The journey to foster care and/or adoption looks different for each one of us. But for the moms on this podcast we all can point to a time when God said "this is what I want you to do." For Kate Rietema, it was about seventeen years ago as she listened to stories from foster parents and felt her heart stirred to say yes. Now, reflecting back on that time, Kate shares her own stories of loving and caring for children not her own and how God met her through them.

Kate Rietema is the author of three children's books including When God Makes Scribbles Beautiful and All the Babies: A First Book About Adoption. She is the bio and adoptive mother of five girls and has been a mom to many others through foster care. Throughout her life, Kate has experienced God's deep kindness, and she loves to share her stories with others. Kate works as a nurse, volunteers at her county jail, and lives at the campground she and her husband operate in West Michigan. You can learn more about Kate at www.katerietema.com.

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

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Happy Thanksgiving Mamas! Given the season, I wanted to re-share an episode from two years ago with Katie Wetsell about gratitude. More than feeling grateful or writing something down in your journal, which is good to do, gratitude is meant to be shared. As parents, when we model gratitude to our children and express ours to them, we invite them to experience the benefits and enjoyment that a grateful heart brings.

Katie Wetsell is a Connected Families certified parent coach. You can find her at parentwithhope.org and on Instagram @parentwithhopecoach

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

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Who are the women who helped shape your faith? Whose faith are you helping shape today? Those are the questions that today's mom from Scripture guides us to ask. My guest, Evie Wesner, draws our attention to a single verse in the Scripture that speaks to a legacy of faith that one mama, one grandma, left behind. Her name was Lois and she is known for how she passed down her faith to her daughter Eunice and her grandson Timothy. Listen in as Evie shares how Lois' testimony has spoken to her and motivated her in her own parenting.

Evie Wesner is wife to Steve and mama to two young adult sons. She grew up as a missionary kid in Brazil and now lives with her family in Indiana.

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

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Image from John Heseltine / Pam Masco / FreeBibleimages.org.

Have you ever found yourself comparing your capacity for something with your friend's and found yours lacking? I have. And it has led me to questioning what was wrong with me and why I couldn't measure up. God, in his kindness, met me recently during one of those times and spoke a different word over me. He wants to speak that word over you as well. I pray you will be encouraged through this episode.

Scripture referenced:

• Matthew 25:14-30
• 1 Corinthians 12
• Ephesians 2:10

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

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Fostering kiddos can bring us to the end of ourselves, of our limited human capacity. But today's guest, Ashley Carter, reminds us that isn't a bad thing. Because it is there that we recognize the true rescuer, Jesus Christ, and the work he is accomplishing in the children we are caring for, but also in our own hearts. He gives us the ability to continue, filling us up so that we can pour out to the little ones in our homes, and whomever else he calls us to love.

Ashley Carter is a bio, foster and adoptive mama of six kiddos, wife to John, and a songwriter, hiker, bicycle rider, Jesus sharer, and adventurer. Listen one of her songs, I Will Carry You, on Amazon or Spotify.

We talk to our kids a lot, don't we? We are giving instructions, correcting them, laughing with them, connecting with them. Some conversations are hard and some are pure joy. Have you ever thought about incorporating blessings into those conversations? In this episode of Parenting Practicals, Christy Grey teaches us about just that. Walking us through six Scripture passages, she shows us how speak the words of the Bible over our children in a way that lets them know God is for them and he is with them. She even put those six categories into a ready to print pdf for you to reference throughout the day. Download it here.

Christy Grey is a certified Connected Families parent coach, offering coaching and parenting classes in the Louisville area. You can learn more about her on the Connected Families website or through her facebook group.

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

Want to say hello?

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How do the stories of the moms in the Bible speak to you? What has God taught you through them?

That is what this season's Moms in the Bible series is all about. I am inviting other mamas to come and share their answers to those questions. This month, my sister Kim Taylor talks about how Rachel and Leah's lives of comparison and rivalry speak a cautionary word to us. Their lives were impacted significantly by the actions of their father and the way that they responded then impacted their own children. Joy is a quality found wanting in their story, and the same can often be said about us, can't it? But it doesn't have to be that way. Intentionally recounting to ourselves who God is and what he has done shifts our attitude away from comparison to one of gratitude. It is there that joy can be found in abundance even in the mundane tasks of motherhood.

Hear more about Rachel and Leah from our Moms in the Bible series:

• Part 1
• Part 2

This isn't the first time Kim has joined us on Moms Take Ten. Check out her other episodes!

• Intentional Parenting, ep. 30
• Beauty in the Ordinary, ep. 55

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

Want to say hello?

Follow me on Facebook and Insta @lyssastoyko Email me at [email protected]

Image from John Heseltine / Pam Masco / FreeBibleimages.org.

Have you ever prayed a prayer asking God to do something in you or use you in some way but were wholly unprepared for his answer? When my guest, Kristi Strossner, prayed asking God to take her deeper with him, she didn't anticipate that he would lead her to open her home and her heart to a little girl. Saying yes was not easy nor has the journey since been, but Kristi has seen the Lord continue to answer her prayers and draw her ever closer to himself.

Kristi Strossner is married to Dave, and has four daughters, three biologically and one through kinship guardianship.

Are you a kinship, foster, Safe Families or adoptive parent looking for community? I highly recommend Replanted Ministry. They have support groups all around the country and host conferences as well.

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

Want to say hello?

Follow me on Facebook and Insta @lyssastoyko Email me at [email protected]

It is hard to wait. It is hard to wait for our coffee in the Starbucks line. It is hard to wait for the test results. And it is really hard to wait to see change happen in our parenting or in our children after we have put in so much time, energy and effort. Laura Zach joins me today to talk about her season of waiting and to encourage us in ours. Rather than growing discouraged, we can grow in acceptance and surrender to God and his plan as we walk closely with him.

"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength," from Isaiah 30:15

Laura Zach is a fellow Connected Families certified parent coach and the Women's Ministry Director at Kenmore Alliance Church, a pastor's wife, and mother of three young adults.

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

Want to say hello?

Follow me on Facebook and Insta @lyssastoyko Email me at [email protected]

We have a new season of Moms in the Bible starting and we are doing something a little different. Each week, I will be joined by a fellow mama to talk about how they related to or were taught by one of the moms in the Bible. Today, Kim Tews joins me to talk how God used the story of Hagar to remind her that she too is seen and she too is cared for even when life takes an unexpected and hard turn.

You can read Hagar's story in Genesis 16 and 21. Other Scripture referenced was Isaiah 54:5.

Listen to the previous Moms Take Ten episodes on Hagar: Part 1 was episode 8 and Part 2 was episode 84.

I am a Connected Families certified parent coach offering small groups for moms, individual parent coaching, and workshops. To learn more, head to https://www.lyssastoyko.com/

Help other mamas find encouragement through Moms Take Ten by rating and reviewing this show. That would be a blessing to both them and me. Thank you for your time!

Want to say hello?

Follow me on Facebook and Insta @lyssastoyko Email me at [email protected]

Image from John Heseltine / Pam Masco / FreeBibleimages.org.