Hey, y'all! As many of you know Foster Friday is now a podcast. Super swanky- I know! The podcast is available on Sound Cloud or iTunes and new episodes are posted on Fridays; hence the name Foster Friday.
While there are a few other podcasts out there about foster care, I noticed that many of them were faith-based and quite frankly, that isn't really my thing. So, I set out to create the perfect podcast for your average Joe or Josephine, if you will. Each week we chat about our findings about the foster care system, our personal experiences, our highs and our lows. You'll notice that the podcast becomes a bit more upbeat as it progresses and the kinks start to work themselves out.
If you haven't checked out our podcast yet, I encourage you to do so; especially if you are a foster parent yourself or interested in becoming one. I thought I'd type up a little episode guide to give you an idea of the things we talk about.
Episode One- Why: This episode features startling statistics about the American Foster Care system and explains why my partner and I decided to become foster parents. While this one focuses heavily on numbers, I thought it was really important to establish the need for foster families in our country.
Episode Two- PRIDE: No...not Gay Pride, PRIDE. PRIDE is the curriculum that a majority of the states use to train foster parents. In this episode, Ashley joins me to talk about this 8-week program and what we liked and didn't like about it.
Episode Three: Home Study- Ashley's back to help tell you all about our Home Study Process and the things we did to prepare our home for our foster children. We also share a little story about how one of us accidentally participated in Speed Dating... and yes we were weirdly able to tie that into the foster care system. This is the episode where we start to get in the groove of things and get comfortable behind the microphone.
Episode Four- Sh*t Just Got Real: This is the moment we were waiting for! In this episode, we share with you some insight on our first placement, a 3-year-old boy, and a then 2-month old girl. You can tell by the sound of my voice that we were both dog ass tired the first few days.
Episode Five- Where is Everybody?: In this episode, we discuss the first few visitations with the bio parents, how DCF attempted to shield us from the bio parents, and our case starting to fall through the cracks. At this point, we were dealing with multiple CPI's, caseworkers, and therapists because everyone went on summer vacation.
Episode Six- Daycare Vouchers & Rilya Wilson: Our biggest frustration in this entire process has been obtaining a daycare voucher. In this episode, I chat with you about how much of a pain in the ass getting the voucher is and explain some of the reasoning behind daycare vouchers. This is all centered around a sweet little girl named Rilya Wilson who fell through the cracks and her death wasn't discovered until 2 years after she passed away.
Episode Seven- Communicating with the Bio Parents: Ashley's back to help me chat with you about the app we are using to anonymously communicate with the Bio Parents and how we opened up those lines of communication. Ashley also fills you in on her trip to court with the parents.
Be sure to follow along with our journey by subscribing to the podcast on Sound Cloud or on iTunes.