Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
Are you thinking about adopting or fostering a child? Confused about all the options and wondering where to begin? Or are you an adoptive or foster parent or kinship caregiver trying to be the best parent possible to this precious child? This is the podcast for you! Every week, we interview leading experts for an hour, discussing the topics you care about in deciding whether to adopt/foster or how to be a better parent. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are the national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content: weekly podcasts, weekly articles, and resource pages on all aspects of family building at our website, CreatingaFamily.org. We also have an active presence on many social media platforms. Please like or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
Episodes
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Question: How to talk to your child about their conception story when embryo donation/embryo adoption is involved in forming your family?
Resources:
- Embryo Adoption (Resource Page)
- Suggested Books for Children Conceived Through Embryo Donation
- Disclosing Donor Conception to Our Kids (podcast)
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Talking about the difficult parts of our child's story, like abuse or prenatal substance exposure, can be overwhelming. Kelly Weidner, the co-founder and Executive Director of Haven Adoptions & Family Services in Ambler, PA. She has 28 years of experience in foster care, residential care, and adoption, which will help us navigate these challenging conversati...
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Having the right documentation, signed, dated, and completed, is crucial to maximizing the claim and avoiding delays or audits. But before we jump into the actual documents, let's start with the big changes to this year's adoption tax credit, because these are important details for families to know this year.
Resources:
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Let us know about your adoption journey
Did you finalize an adoption in 2025 or within the last several years? Are you eligible to claim the Adoption Tax Credit? Listen to this conversation about the 2025 Adoption Tax Credit. Our guests are Becky Wilmoth, an Enrolled Agent and Adoption Tax Credit Specialist with Bill’s Tax Service, and Josh Kroll, the Adoption Subsidy...
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Question: An aspect of adopting that we didn’t hear about was how your mental health is challenged throughout the process. It’s a roller coaster of emotions, and this isn’t discussed as often as organic issues such as drug or alcohol use.
Resources:
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Are you considering adoption this year but concerned about how to swing the cost? Join us for a practical conversation about managing the expenses of adoption with Ryan Hanlon, PhD, former president of the National Council for Adoption, an adoption advocacy organization dedicated to research, education, and policy in the service of all members of the adoption communi...
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Question: How do you deal with the emotions of not being able to adopt or foster because your husband doesn't share the desire?
Resources:
- A Reluctant Spouse: When Only One Partner Wants to Adopt
- I Want to Adopt. My Partner Does Not.
- Creating a Family Online Support Group
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.Cre...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Are you considering adoption to create your family this year? We’ve got answers to all (or most) of your questions. Join our discussion with Molly Berger, MSW, who has been with the Adoption Center of Illinois for 12 years as an adoption social worker. She counts it an honor to work with adoptive families and expectant parents.
In this episode, we discuss:
Part 1: Dome...
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Question: Hello, thank you sincerely for your podcast and the work you do. It has helped me feel less alone and allowed me to better navigate foster parenting and adopting from foster care. My husband and I have two amazing boys; they have the same bio mom, and two older siblings each in a different family. Our youngest is 5. We met when he was 3 months. Our oldest i...
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Join us to learn about family rituals—how to create and why they can help build strong families. Our guest will be Elizabeth Barbour, the author of a new book, Sacred Celebrations: Designing Rituals to Navigate Life’s Milestone Transitions. She’s also a reunited adoptee and an adoptive mom.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why are rituals important for families?
- De...
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Question: We have been matched with an expectant mom due in a couple of months. She is having twins. As we are preparing for the next steps, sleep training has come up frequently in newborn care books. What research is there on the cry-it-out method or other popular sleep training methods in relation to adopted children? We want to make sure they know their needs wil...
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Are you looking for practical ways to build your child's resilience and sense of safety, and to strengthen your family's connectedness? Listen to this conversation with Ginger Healy, MSW, LCSW, director of programs for the Attachment & Trauma Network and host of the podcast “Regulated and Relational.” Ginger speaks across the nation on trauma-informed s...
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Question: I would love to hear about family profiles for adopting older teens.
Resources:
- Adopting a Child of a Different Race or Culture
- Adopting Older Kids
- Evaluating Risk Factors in Foster Care Adoption
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to stre...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
What is it like to be the only biological child in a large transracial adoptive family? Our guest, Elaine Duncan, shares her story of how transcultural adoption impacted her identity and resilience. She is a writer, speaker, and strategist whose work bridges storytelling, healing, and social change. She has a passion for improving outcomes for underserved young peopl...
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Question: I have a friend whose 12-year-old adopted son (adopted at age 6) has been sexually abusing his younger siblings. She self-reported to CPS and law enforcement, but they have not done a formal removal yet, and their solutions involved bringing the child back home or kinship (not an option).
The offending child is currently in a temporary behavioral hospital,...
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We're thrilled to introduce you to our new Executive Director, Linda Fiore. Listen to today's conversation about her journey to Creating a Family and where we're heading in this next chapter under her leadership.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What first brought you into the world of adoption, foster care, and kinship care?
- When you started out, what wa...
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Question: Help for a youth dealing with being bullied because they are in foster care?
Resources:
- 5 Steps to Effectively Advocate for a Child Who is Being Bullied
- Are Transracial Adoptees More Likely to Be Bullied?
- Helping Our Kids Cope with Bullies at School
- StopBullying.gov
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.Creat...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Do you feel like raising a child with a history of trauma has stirred up your own traumatic past? If you wonder how to parent from a position of healing, listen to this conversation with Dr. Robyn Koslowitz. She is a psychologist, trauma expert, and author of the new book, Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle, Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be.
In this ep...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Question: I have been fostering our grandchild since March. It is now almost September. Both biological parents had drug addiction. Bio mom was on a trial home visit, but used this as the reason our grandchild is with us. After the trial home visit ended, bio mom was still getting supervised visits 2x a week. After every visit, the little one was dysregulated and sta...
Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.
Join us for a fun and inspiring conversation with Emily Cole, co-founder and co-owner of Banana Ball, the new sports phenomenon sweeping the country. We're talking with her about Bananas Foster, their non-profit that celebrates foster families all around the nation.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Please tell us the story of how Bananas Foster got started.
- What...
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