HOW to create a foster care and adoption employee resource group (ERG)

Andrew Lewis is a partner at KPMG and the founder of the KPMG National Foster Care and Adoption Network. He is both a foster parent and adoptive parent who serves on the boards of Comfort Cases and the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE).

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
We really. Should have waiting parents, not
waiting children. Over 100,000 children are
available for adoption through the US foster care system and
27% don't have anyone like a relative or foster parent in the
process of adopting them. 60% are between the ages of five and
17, and 2/3 are part of sibling groups of two to eight children.

(00:26):
Hey listener, my name is Marcy Bursack.
My husband and I chose Adoption is our Plan A.
After blogging about our journeyadopting A sibling pair, I began
mentoring families right in my own living room.
That passion grew into the Forgotten Adoption Option, a
nonprofit and now lead as a volunteer while working full
time in the tech industry. From my blog, Three Books app,
and Classroom Lesson, to now a 45 minute course called Foster

(00:48):
Care Adoption Simplified, which you can find at
forgottenadoptionoption.com, I've created practical,
heartfelt resources to help families navigate the foster
care adoption process. As you listen to this episode, I
encourage you to ask yourself, who in my circle needs to hear
this? It's often people in what we
call helper professions. People like therapists, nurses,

(01:10):
doctors, police officers, firefighters, social workers,
and teachers like my husband. These are the people who tend to
step forward to adopt children from foster care.
But this work isn't only about becoming an adoptive family.
It's also about becoming an advocate and ally.
Every waiting child deserves notjust a forever family, but a
community of people who championtheir future.

(01:32):
Whatever LED you to this podcast, I am thrilled that you
were here. My mission is simple, to help
every waiting child be with their forever family.
And that's exactly why I host this podcast.
Welcome to the Forgotten Adoption Option podcast.
In this episode, you'll hear howto create a foster care and

(01:55):
adoption employee resource group, ERG.
Some companies call this a BRG. It's a business resource group,
pretty much same thing. You're going to learn how to do
this in the workplace. Andrew and I met in early 2025
when we were both panelists on an Adoption Inclusive Workplace
panel hosted by the National Council for Adoption.
Hey, Andrew. Hey, Marcie, it's great to be
here. It's so fun.

(02:16):
I am recording this while I'm inFlorida and Andrew lives on the
East Coast. So we were just like joking
about like actually the same time zone as you while we're
doing this, which is fun. So a little bit Andrew, he is a
partner at KPMG and he's the founder, which we're going to
talk a lot about this, of the KPMG National Foster Care and
Adoption Network. He's both a Foster and adoptive
parent. He's on the board at Comfort

(02:37):
Cases. You might remember Rob Shearer
has been the podcast before incredible episode.
He also recently joined the board of case, which is the
Center for Adoption Support and Education.
He lives in Maryland with his wife of 22 years and three kids.
On the panel that we were on together, he shared about the
employee resource group or ER, GB, RG that he started at KPMG.
Like lots of acronyms, but you'll, you'll get the, the gist

(02:58):
here at the company. He started this group.
Some companies again, call theseBRGS, but having pivoted into
the corporate world myself and being a guest speaker at a
number of these groups have beenat family resource groups,
there's women resource groups, that kind of thing.
I was super intrigued that Andrew had done this specific
since foster care and adoption. And I'm like, I don't know more

(03:19):
about your model. So I wanted to share what he's
doing with everyone that's listening because you could
bring this concept to your work life and your community and
like, imagine, imagine the things that would happen because
Andrew's done some incredible things that are doing and having
incredible impact. So Andrew, before we dive into
what all that is and kind of getrid of the acronyms and really
dive deep into what you're doing.

(03:41):
First and foremost, you're a Foster and adoptive dad.
How long ago did you get license?
How does your family shape tell us the story?
Sure. Well, thanks Marcy.
And before we get started, I, I just want to spend a minute
talking about just how awesome you are in the work that you're
doing in this space. Like, you know, since we've met,
I've had a chance to read all three of your books, had a

(04:03):
chance to, you know, listen to your podcast, do work, take a
look at all the amazing resources you have on your
website. What you put out on social media
just is so informative and engaging.
And of course, you're you're a published author and foster
families and I was just really excited to see the article that
you just wrote recently. So I just want to say thank you
for everything that you're doinglike this.

