Instead of interviewing someone else, Just As Special host Natasha is actually in the hot seat this time thanks to House of Pod’s From the Margins to the Center podcast.

They generously gave us permission to run this interview on our show and we hope you enjoy going behind the scenes of the Just As Special podcast!

Natasha also talks about how Just As Special moves beyond the microphone to build resources and community for foster families. 

Learn more at JustAsSpecial.com.

Longtime foster care volunteer Denise Lombard shares about her experience being a consistent support for kids in care as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). 

Denise's approach to supporting kids in foster care gives us takeaways we can all learn from, no matter what our role is.

See photos of Denise with her kiddos and learn more about becoming a CASA at JustAsSpecial.com.

Diamond Kobylinski describes how he literally had to unpack his survival mechanisms from growing up in the foster care system after being adopted. 

Diamond also shares about how his relationships developed over time with his adoptive moms, Amy and Jessica. And how an unexpected medical event impacted those relationships. 

Learn more at JustAsSpecial.com. 

Diamond describes how growing up gay in the foster care system made his life extra-intense. 

As a teenager, Diamond was faced with an important decision when he learned a family of two moms was interested in adopting him. 

Since this recording, Diamond has closed Hope for Colorado. 

Fact Check: Currently there are more than 400,000 kids in foster care in the United States. Every year, 23,000 kids age out without any family to call home. 

Learn more at JustAsSpecial.com.

Longtime foster parent and foster parent trainer, Kaleo George, discusses how each of her 3 kids are impacted by their family's foster care journey. 

Longtime foster parent and foster parent trainer, Kaleo George, opens up about the messiness of foster care.

In opening up about her personal experiences as a foster mom, Kaleo also paints a picture of how to navigate foster parenting in a way that honors both the complexities and families involved — and the beauty that arises when you show up to stand alongside someone in the messiness of life.

Topics covered include:

• Placement disruptions

• Attachment difficulties

• Grief after placements end

• Savior complex

• Tensions inherent to the foster care system

• Relationships with bio parents

We loved our time with Kaleo (she had so many mic drop moments we lost track) and hope you do too!

To see photos of Kaleo and her family, visit JustAsSpecial.com.

This is the second episode of our This Foster Care Life miniseries where we bring you multiple perspectives around the same topic.

Today's topic is how past trauma affects today's brain. 

In this episode, you will hear from:

• Diamond Kobylinski, a self-described former gay foster youth, who describes how coming out while in the system affected his emotional state.

• Kaleo George, a longtime foster parent and foster parent trainer, about how her past trauma impacts her foster parenting.

• Patti Swope, a therapist, former foster parent, and mom to former kid in care Mattie, about how to manage your own trauma as a foster parent.
  
• Mattie Baker, Patti’s daughter, a former kid in care and current social worker, about the intensity of trauma. 

This episode was created in partnership with Urban Leaders Fellowship and made possible by generous support from Cobbled Streets and the Colorado Association of Family and Children's Agencies.

Bruce LeClaire, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, has spent more than 20 years being an advocate for native youth in the foster care system. 

He joins us to discuss how culture is a guiding star for native youth.

We also discuss culture clashes with mainstream America, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and much more. 

Cultural Ties is the first episode of our This Foster Care Life miniseries where we bring you multiple perspectives around the same topic.

Our fellow Emmy Tither personally relates to the idea of cultural ties as they are half-Peruvian and half-British, making them the perfect host for this episode.

In this episode, you will also hear from:

• Bruce LeClaire: A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe who has been a youth advocate for more than 30 years and spent most of those years working within the foster care system and with native families. (Full Podcast Interview Coming August 17th)
  
  
• Brittany: A foster mom in a multi-racial Muslim family raising three kids in care who are of different ethnicities than her and her husband. Brittany has faced many challenges when it comes to foster care including culture clashes and getting extended family to accept her and her husband's kids in care.
  
  
• Kenisha E. Anthony: A former kid in care who kept falling through the cracks of the foster care system to the point that she felt like a burden to everyone and experienced suicidal thoughts. She later returned to the foster care system as a caseworker which opened her eyes up even more.

In-demand therapist Patti Swope describes how she became mom to one of her former patients, Mattie Baker (a former foster youth and one of our fan-favorite podcast guests).

Patti specializes in the power of secure attachments and she walks us through how she and Mattie overcame trigger cycles and skepticism from the foster care system to become family for each other.

Learn more at JustAsSpecial.com.