Some may assume you have to be middle-age with a well-established family unit to foster, but today’s guest reminds us God can use any age, stage and season of life to impact kids who are hurting. Join Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber as they interview Jess Freeman about her family’s experience fostering—in their 20s— a five-year old girl. She unpacks how to discover the meaning being your foster child’s behavior, continuing to date your spouse in a chaotic season and the village it takes to foster well.

Discover ways you can support foster families and their children at www.sendrelief.org.

Mentions

What’s one of the greatest needs for fostering families? Respite care. If you and your family are not called or ready to foster, you can still be a part of this Kingdom work by providing respite care for fostering families. Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber interview Becca Browning on what it’s like being respite family. In this episode, you’ll hear the challenges and immeasurable rewards of being a respite family and the practical benefits for the foster family and the child.

Discover ways you can support foster families and their children at www.sendrelief.org.

Infertility, a cramped New York apartment, racial dynamics, moving across state lines, lost adoption documents and more. Join co-hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber as they discuss with Carmen Coe her family’s process of adopting two siblings and loving their biological families. Carmen and her husband faced many joys, seasons of waiting and sudden surprises as the Lord grew their family. Their journey beautifully demonstrates what it looks like to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit through the adoption process, in loving their children’s biological family and in the midst of the unknown.

Discover ways you can support foster families and their children at www.sendrelief.org.

Today, we are revisiting a conversation with former foster youth, Crystal Williams.

Listen in for part 2 of Crystal William’s extraordinary message, and let your family be reminded that though we don’t understand why things happen, God created us, sees us and knows us. Crystal, who grew up in the foster care system, shares more years in the foster care system. In this second conversation with Crystal, she discusses getting to know her birth mom after eight years of wondering if her mother was dead or alive.

To listen to part 1, click here.

Today, we are revisiting a conversation with former foster youth, Crystal Williams.

What feelings, emotions and thoughts are your adopted or foster children experiencing? Co-hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber sit down with special guest, Crystal Williams, who grew up in the foster care system. Discover what this artist, advocate and public speaker has to say about her 15 years in the foster care system.

Can God heal your past? Join co-hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber as they speak with special guest, Laura Maxwell, about how God used her past to prepare her for a future of fostering and adopting ministry. Discover how God used Laura’s childhood of chaos to give her empathy and understanding for children in the foster care system.

You won’t want to miss Laura’s testimony in this special episode!

Find out more about Called to Care at iamcalledtocare.com.

To learn more about foster care and adoption, visit https://www.sendrelief.org/foster-care-adoption/.

Suggested resource:

Everyone Can Do Something: A Field Guide for Strategically Rallying Your Church Around the Orphaned and Vulnerable, by Jason Johnson.

Did you know about 700 young adults age out of the foster care system every year in Georgia alone? Join co-hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber as the speak with Pam Parish, founder of Connections Home based in Atlanta. Pam works with young adults who age out of the foster care system and sees their plight first hand.

Hear her story and what you can do to help.

For more information, visit https://www.sendrelief.org/foster-care-adoption/.

Additional resources:

Join co-hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber for part two of this two-part series with Jami Kaeb from the Forgotten Initiative. In this episode, you’ll learn more about Jami’s organization and hear how it began with the continuation of her story. You won’t want to miss the inspiring and heart-warming story from this mom of seven children.

To learn more about the Forgotten Initiative, visit https://www.theforgotteninitiative.org/.

If you missed part one, you can listen and subscribe here!

Additional resources:

Join co-hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber for part one of this two-part series featuring Jami Kaeb from the Forgotten Initiative. Married for 18 years and a mom to seven children, hear how God brought adoption and foster care into Jami’s life in an unusual way. In this first episode of Jami’s story, you’ll discover the ways God moved Jami’s heart toward foster care and adoption and learn tips to moving forward in your own foster or adoption journey.

For more information on ways you can get involved, or support foster and adoptive families, go to sendrelief.org/foster-care-adoption.

“The Forgotten Podcast” www.wholovesseries.org and www.theforgotteninitiative.org