Stable Moments Podcast

 Steve always knew he wanted a family. Raised catholic he grew up thinking he was destined to marry a woman and have children. When he was confronted with his attraction to men and the eventual realization that he was gay, he gave up, that dream of having a family and chose the route of gay singledom. As the times changed and he gained greater self acceptance he re-ignited his dream for a family and stared the journey toward parenthood. 

Steve is the author of the book Determined to Be Dad which chronicles his trials and tribulations of self-discovery to acceptance to building a new reality and finally to the joys of creating his own family through adoption.

Steve is a leadership development coach and a diverstity and inclusion consultant.  Check out his website here.
Get Steve's book here.

Facebook  @stevedisselhorst.llc
Instagram @steve.disselhorst
Twitter @SteveDisselhors
LinkedIn

Barry Farmer is a Native of Richmond, Virginia. He grew up in Kinship Care with his grandmother from ages 5-18. For the last 15 years he's been devoted to working inside and outside the classroom with youth and their families. At age 20, Barry became a foster father with a local therapeutic agency to further help youth within his community. At age 22 he adopted his oldest son. Three years later, Barry's two younger sons were placed in his home, making him a proud father of three amazing young men. With these additions to his family, he closed his home after 7 years as an active foster parent. Today, as a single father, Barry is a Spokesman for Adopt Us Kids, Foster Care Adoption Advocate for children awaiting adoption, Speaker, Mentor,  Host of The Barry Farmer Morning Show with Sharon Lizzy a Nationally Syndicated Radio Show based out of Richmond Virginia and The FosterCare & Adoption Life talk Web Series, as well as the Creator/Administrator of one of the largest online support group for Foster Care and Adoptive families. With his show, Barry enjoys connecting with various individuals from across the country, giving them a platform to share their stories and life’s work.

Follow Barry on social @iambarryfarmer
Website: https://www.barryfarmer.com/

Join Angela Flores, Juvenile Justice Worker, as she explores the intersections between juvenile justice and child protective services. 

As a child who has experienced generational foster care, she offers services to children in her community and has a vision to attend law school, to further contribute to the justice system.

Both Alexis and Justin are proud foster care alumni as well as recent graduates, authors, and business owners.
They both join us this week to share their honenest and vulnerable story and to promote their book Re-Defining Normal.
After both spent time in fostercare they met in college and through a healing journey have developed a healthy relationship with eachother, getting married this year.
Together, they've created ROSE (Rising Over Societal
Expectations) Empowerment Group, a company structured to close the information gap for young adults as well as The Scholarship Expert where they support students to graduate debt-free while obtaining the skills needed to be successful. Now, they are releasing
Redefining Normal: How Two Foster Kids Beat The Odds and Discovered Healing, Happiness and Love to share their story of how they've had to redefine what love and healthy
relationships look like.

Get the book
https://www.re-definingnormal.com/

Follow them on IG @re.definingnormal
Follow them on FB @redefiningnormalmemoir

Marianne tells of her story of being an adoptee and how it shaped her childhood and early adulthood. She tells us that even though she was adopted at birth to extremely loving parents, that she still felt like she didn't belong, that something was wrong with her, that she wasn't wanted. 

Her birth certificate says that her birth father denied paternity which left her wondering why? When she saught answers to that question by finding her birth father she was retraumatized as an adult. Listen into her story.

Follow Marianne on Instagram @coffeenchocolate42386

We, as a society, talk about adoption, adoption, adoption and often focus on the child's life after adoption, but what about the birth mom? Listen to Ashley Mitchell discuss her journey through an unwanted pregnancy to an eventual decision to find an adoptive family for her son.
She walks us through finding out she was pregnant, a trip to the abortion clinic, hiding her pregnancy for nearly 8 months, choosing a family for her son and then going home after the birth childless with a body ready to nurture a child.

Ashley chose life, but she didn't feel supported in that decision. How are we supporting the women who are choosing life? Well, she has developed a curriculum for adoption agencies to support birth moms across the nation. Check out her website at:
https://www.sitkneetoknee.com/

Follow her on instagram @bigtoughgirl

This week, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, we discuss how holidays can trigger foster and adopted children. Join us as we explore how not to impose our ideas, customs and traditions on others and instead choose to keep an open mind and implement their ideas into our realities. 

Lauren Flynn from www.fosteradoptivemom.com joins us to wrap up our conversation from last week. This part of the conversation focuses on challenging anti-reunification culture and ensuring representation for transracial adoptees.

Follow Lauren on instagram @loflynnfam

This week Lauren Flynn from the blog www.fosteradoptivemom.com joins us to talk about fostering and adopting medically fragile children. She walks us through her journey and gives us her real perspective on how we view children with disabilities and how her expectations and views have changed since opening her doors to children with medical conditions.

Follow her on instagram @loflynnfam

In this week's episode Jenn Thatcher joins us to discuss how she chose to foster as a single parent. She shares her journey of fostering over eight children and eventually the decision to close her doors. 

Follow Jen on Instagram @lovegodloveorphans