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 Jun 24, 2024
Monday Jun 24, 2024
"Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me." Psalm 27:10
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this episode, host Sandra Flach, talks with Marina Carrier. Marina lived through early trauma as an illegitimate unwanted child. As a little girl she was sexually abused and left for dead. As an adult, she became a teacher, married, and adopted a child. Then, God called her back to the Church where she learned what it means to live in “spirit and in truth.”
Listen in as Marina shares how the suffering of her childhood became revealed and unraveled as she embraced her faith and allowed her heart to change. With greater understanding of the effects of trauma and PTSD, healing in faith brought compassion and a heart to bless and serve others who also bear the heavy burdens of lovelessness and shame.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday Jun 17, 2024
Monday Jun 17, 2024
"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." -Isaiah 26:3
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
Throughout the month of June, we’re focusing on dads! This week we’re talking with foster and adoptive dad, Adam Southerland. Adam is the missions and ministry pastor at New Hope Community Church in Queensbury, NY. He grew unpin southeast Michigan, where he married his wife Hanna. Their oldest daughter was adopted as an infant in 2018, followed by two biological sons. Adam and Hannah are currently foster parents and lead their church’s foster and adoption ministry—including CarePortal.
Listen in as Adam shares his family’s “yes” to adoption and foster care.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday Jun 10, 2024
Monday Jun 10, 2024
"For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory." -1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
Throughout the month of June, we’re focusing on dads! This week we’re talking with our resident expert—and foster dad—Dr. Jerrod Brown.
Listen in as Dr. Brown unpacks neuro-parenting and how dads (and moms) can apply brain-based strategies to better connect with and support our kids from hard places.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday Jun 03, 2024
Monday Jun 03, 2024
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." -Galatians 2:20
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
Throughout the month of June, we’re focusing on dads! To kick us off, this week host Sandra Flach talks with Joshua Legg. Joshua is passionate about helping men grow in Christ and seeing marriages healed. He understands the complexities of families parenting children with special needs and is well versed in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders—both professionally and as a brother of an adopted sibling with FAS.
Joshua pursues his passion for dads and families as a pastor, and through discipleship mentoring, and coaching. He and his wife Heather offer marriage intensives, drawing from their own journey and walking beside couples as they heal.
Listen in as Joshua offers encouragement and hope to foster and adoptive parents—especially dads.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday May 27, 2024
Monday May 27, 2024
"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13:7
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this week’s episode host Sandra Flach talks with Todd and Kristin Evans about their new book, How to Build a Thriving Marriage as You Care for Children with Disabilities.
Listen in as the Evans’s share how the chronic stress of raising their children with disabilities affected their marriage and how they went from barely surviving to thriving.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday May 20, 2024
Monday May 20, 2024
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content, with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this week’s episode host Sandra Flach talks with Jennifer Kritner, Vice President of Retail and Company Culture at Unclaimed Baggage. She also serves as the director of Unclaimed Baggage’s charitable foundation, Reclaimed For Good. Jennifer is passionate about the company’s purpose “to redeem the lost, unclaimed and rejected—for the glory of God.” She and her husband, Patrick, are also passionate about foster care and adoption and regularly welcome children into their home.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Email: sandraflach@justicefororphansny.org
@unclaimedbag
Monday May 13, 2024
Monday May 13, 2024
"In You, LORD my God, I put my trust.” -Psalm 25:1
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this week’s episode host Sandra Flach talks with adoptive mom, Dr. Melody Aguayo. Dr Aguayo is a parent consultant for overwhelmed parents who are looking for support and solutions to navigate their parenting journey. She has a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and a PhD in Psychology. Melody is also professionally trained in Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), but it is her own journey as a parent that has been her greatest teacher.
Listen in as Sandra and Melody discuss who to keep showing up for our kids even when our cup is empty.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Email: sandraflach@justicefororphansny.org
Wednesday May 08, 2024
Wednesday May 08, 2024
“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women have done excellently, but YOU surpass them all.” -Proverbs 31:28-29
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this week’s episode host Sandra Flach shares a Mother’s Day message of encouragement for foster and adoptive moms. Mother’s Day can be triggering for our kids and hard for moms on many levels.
Listen in as Sandra acknowledges the messiness of second motherhood, offers encouragement, and prays for listeners as you navigate your unique parenting journey.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday May 06, 2024
Monday May 06, 2024
"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people." -Ephesians 6:13-18
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this week’s episode host Sandra Flach shares her experience as an adoptive parent of a child with an FASD within the public school system. Once a homeschool parent, she ventured into the world of public education and often found herself educating the educators about her son's specific needs.
Listen in as Sandra talks about the frustrations of navigating the resources and systems in place for special needs children, and what she learned as a fierce advocate for her son and his needs.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Monday Apr 15, 2024
Monday Apr 15, 2024
"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" -Psalm 127:3-5a
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
On this episode host Sandra Flach talks with returning guest and resident expert, Dr. Jerrod Brown. Dr. Brown is a professor, trainer, researcher, consultant with multiple years of experience in teaching at the college level. He is the founder and CEO of the American Institute for the Advancement of Forensic Studies. Jerrod has provided consultation services to caregivers, professionals, and organizations on the topics of autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol disorder, confabulation, suggestibility, trauma, another life adversities—including alexithymia, executive dysfunction, criminal recidivism, traumatic brain injury, and youth fire setting. Dr. Brown has completed 4 separate master’s degree programs handhelds graduate certificates in neuroscience and the law, neuropsychology, autism, other health disabilities, and TBI. In 2021, Jerod completed his post-doctoral certificate in leadership and organizational strategy and a professional certificate in forensic psychology. In 2023, he competed a diabetes care and education certificate. And, currently he is pursuing his 5th master’s degree in applied clinical nutrition. Jerrod has conducted hundreds of workshops and webinars, published several articles, book chapters and recently co-edited the book, Forensic Mental Health—A Source Guide for Professionals. Dr. Brown has been quoted in various magazine & newspaper articles and is regularly featured on national & international podcasts—like this one. He’s also a foster parent.
Listen in as Sandra and Dr. Brown discuss the importance of the first 1,000 days of life and how prenatal and early childhood trauma impacts the brain and body.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
sandraflach@justicefororphansny.org