Day

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

- James 1: 2 - 4

This perseverance, and a sense of community have truly helped Parker on his journey, as well as his truly positive attitude have helped him to be the delightful and wonderful guy that he is today.

Thanks for your time Parker! And thank you listeners for joining us for another week of the Fostering Voices podcast!

If you want to connect on Social Media, you can find me at:

Jihae Watson on Facebook

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