Host Sandra Flach is a mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—one kinship and 4 international. Her youngest 2 are teens diagnosed with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). With over 30 years of parenting experience and 20 plus years as an adoptive and kinship parent, she’s made mountains of mistakes and learned loads of lessons. She understands the difficult road of parenting children with trauma histories—and she is still in the trenches! The Adoption & Foster Care Journey is a podcast to encourage, educate, and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care, and kinship care. We aim to support adoptive and foster families by sharing encouraging real-life stories and equipping them with modern-day research and parenting techniques.
Episodes
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
“Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Welcome to Orphans No More - a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
*As of June 1, 2022 this podcast will have new name: The Adoption and Foster Care Journey. Same host, same great content, just a more relevant name.
This show kicks off our Foster Care series for the Month of May—National Foster Care Month. In this episode host Sandra Flach talks with foster mom, Jillana Goble. Jillana is the author of A Love Stretched Life—Stories on Wrangling Hope, Embracing the Unexpected, and Discovering the Meaning of Family.
Listen in as Jillana shares her experience as a foster parent walking alongside a birth mom, adopting 2 children, parenting a child with FASD, and starting the nonprofit, Every Child Oregon.
Tune in to Episode 323 to hear Jillana’s inspiring story and visit our website for a chance to win a copy of Jillana’s book.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Apr 25, 2022
Monday Apr 25, 2022
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3
Welcome to Orphans No More - a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
*As of June 1, 2022 this podcast will have new name: The Adoption and Foster Care Journey. Same host, same great content, just a new name.
On this episode, host and adoptive mom, Sandra Flach, candidly shares about the ups and downs of parenting children and youth with childhood trauma and neurodiversity such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder FASD.
Tune in to Episode 322 to discover how the highs and lows of the second mother parenting become level at the foot of the cross—and sometimes we need to drag each other there to remember where our help comes from.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Welcome to Orphans No More - a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
*As of June 1, 2022 this podcast will have new name: The Adoption and Foster Care Journey. Same host, same great content, just a new name.
“By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3
Adoptive parents and foster and kinship caregivers need a community of support around them. They also must be trauma and FASD informed.
This week, host Sandra Flach, speaks with adoptive mom, Camie Schuiteman about navigating the adoption journey. Camie and her husband have 3 biological kids and 3 children adopted internationally—two from Vietnam and one from Ukraine. Their youngest child is diagnosed with an FASD.
Tune in to Episode 321 as Sandra and Camie discuss childhood trauma, FASD, and other topics relevant to adoption, foster care and kinship care.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Welcome to ONM - a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
“I will never leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18
Adoptive parents, foster care, and kinship caregivers need community. We need encouragement for the journey and tools to help us stay the course. Over the past 7 years, Orphans No More has been providing that community, but our name makes it hard for people who need us to find us. That’s why we are changing the name of this podcast to The Adoption, Foster Care & Kinship Journey.
As of June 1, 2022, current subscribers will still receive this podcast on their device, but it will arrive by our new name—The Adoption, Foster Care & Kinship Journey. Our desire is to be a vital resource to those in this community.
Our format will remain this same and we will continue to bring you content and guest interviews relevant to parents caring for children and youth with trauma histories including FASD.
On this week's episode, host Sandra Flach explains the name change in more depth and shares about what she’s been learning in her FASCETS Training of Facilitators.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Welcome to ONM - a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
“I am laid low in the dust;
preserve my life according to your word.”
Psalm 119:25
At some point in this journey of raising other people’s children, caregivers will experience grief, loss, or sorrow. The little by little disappearance of a life we thought we’d live. Our expectations of family and future seem to evaporate like the morning dew on a hot July day—and we don’t realize it until we’re feeling dry, empty, burned.
This week, host Sandra Flach transparently shares about grief and sorrow from her twenty plus years of experience as an adoptive and kinship parent. Listen in as she talks about her struggles and offers three points of encouragement for fellow adoptive parents.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Mar 28, 2022
Monday Mar 28, 2022
“Then Job replied to the Lord, “I know that you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Job 42:2
Sometimes our best laid plans fall apart but God’s purposes prevail. Such is the case for adoptive mom, Darlene Larson. During a time when her family should have been growing and thriving, she lost two close family members and her marriage of 25 years unraveled.
On this episode, host Sandra Flach speaks with Darlene Larson about the pain of suffering from emotional and mental abuse and how going deep with God led her to her purpose. Today, Darlene is life coach and founder of Hearts with a Purpose. She passionately coaches women that are harried, hurting and hungry, guiding them to the freedom that discovering their purpose brings.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
FB @DarleneLarson
Insta @heartswithapurpose
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Monday Mar 21, 2022
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27
Over the past few weeks, approximately three million people have fled Ukraine—primarily women and children. Entire orphanages are among the Ukrainian refugees now in Poland and Romania. Many of these children were in process of being either hosted or adopted by American families.
On this episode host Sandra Flach speaks with Ukrainian adoptive mom Jill Krenzer. Jill is a team member with the nonprofit hosting organization, Host Orphans Worldwide. Listen in as Jill shares the heartbreak her family and many others are experiencing as they watch the horrors unfold in Ukraine and await the fate of children they were in process to host and/or adopt this summer.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuine of your faith—a grater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7
If you are an adoptive, foster or kinship caregiver, you may feel as if there are more trials than triumphs.
On this episode, host Sandra Flach candidly shares some of the trials she has faced parenting her teenage adopted son who has FASD. Sandra also highlights three recent triumphs she and her son are celebrating.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
“He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge…” Psalm 144:2
As war rages in Ukraine, the most vulnerable suffer—especially orphans.
This week, Host Sandra Flach, an adoptive mom of four children born in Ukraine, speaks with Kim De Blecourt, also mom of a son adopted from Ukraine. Kim is the founder of Nourished Hearts, a nonprofit serving orphans and vulnerable families in Ukraine.
Listen in as these moms, passionate for Ukrainian orphans, discuss needs on the ground, how listeners can help, and end with prayer for Ukraine.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
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Monday Feb 28, 2022
Monday Feb 28, 2022
“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn darkness into light before them; and make rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”
Answering God’s call to foster or adopt children is huge—but sometimes He doesn’t stop there. Often, God will invite us to serve other families in this community. That’s exactly what He did through adoptive mom Kelly Raudenbush.
After adopting her daughter from China, Kelly went on to establish the Sparrow Fund, a nonprofit passionate about supporting adoptive families. Listen in as host Sandra Flach talks with Kelly about her family’s adoption story and about the services offered through the Sparrow Fund.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode: