Fostering Voices Podcast

Going through the different Love Style Categories: Pleaser, Avoider, Controller, Vacillator, and Victim, from the book 'How We Love', we talk about why it's important to know your Love Style, and how knowledge is power!

Episode 25 features an interview with Rilie Norton who is truly one of the sweetest and most gentle humans I have ever met!

She is a bio mom to Ivy (9) and McCoy (3) and foster mom to two sweet kiddos (5 and 1). Rilie brings new elements to the podcast as she talks about her experience with ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) kids, which is a first for us!

Rilie shares that something she wishes she was prepared for was the massive schedule adjustment, especially in the first few weeks. Doctor appointments, case worker visits, and so much more!

Enjoy this episode!

In this episode, we mention:

-Stewardship where Rilie's husband works, and where we do all of our mortgage, insurance, and financial stuff. They are a company that truly loves the people that they serve, and are interested in saving You money!

-Child Crisis Arizona where Rilie is licensed as a Foster Parent. Click here to find out more!

-Ivy's Bookmarks! You can find her Instagram here. Or you can order one or some at [email protected]!

-Rilie's Photography! It's the best! You can follow her on Instagram here. AND check out her new Showit website here! It's amazing! And she built it in just a few days!!!!!

The (Good) Word of the Day:

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very naturea]">[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureb]">[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

-Philippians 2: 3-8, 14

What a great reminder for why we foster, and do what we do! And the attitude with which we should do these things.

Thank you for your time Rilie, and for sharing your voice with us!

Have a great week everyone!

If you would like to connect with me on Social Media, you can find me:

Jihae Watson on Facebook

Fostering Voices on Instagram

Jihae Watson on Instagram

and PLEASE leave a review for us on iTunes so we can share these amazing stories with more people!

Interview with Rilie Norton, one of the sweetest and kindest and most gentle humans alive. Also, foster mom to two, and bio mom to two. She was born to foster.

In our time as parents, we have 'raised' 0-4 year olds for the last 11 years. The full count would be 7 kids for 3 months or more. We've done the newborn thing six times, we've done the toddler thing five times, and we've also done the two toddlers who were 14 months apart or less - twice. Neither of those times were particularly pretty.

But when we say we have some advice to give on surviving, And Thriving, in those early years, we mean it!

Tip #1: Don't be a reactive parent- as in, don't start teaching/forcing your kid a new skill just cause some other kid is doing it. Getting into pissing contests with other parents just make you feel bad, and they make your kids feel bad too.

This pertains especially in the realm of potty training. Which we talk about the potty, and poops A LOT in this episode. Sorry in advance for that...

Tip #2: Don't try to do it all. As a mom, I felt like I needed to be a part of every bath time, every bed time routine, every single moment of my baby's life. This is more plausible when you only have one kid. This becomes more implausible with the more kids you have. Share responsibilities!

And prioritize what you are doing. Chris brought up a great point that when he was a new dad, he still felt like he should be able to watch all the same amount of sports he watched before we had kids. This was crazy. As he re-prioritized his life, and hobbies, this helped him to put our marriage at the top of the list. That guy is so smart. And good looking.

Tip #3: Discipline your kids with love and self-control. This is especially necessary for kids in foster care, because they come from traumatic backgrounds, and it's against the law to spank them. So we discuss some ways to discipline that we learned in our PSMapp classes.

We also discussed:

-The Mehrabian Principle, where only 7% of what we communicate is the actual content/words we use. 38% is you tone, intonation, and volume. 55% is body language! Something to think about when communicating with your kids and spouse and others.

-Korean people often resort to making their kids stand in a corner with their arms up in the air for different amounts of time. I did this to my 3 bio kids. I did this as a kid, myself. Is it considered hazing? I dunno.

The (Good) Word of the Day:

"Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin."

-Deuteronomy 24:16

...

Jk! That's not the Good Word of the Day. Deuteronomy just makes me laugh/pee my pants.

"Start children on the way they should go, and even when they are od, they will not turn from it."

-Proverbs 22:6

Kids are always watching us, and imitating us. They are going to learn something from you - so make sure that something is Good!

Thanks for your time this week! We hope you enjoy this week's episode, and we will be back next week with another interview.

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

Jihae Watson on Facebook

Fostering Voices on Instagram

Jihae Watson on Instagram

and leave a review on iTunes!

We have had the pleasure of 'raising' 7 kids, in the 0-4 range, for at least 3 months or more. So we have some stories to tell, and battle wounds to share, about our times as parents of young kids.

So tune in and see how we survived, and a little bit thrived, in those hard, and long, yet glorious years!

Catelin Dreibelbis is one of our favorite people. She is a determined, self-controlled, humble, and all around incredible human being.

Her journey started when her mom dropped her off as a 2 year old, with her 3 siblings, to be babysat by her aunt and uncle. And her mom never came back. After that, it was a string of hardship, poverty, and moving around. But all of this happened while Catelin maintained a great attitude, and strong desire to never go back to where she had come from.

This is a killer story that you do not want to miss!

This week we also discussed:

- The Chive. A very random tv network? Show? Channel? That Chris happened upon. So random. But we talked about, so it's making it's way into the show notes.

- This episode of Carlos Whitaker's podcast that reminded me that I could pray specifically and God would answer my prayer in His very own special way.

- American Citizenship Resources! I kind of became and American Citizen this week! I studied for the civics test using this amazing app! It's called 'US Citizenship Test 2018 Audio.'

- That time we imagined that the Marine Corps, which started on November 10th, 1775 at Tun Tavern, and we pictured it like the scene from the Greatest Showman when they started singing 'From Now On.' Basically, we are trademarking this idea as the next big Broadway sensation. It will be bigger than Hamilton. And we are trademarking it RIGHT NOW.

From Catelin's Story:

- We need to support young moms who are at risk of giving up and losing their children. Catelin's mom definitely had other issues, but maybe if she would have had more support, things would have turned out differently?

- Such a great reminder that Kinship families need more resources!

- And a reminder that clean socks and shoes that fit mean THE WORLD to foster kids! Catelin went for years not eating well, or enough, and never having clothes that were hers, and not wearing shoes that fit, or having socks that were clean.

- Sweet little Dakayla, a young girl who shared that she had accepted Jesus into her heart, and that prompted Catelin to pray to be saved immediately after meeting her! Bless the little children!

- Joel Covert Counseling. Thank you for supporting and encouraging and championing Catelin to learn to cry and to be a healthy individual!

- Catelin's encouragement to parents of older foster/adoptive kids: Do not give up hope, or patience. The kid you are caring for may not understand all that you are doing for them at the time, but they will appreciate you one day! Don't write anyone off!

- One of our favorite lines: "Whoever tells you 'no, you can't do that', that person is your mom."

The (Good) Word of the Day:

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me."

- Psalm 27:10

Catelin! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your story, and your heart with us today! You are an incredible human and God has great things in store for you!

To connect, you can find me at:

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

Jihae Watson on Facebook

Fostering Voices on Instagram

Jihae Watson on Instagram

and leave a review on iTunes!

Her journey started when her mom dropped her off as a 2 year old, with her 3 siblings, to be babysat by her aunt and uncle. And her mom never came back. But all of this happened while Catelin maintained a great attitude, and strong desire to never go back to where she had come from.

She is a successful, well-adjusted, and delightful adult, and she is a great example of what happens when people support and encourage kids who are not their own.

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

Fostering Voices on Instagram

Jihae Watson on Instagram

and leave a review on iTunes!

Today we interview Parker, a coworker of mine, who was adopted from South Korea and raised in a Caucasian American family, along with his adopted brother and sister.

Welcome to Season 2 of the Fostering Voices Podcast!

We had an amazing 5 weeks off (even though I foolishly thought we only needed 2 weeks off). We are back, totally refreshed and ready for a new season, new guests, new listeners, and new foster adoption topics!

We are actually recording this episode in our car as we drive from California to Arizona. We went on a cruise with my work - Showit.co. It's the best company in the world to work for, and they provide the best websites for Photographers and Creatives. Check it out if you are in need of a website!

On the cruise we met Don and Renee Worcester. They are marriage/life coaches and we were so blessed to meet them! And one day you guys will too, cause we are definitely going to have them on the podcast. They have so much great advice to give, and they also happen to be adoptive parents and have a crazy story to tell! If you want to find out more about them, you can check them out here.

This week's episode discusses:

• The movie Lion (on Netflix!). This movie is incredible, and is based on the true story by Saroo Brierley, who as a young boy, got separated from his family when he fell asleep on a train. He was lost and eventually adopted by an amazing family in Australia. This movie will make you bawl your face off. Saroo also wrote a book: A Long Way Home, we haven't read it yet, but it is on our list of books to read. And one day maybe we can get Saroo on our podcast! Wouldn't that be amazing??
• Saroo's story is strongly dependent on the magical technology of Google Earth. We didn't know when this came out while recording, and it was 2004. But in Saroo's life story, he used Google Earth for a few years before he made a major breakthrough in 2011. (We said 2012 in the podcast. But that's the year he traveled to meet his birth mom.)
• We talked about Ontario Place, the place where we lost Lily when she was 3 or 4. We are the best parents ever.
• Chris referenced Episode 7: Wow That's Cool.
• Citibank vs CitiBank-uh . It's a real thing. Here's the giant building Chris and Robert were trying to get to while in Seoul.

This week's life hack: Living with less baggage

• Essentialism by Greg McKeown. This book is fantastic and really causes you to live with intentionality and purpose and less.
• Living with less emotional baggage - I had to apologize/make amends with a neighbor after her kid fell at my house. I am the Witch of our neighborhood.
• Living with less physical baggage - having less in your physical Wardrobe, and home, makes for quicker tidying up and less clutter. Marie Kondo's book: "The Magical Art of Tidying Up" has helped me tremendously with this!

Good Word of the Day:

"I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish."

Jeremiah 31:25

Most of our listeners are on summer break, and we just wrapped ours up! But whether you have kids, or don't, whether they are back in school, or not - we hope you are able to find moments of rest and allow the Lord to refresh you!

Thanks for tuning in! We are so glad to be back, and as always, we are so thankful for you, dear listener!

Don't forget to connect with us

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

Jihae Watson on Facebook

Fostering Voices on Instagram

Jihae Watson on Instagram

and leave a review on iTunes!