Fostering Voices Podcast

In this episode, we share some simple tips that have been helping us to be more successful in the Watson household of 9. From making the bed to doing the cross crawl, we think you will be encouraged to do little things that will make a big impact. Our kids have already been experiencing some bigs wins at school because of these exercises! Chapters: 0:00 - Intro  3:30 - Thank you to our Sponsors!! 4:15 - The Importance of Habits  4:44 - Exercising Every Day 7:11 - Compound Effect 10:39 - At Dinner Talk About Kindness 16:12 - Cross Crawl 21:10 - Tapping 30:04 - Good Word Of The Day!! Links Showit United Naval Officer  we talked about who tells you why you should make your bed. Compound Effect one of our top 10 books! Read this and feel motivated to keep making small decisions that lead to big results. At Dinner Talk About Kindness! Cross Crawl  This is the new exercise we have been doing at home, and it has already helped out kids to connect the right and left sides of their brains, and has helped them to fo

Join us for a great interview with Rayetta Sanchez, the Department of Child Safety's Community Liaison. She shares all the ways that we can all be involved in helping kids in foster care here in Arizona. We also discuss the big initiative they are working on right now called The Giving Tree. If you are a business, church, organization, or even a very generous person, you can get involved to make a big impact on many of Arizona's kids. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro  9:00 - Welcome Rayetta Sanchez!! 12:16 - What Are Some Ways We Can Help Kids? 16:36 - Arizona Association for Foster and Adoptive Parents 18:07 DCS's Giving Tree Program 21:20 - Get In Touch With Rayetta and DCS 22:07 - Supporting DCS 28:32 - Good Word Of The Day!! 34:00 - Thank Yous and Skinny Vanilla Lattes! Links Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: A Complete Guide to Parenting Adolescents and Launching Them Into the World by Kenneth Wilgus Get in touch with Rayetta Sanchez - engage@azdcs.gov You can email her to get more info, to help out, or to get yo

This episode touches upon staying up on your mental, spiritual, and physical health - especially when things don’t go as planned! But set backs don’t need to be that serious if you can get back on track as soon as possible!   Chapters: 0:00 - Intro  1:24 - Lesson Of The Day 6:50 - "Sometimes You Just Can't Trust Your Toots" - Chris Watson 7:04 - Trusting Yourself to Not Overanalyze 9:56 - Best Laid Plans 12:54 - Good Word Of The Day!! 18:36 - Episode Wrap-up   Links Good Word of the Day Isaiah 26:3 Fostering Voice on IG   Sponsors Showit Bek and Kev  

This episode features an interview with Kate Somerville, the founder of Kate Somerville Skin Health Experts, and Maggie Lin, co-founder of Foster Nation. These two powerful women have overcome hard beginnings and started their own companies, all in the name of being able to help others. Especially foster youth. We hope you are inspired by this interview as much as we were! Chapters: 0:00 - Intro  7:46 - Welcome Kate and Maggie! 8:50 - Kate's Background 12:34 - Maggie's Background 16:00 - The Vulnerability Hangover 19:54 - Foster Nation x Kate Sommerville Skin Care  22:58 - Guardian Angels 27:50 - More on the Kate Sommerville and Foster Nation Collaboration 32:48 - Ways To Support Foster Nation 37:58 - Giving Back As A Mentor 40:48 - Learn About Kate's Company 42:04 - Good Word Of The Day!! 46:24 - Reminder to Focus on Health! 50:26 - Thank You For Listening Please Check Out The Show Notes! Links https://www.katesomerville.com/us/en/ https://www.fosternation.org https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kate-somerville-s

Episode 122 features an interview with Ryan Moore, director of Community Partnerships at Ohana. Ohana is an organization here in Arizona that creates safe, faith-based and loving family environments for foster youth and adults with special needs. They strive to create dignified environments through love and family. Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome to our guest, Ryan Moore! 1:29 - Ryan's 2-minute....no, 5-minute(!) Bio 4:45 - How Ryan and His Wife Met 6:19 - What is Ohana and What Do They Do? 14:45 - What Are Some Ways To Support Ohana? 17:57 - What Has Been Ryan's Biggest Surprise in The Foster Care Community? 22:44 - Donations and Sponsors 24:08 - Good Word Of The Day!! 27:08 - Thank You For Listening And Please Check Out Ohanaaz Let's Connect! Ohana AZ Fostering Voices on Instagram You can also email us! AND we would LOVE it if you would SUBSCRIBE and leave us a review on iTunes! This helps others to find our podcast so we can share these voices from the foster care and adoption community with more people! If you

