The Defender Podcast

Rick Morton, Herbie Newell, and Chelsea Sobolik welcome attorney and advocate Palmer Williams, a partner at Holtzman Vogel and former general counsel of the ERLC. Palmer traces her heart for vulnerable children from her own childhood experience of need, through summers and a gap year serving at a children's home in rural South Africa, to the adoption of her brother. She talks about approaching communities with a gifts-first posture, why lasting service starts with relationship, and how the church can respond with grace to awkward or offensive comments. The panel digs into the difference between enforcing laws and writing new ones, why state and local policy matters so much, and how families can tell their stories to policymakers. They close with the steep decline in international adoption and why the church should keep raising the banner for children without families.

Over 3,400 children are in foster care in South Carolina, and some are staying in government offices because no homes are available. Rob, Herbie, and Ford discuss the need for families for teens and sibling groups, how to discern a call to foster, and practical ways to support foster families.

South Carolina has 3,432 children in foster care, and about 2,800 entered care last year, more than seven a day. Lifeline’s Lowcountry team needs 75 homes for sibling groups and 181 for children without siblings. The children who have waited longest are ages 8 and up, sibling groups, and kids with higher needs.
 In this episode, Rob, Herbie, and Ford discuss:

• Why keeping siblings together and kids in their communities matters, and why safety always comes first
• The fear of saying goodbye, and what James 1:27 says about caring for vulnerable children
• Calling vs. feelings: how to discern whether God is leading you to foster
• Practical first steps, starting with talking to your pastor and community group
• Ways to support foster families through meals, encouragement, respite, and prayer

Ready to take a step? Visit lifelinechild.org/becomeafosterparent, call 205-967-0811, or follow Lifeline Child on social media. If you’re outside South Carolina, reach out and Lifeline will connect you with resources.

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome and the need in South Carolina
01:00 The numbers
02:30 Why siblings stay together
04:15 Keeping kids in their county
05:45 The fear of saying goodbye
06:40 James 1:27 and God’s sovereignty
07:55 Called to foster vs. called to advocate
08:50 Teens who need homes
10:40 Discerning your calling
13:20 How to get started
15:45 Engaging the next generation
16:40 Wrapping around foster families
19:10 Small acts, big impact
20:45 Closing

foster care, South Carolina, foster parenting, adoption, Christian, ministry, child welfare, teens in foster care, sibling groups, Lifeline Children’s Services, orphan care, church, family, Defender Podcast

Rick Morton, Emily Richards, and Herbie Newell sit down with Greyson Holt, a Lifeline family therapist in North Carolina, who is also a foster and adoptive mom and grew up as a sibling in an adoptive family. Greyson shares how a third-grade calling grew into a career, why the community around a family makes saying yes to a placement possible, and why counting the cost is faithful rather than faithless. The conversation covers TBRI in real kitchens, rupture and repair, the freedom of "getting it right 30 percent of the time," and how sanctification and belonging, not just peace, shape the way we parent. Greyson also talks about anchoring her work as a Christian therapist in who we are in Christ.

On this episode of The Table, host Dr. Rick Morton and the full panel, Chelsea Sobolik, Emily Chapman Richards, and Herbie Newell, welcome Lauren McAfee, founder and CEO of Life Collective, PhD student in ethics and public policy, and adoptive mom of three.
 Lauren shares how her passion for life and adoption began at a family birthday dinner, where an empty seat at the table prompted her and her sister to ask their parents about adopting. That prayerful nudge led to her youngest sister joining the family from China and eventually to Lauren and her husband, Michael, adopting three daughters from China, India, and the U.S. She also recounts how the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case drew her into national pro-life leadership and inspired the founding of Life Collective.
 The panel explores the power of collective impact, why unity among like-minded ministries matters, and how churches can build networks that wrap holistic support around vulnerable women, children, and families. Lauren unpacks the Imago Dei as the foundation for both human dignity and our need for community, and she challenges Protestants to think more carefully about the ethics of reproductive technologies.
 With the State Department reporting intercountry adoption at an all-time low of roughly 800 in FY25, the group tackles the "PR problem" facing international adoption. Drawing on Chelsea's perspective as both an adoptee and adoptive mom, they discuss how Christians can hold grief and hope together, honor adult adoptee voices, and advocate well ahead of the 2027 Hague Special Commission on intercountry adoption.

 Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and panel introductions
03:40 Lauren's story: adoption, Hobby Lobby, and Life Collective
12:40 Collective impact and unity in the pro-life movement
17:14 The church as a community that lives out the call
21:50 Bioethics, reproductive technology, and the Protestant church
28:01 Intercountry adoption hits an all-time low
34:46 International adoption's PR problem
41:23 Laying down agendas for the bigger vision
47:18 Adult adoptee voices and the 2027 Hague Special Commission
49:51 Closing thoughts
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Simon Benn was adopted at five weeks old in 1967 and grew up in England always knowing his story. At 40, an unexpected burst of anger during a horse whispering course brought buried feelings about his birth mother to the surface. Nine years later, a letter in his adoption file changed everything. Rick Morton talks with the founder of Thriving Adoptees about the primal wound, why adoptive parents should never dismiss relinquishment trauma, and why the adoption community needs to move from trauma obsessed to thriving obsessed. As Simon puts it, the past is a place of reference, not a place of residence. Find more at thrivingadoptees.com.

Katie Adams, manager of Lifeline's expat adoption program, joins Dr. Rick to trace her path from a childhood on Fort Benning through a faith awakening in high school, a major shift from nursing to social work at Samford, and a season of service with kids with special needs. She shares how a global pandemic redirected her toward Lifeline, how she fell unexpectedly in love with India's adoption program, and how she now helps missionary and military families overseas navigate the practical, financial, and emotional sides of adopting internationally.

In this episode of the Defender Podcast, Executive Director Herbie Newell and Ford sit down with Tommy DeRamos of Shades Mountain Baptist Church to talk about Heritage Builders, a Lifeline-created, church-run mentoring program for teens in foster care. Tommy shares how a small monthly meeting with fifteen kids grew into a five-year ministry teaching life skills like budgeting, job interviews, and car maintenance, all wrapped in biblical teaching and steady adult presence. The conversation lands on the real stakes: without mentors and a faith community, kids aging out of foster care face staggering odds of homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration, and why churches, not just agencies, are positioned to change that outcome.

On this episode of The Defender, Rob, Herbie, Karla, and Ford unpack the newly released 2025 intercountry adoption numbers, down to 973 children from 1,172 the year before. They break down why the drop isn't about declining need but about a harder process: older kids, sibling groups, more complex needs, and mounting bureaucratic delays. The team talks through what Lifeline is doing in response (focusing on smaller emerging programs, hosting initiatives, and advocacy), and makes a direct call to action: pray, advocate with your representatives, consider hosting, and if you're ready, take the next step toward adoption. A candid, hopeful conversation about a shifting landscape and the families and children still waiting.

Vikram grew up in a leper colony in Rajasthan before being taken in by a Christian orphanage that eventually became home to over a thousand kids. On this episode of What's Your Story, he shares his journey from orphan to Bible college graduate to houseparent over 450 children, and how a wandering season away from faith ended when God put a church next door to his home. Today Vikram serves as Lifeline's India program coordinator, helping adoptive families navigate the hardest first days of bonding with their new child, a role families affectionately call him "the baby whisperer" for. Listen to hear how God used every part of his story, even growing up without a family, to prepare him to help other families find theirs.

This summer Lifeline had sixteen kids come to the US for two weeks through the international hosting program, most of whom had already been passed over by families both in Colombia and abroad. On this episode of The Defender, Karla shares what happens from the airport arrival to the hard goodbye, including the story of two brothers where the older boy gave up his own shot at adoption so his little brother could find a family. Six of these sixteen kids still need forever families. Watch the full episode to learn how you can advocate for them, even if adoption isn't the next step for your family.