According to data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), a total of 391,641 chil­dren and youth were liv­ing in fos­ter care in 2021. Once chil­dren enter fos­ter care, the goal is to either safe­ly reuni­fy them with their par­ents if the fam­i­ly con­cerns are resolved or secure anoth­er per­ma­nent fam­i­ly. So that means there are tons of kiddos out there that need a loving and safe environment to live in during this process. Our guests today are my sister Christa and her husband, Brady, who fostered two little kiddos for 8 months last year. Even though they don’t have biological children of their own yet, they nailed this parenting thing! It was incredible to see them welcome these kiddos into their lives and show them the love and affection they perhaps hadn’t known before. We asked them to share their experience and it was a fascinating conversation! 

Even if you don’t plan on being a foster parent, there are a ton of ways to help! Checking in with anyone you do know that’s fostering to make sure they feel supported is a huge help! Also offering to watch the kiddos so the foster parents can get a date night together or even just bringing them a meal goes a long way. And don’t forget to check for any foster care closets you can donate to in your area or other ways you can help!

Then in part two of our conversation, since Christa, Brady, Leslie and myself all work in education in some type of capacity, we also discussed our thoughts on the education system here in the US. We not only discuss what we think is working and not working, but also our ideas on improvements we think could be made to the system. No matter how you feel, if you have kids in school don’t forget to support your teachers!! They deserve it and are so thankful for it!

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Soundtrack music is performed by penguinmusic, Oleksandr Stepanov, and 23843807 - available on Pixabay.