Welcome to Season 8 of Fostering Voices. We are thrilled you are here for this season opening episode. Jihae and Chris talk all about their highs and lows of the summer, including how some of our kids learned to fly - metaphorically and literally.  Welcome to Season 8 of Fostering Voices. We are thrilled you are here for this season opening episode. Jihae and Chris talk all about their highs and lows of the summer, including some fantastic flying Topher that you will not want to miss out on. Also this summer is 100 days of sustained effort, at exercise, or walking, or even yes, flossing!. We hope you enjoy this episode! Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome Back!!! 1:50 - Review of the Week! 3:20 - Thank You Sponsors!! 8:04 - Summer Tales and Catching Up 10:01 - Topher Flying Away!! 12:02 - More Summer Tales and Catching Up 19:52 - The Anatomy of Peace 24:31 - Good Word of the Day! 29:18 - Commit to 100 Days 30:38 - 100 Days of Flossing...LET'S GO!!!!! Links The Anatomy of Peace - Resolving the Heart of Conflict Andy our

In the final episode of the season Jihae has a deep, insightful, and powerful conversation with Peter Mutabazi. Peter is a single fostering dad who is an advocate for children. he is incredibly active and terrific on social media. His YouTube channel and IG feed are especially active and terrific. We can't wait for you to hear from Peter and hear his passion and commitment to fostering children. Chapters: 1:19 - Finding Joy In This Season 1:39 - DECLUTTER!!!! 3:14 - Chris's Beautiful (Sometimes) Yard 7:59 - Reminder: Please Donate to Foster Care Initiative 9:46 - Chick-Fil-A!!!! 10:36 - Introducing Peter Mutabazi - Foster Dad Flipper 23:35 - How Peter Decided to Become a Foster Parent 37:16 - What Have Been The Challenges As An Adopted Dad? 40:42 - Now You Are Known 51:15 - What Is Bringing You Joy?   Links: From Episode 119 - Foster Care Initiatives Please consider donating by the end of July! Peter's Website - Now I Am Known Peter on YouTube Peter on IG Fostering Voices on IG

This week we are interviewing the lovely Hitomi Mewhinney the Director of the Birth Parent Program at Foster Care Initiatives. She shares how she has been partnering with birth moms to walk with them through their journey. It is beautiful work, and you can join them!

It is easy to discard kindness as just a suggestion, but not something that actually makes a difference. And we beg to differ on that. We think that kindness is a big piece of what is missing in society at large. Don't overthink it. Just be kind. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Listen to understand, not just to respond. Show Notes: - Other podcasts we have been on recently: - The Forgotten Initiative. Our episode isn't out yet, but there are so many beautiful lives to learn from! You will definitely want to subscribe to this podcast! - The CFC Learning Podcast. This one has YouTube videos as well! And is in 2 parts. You can watch here and listen here! CFC is Christian Family Care, and they are the agency we got licensed through (and where Jihae works as a foster parent trainer!) Find out more about them at CFCare.org - Loving God Loving People Podcast. Chris was on this podcast hosted by our bro, Robert Watson! It's the podcast for our church Sun Valley Community Church. Watch it here and listen to it h

Show Summary: A wonderful and deep conversation with Rita Soronen, President & CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome, Rita!! 1:24 - Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption(Yes, *that* Dave Thomas!) 3:34 - Raising Awareness for Foster Care and Adoption 5:53 - Wendy’s Wonderful Kids 13:44 - The Birthright of Every Child Is To Have a Home - Beginner’s Guide to Adoption 17:48 - How Can You Get Involved or Support These Kids? 22:15 - "These Children Are Not Someone Else's Responsibility, They Are Our Responsibility"  23:01 - Good Word of The Day!!  25:13 - Something Simple Bringing You Joy Right Now Show Notes: Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Wendy’s Wonderful Kids  Beginner’s Guide to Adoption  DTFA on Instagram Our Website Find us on IG