(04:25):
This type of promotion, this type of engagement around foster
care and adoption is just so needed.
And I just truly appreciate everything that you're doing.
Very, very having me a conduit. Hopefully we're inspiring our
listeners like you can do it too.
You can go use your social platforms, set a podcast and do
things like Andrew. So back to Andrew, thank you for
the compliment. Back to you Tell us like you're

(04:47):
you get married and then what happens?
How do you end up with kids? So my wife and I started
building a family and we have two amazing biological children
now aged 17 and 14, and my wife.Frankly, my wife and I, we
really enjoy being parents. We really enjoy the parenting
journey. And we weren't done building a

(05:08):
family, but both of those pregnancies were high risk and
we didn't want to continue down that path of building a family
biologically. And it was kind of funny, Marcy,
after the second was born, my middle child, you know, one of
us would bring up the idea aboutcontinuing to build a family and
the other one would shoot it down, you know, a bad day with
the kids or, you know, a bad dayat work and the timing wasn't

(05:31):
right. And then, you know, at one
point, one of us brought up, youknow, returning back to this
topic around building a family through foster care or adoption.
And neither one of us shot it down.
And we kind of let it hang therefor a little while.
And then we came back to the topic and kept talking about it
and decided we wanted to exploreit a little more together.
So we explored private adoption.And that just didn't fit as well

(05:56):
as the information session we went to for foster care.
You know, the ability to be ableto provide short term care to
children in need was so powerfuland so motivating for my wife
and I. And that's really the way that
we thought that we would be ableto do great things.
And we have this vision of, you know, being one of those

(06:16):
families that had like, you know, fostered 40 kids and, you
know, all these big numbers of kids that we would end up
serving. But, you know, that wasn't the
plan that God had in mind for us.
So we started the adoption or the foster care process in 2017
and got licensed in 2018. And then pretty quickly we had a
sibling pair that got placed with us, but they were only

(06:38):
placed with us for 30 days before they were moved on to a
more permanent placement. And then the phone didn't ring
for a little while. And then all of a sudden we got
a call for an emergency removal in September of 2018.
And our Brooklyn was brought to us at 9 weeks old and we ended

(06:59):
up, she stayed with us and we adopted her 4 1/2 years later
and then she's now 6 1/2. So, you know, that's just kind
of how the whole process startedfor us.
And you know, it, it really opened up a whole new part of,
you know, an, an aspect around community involvement, about

(07:21):
building communities that just is so powerful to me and to my
wife. And we're just so excited to,
you know, now be part of this broader foster care and adoption
community. Interesting story.
Andrew, I have to ask you, when,when the conversation came up
like, well, what do you think about maybe this letter?
Who was it, your wife that brought it up first, or you?
What about building a or continuing to build a family?

(07:44):
It was probably me at first, andthen but again, each one of us
would kind of bring it up, shootit down, bring it up, shoot it
down. And so each one of us were kind
of really wrestling with that. You know how we both didn't feel
like we were done building a family and we wanted to continue
to find other ways to be able todo so.

(08:04):
Knowing that, you know, buildinga family continued to build a
family biologically just wasn't the right next step for us.
So beautiful. And it's interesting too,
because oftentimes, you know, itcan feel like, oh, I saw this
like really sweet thing on TV orI saw this poster.
And it's like, this is such a kind of like incubated decision.
Like you really have to really think about this.

(08:26):
This is a life commitment. So thank you for shining light
on that. And I want to pause before we go
into this next part. So just for listeners, because
I, I joined the corporate world from nonprofit.
I'm like, what in the world's KPMG, My father-in-law actually
worked at KPMG during his career.
And my, my right there, you're an accounting firm.
You're this huge, who's accounting firm?
Yeah, a professional services firm.

(08:46):
So we do accounting, tax and consulting services to some of
the largest organizations in theworld.
Some listeners might be like, Marcie, I know that and maybe
you did cool, but I want you just to like hear that context
because I think what's interesting is this professional
services company is doing something incredibly innovative.
And to me, it's like of all places for this to come from,

(09:08):
this is amazing. So Andrew, this company is huge.
How many employees does KPMG have?
I think we're at 42,000 right now in the United States.
Huge yes. OK, so where did this idea come
from to specifically create likean internal employee resource
group? Specific, specific, not just
families and not just like, oh, we have kids, we're parents.

