The Fearless Fostering Podcast

I can still hear her screaming. Three and a half years later, in the quiet moments when my house is still and everyone’s asleep, I can hear that primal, desperate wail that tore through my chest and left a hole that’s never quite healed. She was eighteen months old. Tiny fists clenched around my shirt, her whole body shaking with the force of her terror. “MAMA! MAMA!” she screamed, reaching for me as the social worker pried her from my arms. I stood there in my driveway, frozen, my arms still...

“Teaching my teen to independently regulate before bed to help him sleep. Sticking to a bedtime routine with a teen when schedules are all over the place.” This message landed in my DMs yesterday, and my heart immediately went out to this mama. If you’re fostering teens, you already know the bedtime battle is nothing like what the parenting books describe. I’ve been there – wondering if the “expert” sleep advice I’d read had ever been tested on a kid whose nervous system was permanently set t...

If you’ve ever found yourself whispering “I just can’t do this right now” — and then immediately feeling guilt for even thinking it — this episode is for you. As foster moms, we learn early on how to stretch our hearts beyond what feels possible. We say yes when others might say no. We hold space for heartbreak, navigate uncertainty, and pour love into children who may not stay forever. But what happens when the calling that once brought life to your soul starts to feel heavier than you can c...

As foster and adoptive moms, we sign up to hold space for big emotions — ours, our children’s, and often the system’s. But what happens when your child’s emotional world collides with your own? When their anxiety, anger, or attachment behaviors stir something deep within you — and suddenly you’re not sure who needs the comfort more: them, or you? You’re not alone. Many of the moms I work with in the Fearless Fostering community describe this season as “emotionally disorienting.” You want so b...

Every once in a while, a post comes through our community that stops me in my tracks. A foster mama recently shared about her sweet little one—let’s call him Aiden—who’s been with her since he was just a week old. He’s 20 months now. He’s her joy. And soon, he may be leaving. Reading her words—about anticipatory grief, exhaustion, the stress of parenting multiple children with high needs, and a marriage stretched thin—I felt the ache that only foster moms truly understand. It’s the ache...