The Adoptive Mom

www.TheAdoptiveMomPodcast.com

If foster and adoptive parents are like the regular superheroes of this world, then single foster and adoptive parents are like actual Superman himself…the ultimate superhero. (Don’t @ me with Thor, they’re in different universes and that’s not the point.) Single parents not only step up for battle…they do it with even less support. Add in a lifetime of trauma, and you have Peter freaking Habyarimana.

Sometimes in adoption we are handed really hard circumstances. There’s unknown trauma, abuse history, really unsettling diagnoses like RAD or ODD, the list goes on. But what happens when you get a hard diagnosis that is completely separate for adoption circumstances? Like cancer? Or Autism? Or a genetic condition?

In this week’s episode of The Adoptive Mom Podcast, we’re discussing just such circumstances. Between my experience with my son’s Marfan’s Syndrome diagnosis and my guest Ann Meythaler’s daughter’s cancer battle, we had a lot to talk about.

https://www.patreon.com/theadoptivemom

This is a BONUS episode following my conversation with Heather McFadyen(S5E1) about " How to Talk to Your Spouse About Adoption." This is a weekly show I'm doing for my Patreon supporters and you can join in! I have a study guide that we will launch weekly a well to help you make the most of the topics we cover. This is all for YOU! Thanks for supporting what we do here at AMP!

I want to welcome you guys to the fifth season of The Adoptive Mom Podcast and give you the sincerest THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for the support, encouragement, and partnership that you guys have gifted to me these past two years. I can’t wait for you guys to see what we have in store for this season and I’m thrilled to death that I get to take you along for the ride!

Heather and I got to chat about her family connections with adoption and then her personal story of trusting God and letting go of a desire to adopt when it wasn’t what her husband wanted. She beautifully paints a picture for us of the sadness that comes with a broken dream and the relentless love of Christ to walk us through pain.

For those of you less in the know: Dubbed a “warrior princess” by author Michael Lewis in his best-selling book The Blind Side, Leigh Anne is the inspirational matriarch of the Tuohy family. Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy are the proud parents of daughter Collins and sons Michael Oher and Sean, Jr. In February 2013, Leigh Anne and the whole Tuohy family were on the sidelines cheering Michael and the Baltimore Ravens on to his first Super bowl victory.

https://theadoptivemompodcast.com/blog/leighanntuohy

Ok you guys. I’ve covered all of the other major therapy disciplines, but I’ll be honest, I wasn’t quite sure where PT fit it. My son is in PT, but it still seemed like more of an outward issue, not a trauma issue (with the exception of some physical abuse stuff of course). When I talked to Kristi Harris a few months ago, I asked her what her thoughts were. I knew she was a PT and I knew she had an amazing adoption story, but I just wanted to make sure this topic would be applicable for you guys. Kristi was like “Girl. Let me just tell you how applicable this is.”

Today I am excited to introduce you you Casey Douglas!

Casey is a data analyst and a wedding photographer - two things that obviously go hand in hand.

She and her husband are also therapeutic foster and adoptive parents to teenagers. Yes! That ripe old 27 year old up there!Her heart for kids from hard places that are what many would and do call “Unadoptable” is profound, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear about how she and her husband care for “the least of these.”

HAPPY BIRTH MOTHERS DAY!

This coming Saturday, we get to honor, either directly or in our thoughts and prayers, the women who brought our children into this world. No matter what our experience with her is, she deserves our love and respect for giving our children life.

Today I have a couple of different guest interviews for y’all. The first is with that guy up there. Josh Bryant is an attorney, adoption ethicist, and adoption reform advocate in Northwest Arkansas. He spent several years practicing family law in which he did adoptions on behalf of adoptive parents. He is also an adoptive father of two children, so he has experienced adoption from that perspective as well. He also has one biological son, and he and his wife Megan live in Northwest Arkansas.

My next interview with with Andrea (my mom) and Michaela from Shared Beginnings. Mom and Michaela are no rookies to the podcast, but since their episodes, they have partnered up to launch Shared Beginnings, a nonprofit whose goal is to support birth mothers with legal help, life skills help, and more.

Christie Erwin’s deep love for children led her and husband, Jeff, to become foster parents in 1993, for a private, non-profit adoption agency. It was there that the foundation for Christie’s passion and driving concern for children in foster care was laid. After fostering for eleven years with the private agency, the Erwin’s became foster parents for the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services in 2004. They fostered over fifty children during their twenty years of fostering.

It’s time yet again for our seasonal Dads Episode!

Y’all went crazy over this last time, so guess who’s back? Back Again…Bryan’s back…with a friend.

Sorry.

But you guys! get excited to meet C.R. Braniff. You guys met (or already knew) his wife Angela back in season 3, and now you get to meet the other 1/2 of the This Gathered Nest power couple.