(09:31):
You did it for Foster and adoptive families.
Where did this come from? Well, so I was very public about
the journey that my wife and I were on starting in 2017 when we
started exploring adoption in foster care and, you know,
shared that with people around me.
And pretty quickly I got known kind of in the office as the

(09:51):
adoption guy, you know, and, andvery quickly people would
connect me to others in the office or people they knew who
also worked at the firm who either were in connected to
foster care or were in adoption or were interested in being
connected to foster care and adoption.
And I'm going to tell you, I love the work that we do serving

(10:12):
clients. I love the work that I do in
leading people. But having the opportunity to be
able to sit down and talk to other people and share with them
my experiences around foster care and adoption were some of
the most energizing and rewarding conversations.
I felt I felt impact in the conversations that we ended up
having there around helping somebody understand how to

(10:34):
navigate, you know, trying to adopt A child with special or
enhanced needs, having a conversation with an individual
where they were struggling with infertility and didn't know
where to go, you know, talking to adoptees.
And they've shared with me theirstory, whether they came from

(10:55):
foster care or in our country. And so I just continued to get
exhilarated by these conversations, but knew I was
only scratching the surface because there was only people in
my immediate sphere in a really larger KPMG community.
So I, I just started small and, you know, build around one of
our, we have two core values, two of our 5 core values of the

(11:17):
firm are together and for better.
And I really felt called throughthat to say, you know, we should
really do something a little bitbigger.
There have to be other people, you know, in other offices that
feel like they're alone. They feel like they're on an
island. They don't know where to turn to
and they don't realize that there's other people in their
company or in their organizationwho are walking the same journey

(11:39):
as they are, have the same shared or lived experience and
are eager to connect with somebody.
And so that's where we started. It was an idea that I surfaced
with our human resources office and and they were ecstatic about
it. And I got such tremendous
support from my firm's leadership, from all the other

(12:01):
people around me when I shared the idea.
And we just jumped in and got started.
And that was back in 2021. So Andrew, take us.
OK. You know, I'm someone in a
corporation. Tell me, in that moment in time
where you pitched this to HR andthe leadership, where were you?
Like, were you in a position with a lot of influence?
And like, how long had you worked there?
Just to kind of set the stage oflike, where were you in your

(12:23):
career? Yeah, I was a partner and I was,
you know, not not in any specialrole.
I mean, I wasn't doing anything unique or different.
I was happy in the role that I was playing, serving our clients
and, you know, knew a lot of people and was connected
broadly. But again, you know, it was one

(12:44):
of those where certainly in my firm, and I know that it's
probably true with the organizations for all the people
who are joining us as listeners that, you know, just asking,
it's amazing how quickly people get behind great ideas.
And you know, I was just so excited.
It really didn't matter what level I was.
I, I think regardless of my level or position, I think I

(13:04):
probably would have gotten the same level of engagement.
And I wouldn't be surprised if other people listening are going
to find that level of engagementtoo in their organizations.
I wouldn't be surprised either, which is why I wanted to point
it out because I'm like, this really is just being a catalyst.
Like you, you, you carry the idea and mobilize it.
And so as we were talking through this before we went
live, as we were prepared for the episode, you told me that
this started as a pilot, which is smart, right?

(13:27):
We're going to like, test this out, try it out.
Can you describe like what did you do then and what are the
group meetings like? Well, you know, I, I joke that
you can do anything in our firm,if you call it a pilot, it just
makes things up That kind of eases the burden or the tension
around it. But you know, when we got
started, we actually, because mylived experience as being a

(13:47):
foster parent and an adoptive parent, I actually started it as
the foster care and adoption parents network and very quickly
realized that that was actually far too narrow for the community
that's connected into foster care and adoption.
And when I stepped back and realized that I had only come

(14:08):
with my experience, I then started realizing all the
experiences of other people. So, you know, within our
network, we're connected to foster adoptive parents, people
providing kinship care, adoptees.
We have a number of adoptees at,at my firm who either came
through domestic foster care, inner country, you know,

(14:31):
whatever their experiences mightbe.
We have people who provide surrogate care and surrogate
services. We've got birth parents who have
made a very difficult life decision.
And one other community that I just am so inspired by is we
have so many advocates, people who are causes, and they are an

(14:52):
amazing group of volunteers who are doing such an enormous level
of responsibility in the foster care system.
So, you know, when we rebranded as the Foster Care and Adoption
Network, I realized that we werereally drawing it as broadly as
it needed to be. But given, you know, that we
were trying to reach as far as we could across the firm, which

(15:15):
has 90 offices in the United States, we really are a virtual
network. And you think when we started it
was 2021, we were all pretty virtual back then.
And so we just started it as a just a virtual call.
And the format still really continues today.
We gather together, we try to domajor events four times a year

(15:38):
and those are just a one hour all network meeting, you know,
and over the past four years, our network has grown to several
100 members across more than 45 of KPM GS90 offices and still
growing. So I'm just, but I know we've
only still only scratched the surface of people connected to
foster care and adoption. So again, on our calls, we just
get together and the format I think that works really well is

(16:01):
that we have a guest speaker come in for about the 1st 30
minutes and we have to do a fireside chat.
And we've had and we focus on a different theme each time we
come together. So we focused on foster care
experience. We've had a session focused
specifically around adoptees. We've had a session focused on

(16:21):
advocates and causes. We've done an adoption one O 1
session. We're in the process of
organizing one around kinship care.
So just to be able to speak to and raise awareness around all
the different experiences of people who are connected to
foster care and adoption. So with guest speaker, you know,
we have, you know, a senior person, an executive director

(16:45):
and a nonprofit, somebody who's connected to that thing we're
talking about. And then on the second-half of
our meeting, we typically have apanel discussion of other people
who have had an experience around whatever the theme is.
So we had several of our adoptees join us and share their
experiences. We of course, have had our

(17:06):
advocates come in and it, it's been really powerful each time
we come together and, and we just energize our community in
the chat and afterwards. And the connections that are
made where people really feel heard, they feel seen, they feel
connected. And it, it has just such
tremendous impact on, you know, our firm and our firm's culture.

(17:30):
Your identity, right? I mean, I'm just thinking the
unbelievable but brilliant crosssection where you said, Hey,
everyone's invited and people that may not dev disclose that
anywhere else in their life or ever have felt like that
affinity to someone else to be like, yeah, me too.
Like that's just if I wanted everyone to hear this.
And like it's beautiful. Like and that you have such a

(17:52):
broad the spectrum of like surrogates and and birth parents
and like we're all here and we're we love each other and we
don't have it figured out, but like, let's talk about it.
It's just, it's an incredible approach to it.
And so you mentioned you do these quarterly things and then
aside from that, are you all using like an internal chat
application of some kind to connect everyone in between

(18:13):
those gatherings? Absolutely.
I I love the technology. We have a KPMG to help keep us
connected. So of course, we use Outlook to
be able to stay in touch throughe-mail and calendar invites, but
we also use Teams in order to stay connected.
And we've got a dedicated team that when you join our network,
you become a member of that teamthat keeps you engaged.

(18:34):
And we also have a platform called Viva Exchange or I'm
sorry, Viva Engage at our firm. And that's another, it's kind of
like a similar inside internal social media and it allows
people to be able to stay connected around different
themes and topics. And so we have a a channel for
our foster care and adoption network on Viva Engage and that
allows people to post stories, post experiences, have dialogue

(18:57):
and conversations and really find one another at the firm
with their experiences. This this way to come together.
They're people you work with, whether or not you work in the
same city. Like there, there's, there's
some beautiful thing about it. And I just, I love that because
you're, you're doing something very similar to what I'm trying
to do in, in, in, in schools forkindergarten through 12th grade.

(19:18):
Like we're all here. Hi, we're all here.
If we could just mention this one thing, we'll all talk about
it. Like we're all touched by it.
You know, one in 25 families of kids have adopted one of their
kids. And so there's, I love, I wonder
what the data is on the, on the output of where you are.
Like out of what percentage of our colleagues have in some way
connection to this. Andrew, it's so fascinating.
So can you share with us, I would just love to know like out

(19:41):
of forming this group, out of getting people together, I'm
sure you've heard stories. I'm sure there's things that are
happening. Can you share some of that with
us? Well, sure.
I mean, the, the stories of impact and the stories of
connection are just so powerful and, and they happen at almost
every meeting. I, I just get so inspired.
We often in some of our planningmeetings, we, we always go

(20:05):
around, especially if there's somebody new to introduce
yourself and talk about. Your experience and, and
frankly, I think the feeling of connection that we end up
getting and sharing what's goingon and what challenges we're
facing as we go through and are all touched by foster care and
adoption is, is really just powerful as we hear from one
another and we get a chance to share.

(20:26):
So I mean some stories. Gosh, I, I'm so proud of some of
the things that, you know, we'vebeen able to accomplished
together. And, you know, that includes
connecting people within a city who didn't realize or didn't
have a path to get connected before.
And they've been able to arrangeplay dates and other ways to
connect either children that they're fostering or children
that they've adopted together. The number of people who have

(20:49):
then made that first step into foster care and adoption as a
result of awareness, as a resultof realizing the journey that
other people have taken and often times realizing it's not
nearly as complicated as they'vemade it out to be.
And you know, just the. Lenders because it's like you're
recruiting you're. Recruiting, absolutely.

(21:10):
Recruiting, yeah. We, we, we do a fair bit of
helping people understand that we will walk the journey with
you. And that's been really helpful
for people to feel like they've got, you know, a community
that's going to surround them asthey go through the highs and
the lows of foster care and adoption, You know, and then

(21:33):
also there's just a lot of unique challenges and that you
face when you're helping care for a child who's, you know,
experienced trauma, neglect or abuse.
And that's also a way that we really try to stay connected
with one another in order to have other people to lean on or

(21:54):
share the challenges you're running into and then get
directed to a resource outside or inside the firm.
Whether it's through our benefits that might, you didn't
realize there was a benefit at our firm that would allow you to
be able to unlock, you know, mental health services that you
might need or an adopted child might need or people who have

(22:15):
taken part in the adoption reimbursement program that we
offer. And we offer a $50,000 lifetime
reimbursement to offset the costof going through foster care
adoption. And, you know, that's just a
really powerful way to show the firm's support for everything
that we do. Listeners, if you're thinking I

(22:35):
wish my employer did that, please, we have resources for
you. Check out the Dave Thomas Dave
Thomas furniture adoptions resource employer tool kit.
Rita has been a podcast. My friend Angela took it to
Safety National. She asked a question like Andrew
did and then two of her colleagues go and do it within
like 30 days. So anyway, lots of ways to like
be that catalyst. And Andrew, I wonder, you know,

(22:57):
you mentioned anyone could do this, right?
Like it's just just go ask. I wonder if somebody were to do
this in their workplace and maybe they're thinking like,
hey, Andrew, like people kind ofasked me or like I am that
advocate, but like, I don't knowif I have those other skills.
Are there like qualities or maybe ways we can identify is
this me? And then what do we do?

(23:19):
Like how do we get started? What are the steps?
If you're asking is it you, the answer is yes, it's you.
And you know why? Why can't you just take that one
small step forward in order to get it started again, just like
what we did? Start small.
You know, we didn't start at several 100 numbers across more

(23:40):
than half of our offices. Like that took time and we're
still building, you know, I havegoals in my mind of where I want
our network to grow to and, and I really want us to get to 1002
thousand members across the firmwho, you know, are connected to
and want to share their stories and their experiences.
So again, just take that first step.

(24:00):
Start small and starting small could be, you know, a, a virtual
call. It could be getting the support
of HR in order to arrange something, depending on how your
organization set up. If you're in person, you know,
just putting up some, getting permission to put up some Flyers
and have everybody come and joinyou for a brown bag.
Partner with organizations in the marketplace and you know,

(24:23):
ask to do a adoption one O 1 or a foster care one O 1 session
and see what type of connectionsyou get as you do something like
that to start raising awareness and building a community.
And and you'll be surprised at how quickly it'll generate and
just how rewarding it'll be for you.
It's so simple. I actually just learned where I

(24:44):
work by day. I can talk to social impact and
do that brown bag, which is really cool because it's like
you can you can educate your Co workers and it's like an hour
lift and if you bite the person then you're not really having to
do a lot. So you know, these are great
ideas. OK, so people might be like, all
right, Andrew, I think I'm doingthis, but I want to talk to you.
I connect with you. I there there's something you
just shared that I got more question about.

(25:04):
Where can we connect with you? What resources would you point
us to? Sure, LinkedIn is probably the
easiest way and probably the most direct way for most people
on this call. And you're welcome to connect
with me on LinkedIn. You can just look me up.
Andrew Lewis, that's Lewis. And just type in KPMG and I
should pop right up. And you're also welcome to send
me an e-mail [e-mail]. I would love to connect with

(25:29):
people who are trying to build employee resource groups.
Marci, I'll tell you, when I started this, I thought that I
was jumping on late to somethingthat I was certain there were
communities all across the United States that companies
everywhere that were celebratingfoster care and adoption.
And as I started asking around, I realized that there really
weren't many. So there really is a huge need.

