Episode 112 – Opening Up to Birth Parents

Many foster parents draw firm boundaries between themselves and their foster children’s birth parents. But is this right? In this interview with Saint Fults, a social worker in St. Louis, Missouri, we learn of another perspective of openness toward birth family relationships from the beginning of the child’s placement.

Fults advocates that foster parents should consider opening their lives more fully to birth families, including hosting visits in the foster home.

The perspective challenged us to think about what is truly best for the children in our care, and how a higher degree of openness in foster care might better set up birth families for successful reunification.

Episode 111 – Lice Invasion

D & K are back with a new episode. They welcomed in a short term placement with some unexpected visitors, transitioned her to another foster home and celebrated their first ever “familiversary”. Hear how Dillon and Austin are transitioning into permanence and how the entire family is preparing for the addition of a brand new “loin child”.

Episode 110 – Celebration or Tragedy

T & W field a listener question about the appropriateness of celebrating a foster placement. Is it born of tragedy or is it a cause for joy? We also discuss the Penn State child abuse scandal and the latest in our lives.

If you ever need to report child abuse call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD

Episode 12 – Parenting with Love and Logic

We use Love and Logic, a parenting approach that – you guessed it – emphasizes two things: love and logic.

In this episode we talk about:

  • Parenting With Love And Logic. Buy the book!
  • The basics of Love and Logic: choices, consequences and empathy
  • Why Love and Logic is effective with foster children
  • Examples from our experiences with kids, ages 3 to 18

Episode 11 – Discipline, Spanking and Time-outs.

Wendy’s back behind the microphone, so no shenanigans this week.

In this episode we talk about:

  • The difficulties the girls had while Wendy was away
  • The difference between discipline and punishment
  • Can you spank foster kids?
  • The difficulties we have making the girls sit through a time-out

Episode 10 – Community

Wendy is out of town, so Tim hosts the podcast by himself but he’s got 2 special guest with him!

In this episode we talk about:

  • The need for community in the life of a foster parent.
  • His Children, an organization that helps churches develop foster care ministries
  • Special things Wendy did for the girls while she is away.

Episode 9 – When Are You Going To Have Your Own Kids?

The second most question we are asked is “when are you going to have your own kids?” We struggle with how to answer this question. You can hear our thoughts on why.

In this episode we talk about:

  • Why we’re troubled by an innocent question
  • Consider Birth Order
  • Foster kids are always expected to bend

Episode 8 – Gifts for Foster and Adoptive Families

We’ve had some questions about what are good gifts to give to foster kids. Please, we’re not asking for anything!

In this episode we talk about:

  • Good and bad reasons to give
  • Gifts that welcome a child
  • Gifts that show solidarity

Episode 7 – Nobody Saw THAT Coming

We got a surprise this week that may change the course of our lives.

In this episode we also talk about:

Episode 6 – Be A Good Daddy

We talk about how important it is for foster kids to have good daddies.

We talk about: