Fostering our Faith

Christy shares her personal journey of growing up in foster care and later becoming a foster parent. She discusses the challenges and anxieties she faced as a child in the foster care system and the importance of providing a safe and nurturing environment for foster children. Christy also talks about her experience of taking in a newborn baby whose mother passed away and the eye-opening moments she had as a foster parent. She emphasizes the need for compassion and understanding towards addicts and the importance of faith in navigating the foster care system. Christy has written a book, 'God's Love Story,' which shares her life story and is available on various platforms.

Sandra Flach, founder of Justice for Orphans, also an FASD Facilitator, shares her deep lived experience and extensive knowledge on this little known spectrum disorder. Listen in as she gives us tools to not only combat it, but how to get a diagnosis and where to go from there!

Carrie O’Toole, M.A. is an Attachment-Based Intervention Specialist, Board Certified Christian Life Coach, Certified Crisis Responder, and founder of Carrie O’Toole Ministries. Carrie uses her coaching, writing, speaking, podcasting, and documentary film to help others overcome issues related to attachment, trauma, and grief. The O’Toole family adopted a child from a Vietnamese orphanage at the age of 3 ½. Even with state-mandated training on attachment, and a previous adoption, Carrie admits they were totally unprepared to raise a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). After 8 years of therapy, special education, prayer, surgeries, and hospitalization, they made the heart-wrenching decision to place their son with a family from their church. Carrie is the author of Relinquished: When Love Means Letting Go, and producer of the documentary film Forfeiting Sanity.

http://carrieotoole.com/

As a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, Tara has many years of experience working with mothers and collaborating with community partners to improve neonatal outcomes and provide better support for mothers in recovery from opioid use disorders. As a nurse of over 27 years, she has cared for many babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and has become an expert in treating them and their families. She has also been able to be a preceptor to staff and students over the years and has been a source of education for many individuals in communities. Listen as she tells her INCREDIBLE story of how Hush A Bye Nursery came to be.

INCREDIBLE video of hope and change from Hush A Bye Nursery!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF0WuXGtQP0

Here are the social media links:

https://www.Facebook.com/hushabyenursery

https://www.instagram.com/hushabye.nursery

https://www.twitter.com/HushabyeNursery

https://www.linkedin.com/hushabyenursery

Leading international foster care expert, consultant, and TED Talk speaker, John Degarmo He the author of several foster care books, including the new book, “The Little Book of Foster Care Wisdom: 365 Days of Inspiration and Encouragement for Foster Care Families”, The best selling book, “Faith and Foster Care”, as well as the foster care children's book, “A Different Home: A New Foster Child's Story”. He is the director of The Foster Care Institute, and acts as a consultant to foster care agencies as well as an expert witness to legal agencies across the USA and globe. Dr. DeGarmo and his wife are the recipients of the Good Morning America Ultimate Hero Award, and the Up With People Every Day Hero Award. The two also were honored with their city's Citizens of the Year Award. Dr. DeGarmo has also been honored with a Hero of the Homeless award, the Olivet College Distinguished Alumni Award, as well as an Exceptional People Recipient.Website: https://www.drjohndegarmofostercare.com/home.htmlBooks: https://www.drjohndegarmofostercare.com/store/c2/Books_.htmlTed Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/john_degarmo_ed_d_children_in_need_children_ignored?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare