There are many requirements that a biological parent must meet in order to reunify with their children. While these requirements are necessary to ensure that children are being reunited with parents who can provide a safe and stable environment, many parents struggle to overcome the circumstances that led to their children being placed in foster care in the...
The Forgotten Podcast
We want to see people everywhere supporting the foster care community and experiencing Jesus together. So, in this podcast, we are sharing the stories of the foster care community to bring awareness that leads to action!
Episodes
July 21, 2025 • 41 mins
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” – James 1:27 (ESV)
You’ve probably heard this verse if you’ve ever been to an adoption or foster care training, attended a conference that discussed child welfare, or even just sat through your fair share of sermons. The message of this verse couldn’t be clearer: God car...
Mark as Played
July 7, 2025 • 43 mins
Content / Trigger Warning: This episode does contain mentions and descriptions of abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. If any of this may be triggering for you, we recommend you either listen carefully, listen with someone else, or you may even consider skipping this episode.
Unfortunately, so many children who enter foster care have experienced some terrible things in their lives. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services repo...
Mark as Played
June 23, 2025 • 43 mins
The child welfare system can be confusing and complex. Families are often expected to navigate administrative systems, the criminal justice system, the legal system, and the social system—all at the same time and with no prior instruction.
Our guest today knows the child welfare system inside and out—and she’s passionate about helping families navigate it with hope and clarity. She also understands that its challenges don’t impact...
Mark as Played
June 9, 2025 • 47 mins
Note: In this episode, Jami talks about her pregnancy—but don’t worry, you didn’t miss another baby announcement! If you’re part of our TFI family, you know her sweet little one has already arrived. This episode was recorded back in January!
Sometimes, it can feel like the conversation within the foster care community is predominantly shaped by female voices. While it’s wonderful to have such a str...
Mark as Played
May 26, 2025 • 41 mins
Mark as Played
May 12, 2025 • 35 mins
Foster care is both rewarding and challenging. It’s happy at times and sad at others; it brings hard days as well as beautiful moments. If you are in the foster care community, you’ve likely seen (or experienced) this firsthand.
But what do we do when we come to the end of ourselves? How do we respond when we feel called to open our homes again to those in need—yet find ourselves unsure if our hearts are ready to face the joys and ...
Mark as Played
April 28, 2025 • 57 mins
Substance use is a major factor in foster care cases; in 2017 alone, more than half of the children who entered care under age 5 did so because of parental drug use. Addiction is an issue that runs parallel to the foster care community, and it’s a struggle that agency workers and foster parents often witness firsthand in the lives of the families they serve.
For those of us who have never battled with addiction, it can be easy to t...
Mark as Played
April 14, 2025 • 44 mins
Trigger Warning: We want to let our listeners know that this episode includes mentions of physical abuse. If you are sensitive to this topic, we recommend you listen with caution.
Trauma is one of the hardest challenges to navigate in life. Whether it’s impacting you or someone you love, it can be easy to wish that trauma could be erased in an instant. But our latest guest’s powerful story reminds us that healing doesn’t happen wit...
Mark as Played
March 31, 2025 • 38 mins
The child welfare system is not perfect. Not only is it subject to the types of challenges all government programs can face—such as a lack of funding, policy gaps, and inefficiencies—it’s also very overloaded. As a result, many biological parents don’t receive the best resources to help them navigate their circumstances, and often, they are confused about how to access the resources that are available.
Here at The Forgotten Initiat...
Mark as Played
March 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Like so many families, Eric and Diana Powell entered into adoption with the best intentions. After their first international adoption from Thailand, they quickly started the paperwork for their second, knowing that the process is often long and fraught with delays.
What they couldn’t know is that the next few years of their adoption journey would include physical aggression, episodes of emotional dysregulation, marriage tension, a ...
Mark as Played
March 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Foster care caseworkers often feel forgotten, isolated, and alone. From managing stressful workloads to coping with secondary trauma and sometimes facing frustration from families in crisis, it’s not hard to understand why caseworker turnover is so high. But here at The Forgotten Initiative, we believe well-supported caseworkers will more effectively serve children, leading to better outcomes for everyone.
Our guest for this episo...
Mark as Played
February 17, 2025 • 36 mins
How much do you know about the foster care community where you live? Many people—both individuals and organizations like churches—want to support their vulnerable neighbors. But few are aware of the many practical ways they can help the children, biological families, foster families, and agency workers who make up their local foster care communities.
When our latest guest discovered the overwhelming needs of her local foster care c...
Mark as Played
February 3, 2025 • 37 mins
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can affect children from any background, but those in foster care are especially vulnerable. There are ten main types of ACEs that have been identified—ranging from abuse to neglect to household dysfunction. All of them have the potential to negatively impact future outcomes for a child.
Our latest guest, Angela Paganelli, is a former foster youth who experienced all ten ACEs. After the tragic l...
Mark as Played
January 20, 2025 • 43 mins
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 13.5% of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2023. Unfortunately, food-related trauma is a common challenge for many children who have entered the foster care system. Whether it’s an aversion to a particular type of food, fear that there won’t be enough food, or a tendency to overeat and hoard food, there are many behaviors a child may exhibit as a result of their ...
Mark as Played
January 6, 2025 • 47 mins
For our very first episode of 2025, we’re bringing you another great conversation that sheds light on the real people of the foster care community.
In this episode, we are talking to Keristein Fox. Today, she’s a happily married stay-at-home mom who loves watching her three children grow and thrive. But Keristein’s story wasn’t always this joyful. She endured many dark seasons to reach where she is now.
Mark as Played
December 16, 2024 • 43 mins
Trigger Warning: We want to let our listeners know that this episode includes mentions of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and thoughts of suicide. If you are sensitive to any of these topics, we recommend you listen with caution.
From the day she entered the world, Lucy Baker felt as though she didn’t have a home. Born inside of a jail to a mother in crisis, she was immediately placed into foster care and would end up having 37 diffe...
Mark as Played
December 9, 2024 • 32 mins
When a child enters our home, there are many factors we consider to ensure their comfort and safety. However, one important aspect of a child’s well-being can often be overlooked—their hair care. This is especially true if the child comes from a different racial background, where hair care needs may differ significantly.
Hair is an important part of African American culture and identity, but white foster parents sometimes struggle ...
Mark as Played
December 2, 2024 • 43 mins
It’s natural to wonder who your birth parents are. In fact, this is a question that many foster and adoptive children wrestle with.
For children, teens, and even adults who have never known their biological parents, curiosity about their identity often goes hand in hand with a fear of the unknown. And for foster and adoptive parents, broaching this topic can bring up worries around the answers your child may find, and how what they...
Mark as Played
November 25, 2024 • 30 mins
Over the summer, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot hit theaters across the country. This film tells the powerful true story of Donna and Bishop Martin as they ignited a fire in the hearts of their rural church to embrace children in foster care who needed a home.
Their East Texas community stepped up to do the impossible and adopt 77 children out of foster care. There were many challenges ...
Mark as Played
November 18, 2024 • 30 mins
When you decide to become a foster parent, you are asked a wide range of questions about what kind of placements you are willing to accept. What ages will you take? What ages won’t you take? Are there any special needs you will or won’t be able to accommodate? What about sibling groups?
Even when your agency is doing their best to reach out to you about children that fit your criteria, the reality is that sometimes all of the infor...
Mark as Played
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