Technology is great and terrible for our families. Millions upon millions of families have come before us with little to no technology. And they did pretty well for themselves. But here we are with too much technology and what are we supposed to do now? Todd Watson, CEO of Showit (the sponsor of our podcast!) and Chris' cousin, is on the podcast! This interview is packed with so much incredible info on how to keep our families safe in this technological world. Where to start We cannot expect to protect our kids from everything. That is a truth pill we have to swallow, right off the bat. But let's also remember that as adults, a lot of us need this info, whether we have kids or not. A lot of us grown ups are just as bad, if not worse, than kids with their devices!  In episode 31, we talked with Robert Watson about porn and sex. One thing that he told us was that your kids are not always looking for porn, but porn is looking for them! So teach them that there are just so many things they should not click on. An

Parenting fails are always fun to hear, but less fun to live through - especially if you are the parent (or the child of that parent!) We have 7 kids, which doesn't make us parenting experts. It just makes us a couple that has more parenting fails than normal! Chapters: 0:00 - Opening - Welcome Back!!  0:58 - Parenting and Epic Fails  4:28 - Parenting Fail #1  6:46 - Parenting Fail #2  9:40 - Parenting Fail #3  13:00 - Parenting Fail #4  18:10 - Good Word of the Day  19:48 - Book Time!!  22:46 - We Are All in This Together  24:28 - The Review That Inspired This Episode  25:38 - Find Us On Socials Show Notes: The Connected Child By Dr Karyn Purvis The Whole Brain Child By Siegel and Bryson How to Raise an Adult By Julie Lythcott Haims Check out Episode 110 and our interview with the author Julie Lythcott Haims Safe House by Joshua Straub Coddling of the American Mind by Haidt and Lukianoff Mindset by Carol Dweck How We Love by Kay and Milan Yerkovich Sun Valley Church Parenting Course Episode 113 with

Guys! We apologize for being such slackers! We have lots of excuses as to why we missed posting a new episode last week, but we will keep MOST of those excuses to ourselves... one of the reasons is that I was in Virginia visiting my sweet friend/work wife, Cassandra! (This is Jihae, not Chris. He does NOT have a work wife!) Here are some things we talked about in this episode: Do Not Use Authorized Vehicle for U-Turn on Interstate Episode 99 - Davey Jones Bible App on iOS   Good Word of the Day 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but

We could not be more delighted to present this interview with THE Jason Johnson! He is the author of the incredible book "Reframing Foster Care", and he is also the Director of Church Ministry Initiatives with Christian Alliance for Orphans. He has an incredible blog that is a fantastic resource for families, individuals, and churches alike. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did! You can also watch it on YouTube if you prefer to see faces, or you want to listen to it again, with a visual component! You can learn more about Jason's books here. And the book club that we mentioned in the episode can be found here on YouTube, or on Jason's Facebook page. Let's Connect! You can also follow Jason on Instagram. Fostering Voices on Instagram You can also email us at hello@fosteringvoices.com  AND we would LOVE it if you would SUBSCRIBE and leave us a review on iTunes! This helps others to find our podcast so we can share these voices from the foster care and adoption community with more people! If you want

Too many of us prioritize big events as major milestones. Like a family trip to Disneyland. Or a romantic getaway to Hawaii. If this is you - then this last year of not being able to travel and experience monumental wins must have really sucked, eh? What if we found as much joy in washing our face at home every day, as we did in having a spa day? Cause who has time for spa days??? But we do have to wash our face every day (unless you are a man, and then you might accidentally wash your face in the shower on occassion.) But this episode talks about choosing simple little things that bring you great joy in your everyday life. Jihae's picks: - Aveeno facewash! It smells like a fresh new day of possibilities. Washing my face with this stuff every morning rejuvenates me and pumps me up for a new day. Then washing my face with it at night brings me peace and calm and helps me to remember the good from the day I just had. And it's only $6! - Waterpik water flosser. A new purchase as recommended by our dental hygieni

Happy 2021! We recorded this episode on December 30th, 2020, with the intentions of releasing it the next day... Well, here we are almost 3 weeks later! Gotta love those good intentions! So welcome to season 7. We had an absolutely incredible season 6, and we are so thankful for all of the new listeners who joined us on our journey this last year. This episode talks about some of our favorite books and episodes from this year. We hope you enjoy it! Some things we mentioned in this episode: - We LOVED reading/listening to these biographies this year - "Greenlight" by Matthew McConaughey, "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah, "That Mean Old Yesterday" by Stacey Patton (by a former foster youth), "Real American" by Julie Lythcott Haims, and "Becoming" by Michelle Obama.   - Basically every podcast episode we recorded this year were our faves for different reasons! We met Gaelin Elmore and his wife this year, and he was on episodes 86 and 87, and he shared about his journey as a former foster youth. As did my friends, M

None of us know what we are doing as parents and are always looking for solid parenting advice. Julie Lythcott-Haims has some strong suggestions. She may possibly be the most quoted author on our podcast. She is the New York Times Best Selling Author of "How to Raise an Adult: Break free of the overparenting trap and prepare your kid for success", our most recommended book on parenting. Julie has a TedTalk on the same subject that has been watched over 6 MILLION times on YouTube and Ted.com combined. Through Julie's amazing graciousness - she is ON THE PODCAST in this episode about parenting, and becoming, and kindness! I died a million deaths of joy and awe before, during, and after the interview. Julie is WISE, and such a strong communicator, and full of kindness and empathy (as evidenced when she started crying within the first 5 minutes of our interview!) For a tiny piece of Julie's resume, she is a Stanford, and Harvard Law grad, and she was the Dean of Freshmen for a decade at Stanford. Which i

Leadership is something we talk about a lot on the podcast, because we are all leaders! It is your choice if you are going to be a good one, or not. Parenting is some of the hardest kind of leadership, because you are maxed out in your pay grade, because oh yeah - you don't make any money doing it! We talk about 2 books that we are reading and have read, but that came to our attention via podcasts we listened to. The first one is called "The Motive" by Patrick Lencioni, and we became aware of it when Lencioni was on The Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast.  You have to ask yourself if you are a Reward of Responsibility-centered leader. A reward-centered leader has worked hard to become a leader, and now that they are one - they feel like this is the end of their journey. They don't do hard or unpleasant work, and have the mindset that others should be serving them, and they have 'arrived'. A responsibility-centered leader sees their leadership role as the beginning of their journey. Now that they have gotten thei

We are beyond honored to have The Honorable Justice James Beene on our podcast! Justice Beene, aka Jim, has served on the supreme court in Arizona for the last year, and had served in Family and Juvenile court for over 4 years, here in Arizona. There is just SO much great stuff in this podcast, and we hope you enjoy this fantastic interview with a wise, and kind guest who truly cares for the futures of the young people in foster care, as well as their bio families, and the families who choose to foster. We had Kim Turner, a GAL, on our podcast on episode 53. If you want to learn more about the court system for foster kids, check out that episode as well. The Good Word of the Day "Persistence". That's a great word that Justice Beene's mother often reminded him of. And it's a great word for all of us to lean into in times of trouble and hardship. There is always great reward on the other side of hard work and persistence! If you have any questions for Justice Beene, we can pass them along to him. You can email

Trauma is something that is common to all humans. But trauma and abuse are not a part of everyone's story, but it is for this week's guest. Monica was put into foster care as a baby, and was soon adopted by an abusive family. She was actually put back into foster care a few years later, but then returned to the previous adoptive family. Talk about a traumatic childhood! But Monica is not defined by her trauma and pain, and she encourages others to get over their pain to fully heal, and fully understand how to receive love and give it away as an adult.  Tune in to hear how she rose above her difficult past, and how she is pressing forward with great love, and great hope and joy for the future. The Good Word of the Day: Honestly - we had too many! Monica dropped so many great nuggets of truth and wisdom on us! Our favorites are: "Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." - John 13:7 "It's not about perfection, it's progression." Author Unknown. BUT Joyce Meyers did