Fostering Voices Podcast

This is the last episode of Season 3!  We do a brief book review on 'Garbage Bag Suitcase' by Shenandoah Chefalo. It's a memoir of Shenandoah's life - filled with difficult years with her mother and a man she thought was her father, and difficult years in foster care, and aging out of the system. This book is Heavy, and made Jihae feel a bit depressed for a day or two. BUT, it's not all depressing. Shenandoah shares her thoughts on how to improve the lives of kids in care, and they include boarding schools (like the Milton Hershey School and The Crossnore School), and fostering the whole family - mostly moms who are losing their kids to the system. Another highlight of reading this memoir was seeing a successful woman who overcame the odds. The children in care are not doomed to be like their parents. Mental illness is not a definitive life sentence for the next generation, neither is drug addiction, or abuse, or any of the things that we are afraid that kids are 'definitely' going to be like. Chris mentioned