(25:54):
I, I feel like what we've openedup at KPMG is something that
everybody in every organization,whether you're working in a
nonprofit, a school, a government corporation, there
are people who are impacted by foster care and adoption.
And I think they would absolutely love to be connected
with you. And so just get started, take

(26:16):
that first step, grow from there, Make mistakes.
We made a mistake just labeling the group at the beginning, you
know, thinking that we were onlyreaching out to a community like
me and quickly realized that thefoster care and adoption
community is so rich, so vibrant, and, you know, there's
just a, a desire for people to get connected.
I'll, I'll tell you one other way that we started building

(26:39):
connections too, is that we do alot of volunteering at my
company. And one of the things that we
did is we got permission to scanthe list of organizations where
people had volunteered. And we also do a day of service
where we encouraged everybody totake a day off in order to go

(26:59):
volunteer out in the community. And we looked at those lists and
quickly realized how many peoplearound the country were already
connecting to causes that were impacting foster care and
adoption. And I mean, as soon as we
started reaching out to those people, that momentum started
building really, really rapidly.And so there's just ways for you

(27:22):
to be able to, you know, advertise, to announce, to
invite people to come together, but you probably use other ways
to figure out that there might already be people who are
yearning to get connected and are already involved in foster
care and adoption. I just need someone to pull it
together. Andrew, that's interesting.
But like, it makes sense, right?There's data on that.

(27:43):
You can you can ask for it and might surprise yourself on, on
who's there. This has been so helpful and I
think inspiring And I think you,you started thinking me, but I'm
going to end thinking you because I think you, you went
out on a limb and like you said,like make mistakes.
And I think that's part of the beauty of using our voice and
just taking that 5 minutes or taking that step, right.

(28:04):
I know this putting in a boy resource group together might
not take 5 minutes, but it's something we can do and it's
practical. And I appreciate that you've
been kind of the pioneer in the front trying to figure it out so
we all can learn from that. So Andrew, I just want to thank
you for the time you invest, theopenness that you bring to our
listeners, to your colleagues. I think that's a huge deal when

(28:26):
you're, you're open to show others this path because it, it
makes the path more feasible forothers to say, OK, I was kind of
just scared of my head and I'm so glad I have someone I can
talk to and, and bounce ideas off of and, and get, get some
clarity. Well, you know, you're so kind
and, and honestly, even though Istarted the group, the group
really is led by a tremendous number of volunteers all around

(28:50):
my firm right now. And I have such an amazing
leadership team where we work around all the different aspects
of our communication strategy. We pull together and make
available member resources and peer-to-peer exchange programs
for people connecting. So we connect like groups
together within our firm, havingsmall groups to connect adoptees

(29:10):
together, connect people with different challenges during the
steps in the foster care process.
And and then we also have a great community impact in member
resources or member meeting team.
And so again, even though I got the ball rolling, it was amazing
how quickly a dedicated group ofjust energized volunteers raised

(29:31):
their hands and wanted to get involved.
And, and they really are the theheartbeat of the foster care and
adoption community and network at KPMG.
And if they're listening, I wantto say thank you to all of them
because they are a tremendous leaders and and the network
wouldn't be where it is today without them.
Yeah, the power of igniting something and then others coming

(29:51):
along and and participating and taking their piece in that.
That's beautiful, Andrew. So glad to have you on to share
and let us see and and follow inyour steps.
So thanks for taking some time to let us know what you've done
and how we can do it too. Andrew, appreciate it.
Thank you so much Marcy. I have been.
This has been so much fun. Thank you for letting me join

(30:12):
you today for this podcast. Thank you so much for spending
time with us. It truly matters that you listen
today, because by tuning in, you're opening your heart to the
stories of children in foster care, sparking empathy and
starting to see how your unique role, whether as a friend,
advocate, or even as a future adoptive parent, can bring hope

(30:35):
and belonging to a child or sibling group that is waiting.
I also want. To personally invite you to
reach out to me, to ask anythingthat's on your heart.
I promise no judgement. You can find me on Facebook,
LinkedIn and Instagram and I mean it when I say you can ask
anything. I know it can feel awkward to
ask questions publicly and that's why I carve out time
during my lunch hour and evenings while my kids and

(30:57):
husband are at martial arts to mentor others one-on-one.
Your questions matter, your curiosity matters, and most
importantly, the role you are playing in helping children in
foster care matters. Together we can bring hope and
belonging. Until next time, take care and
keep the conversation going.