Foster Care Isn’t a Program — It’s People with Judi Martin

Foster Care Isn’t a Program — It’s People with Judi Martin

My heart was so full recording this episode of The Courage Coalition with my dear friend Judy Martin and when I say dear friend, I mean lifeline. Judy was our certifier when Chad and I became foster parents, but she was so much more than a checkbox on a system form. She’s also an adoptee, an adoptive mom, and she’s spent years inside the foster care system as a caseworker and certifier. And when you hear her story the truth of what trauma does, the way it lives in the body, the way it shows up even when a child is “safe” you can’t un-hear it. We have to stop telling ourselves the lie that “they won’t remember” or “it was before birth so it doesn’t count.” Trauma doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t wait for a first breath. It’s real, it’s biological, it’s spiritual, and it leaves scars that don’t disappear just because we wish love could outwork it. What hit me hardest is this: we keep trying to fix foster care with policies and statistics, while forgetting the human standing in front of us. We create laws that force timelines and placements like kids are paperwork, not souls. And then we wonder why teens spiral after 12 homes, why foster parents burn out in 18 months, why families fall apart under the weight of a system that doesn’t train them for reality. Judy said something that I’ll carry forever what kids need most is consistency, and that consistency doesn’t always have to be a foster parent. It can be a coach, a neighbor, a church family, a grandpa, a mentor… someone who doesn’t disappear. Someone who becomes a constant. Because the truth is, when a child only knows chaos, chaos becomes their safety and they will recreate it inside calm because calm feels like danger. We have to stop being shocked by that and start being equipped for it. And here’s the part I want you to sit with: what if everyone said yes to one child? Not even forever. Not even adoption. Just one. Or what if ten families ten businesses, ten women, ten church friends said, “We’re going to support one foster family. We’re going to be the village.” One person brings dinner. One person drives to practice. One person folds laundry. One person listens without trying to fix. One person becomes respite. One person becomes the safe adult a child can count on. The crisis is not bigger than what we’re capable of we’ve just convinced ourselves we’re powerless, so we do nothing… and nothing changes. Maybe courage isn’t climbing a mountain today. Maybe courage is a single step toward showing up for one human. Because around here, you know what we believe: if it changed the life of one, would you do it? Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/ [https://correeroofener.com/] To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money [https://a.co/d/08GWK2mP] Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org [https://fosteringthesummit.org/]  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care. Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ [https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/] for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life.  Until next time, keep shining bright! - Corree

The Courage to See Yourself First with Anne Peshka

We spend so much of our lives chasing the checklist. Performing. Achieving. Becoming who we think we’re supposed to be so we can finally feel accepted. But what if the real question was never “What do you do?” What if the real question has always been “Who are you?” Because from the moment we take our first breath, we are taught—subtly and loudly—that love, safety, and belonging are earned through behavior. Be good. Be quiet. Be what we need you to be. And without even realizing it, we build our identity around those expectations… until one day we wake up and realize we don’t even know who we are underneath it all.  What struck me most in this conversation is how deeply we are wired for acceptance—and how often we look for it everywhere except within. We wait for someone else to see us, validate us, choose us. But the truth is, real acceptance is an inside job. And that’s not fluffy or easy—it’s gritty. It’s the work. It’s peeling back the labels, the trauma, the stories, and asking yourself, “What is actually mine?” Because when we don’t do that work, we abandon ourselves first. We break our own hearts trying to fit into spaces that were never meant for us. And then we wonder why we feel empty, disconnected, or unseen. But here’s the hope—and it’s a powerful one. Change doesn’t come from someone else forcing you to be different. It comes from a moment, sometimes the smallest moment, where something shifts inside of you. A glance. A word. A connection. A tiny thread of belief that maybe… just maybe… you are not what you thought you were. And when that thread is nurtured, it becomes something bigger. Not overnight. Not perfectly. But steadily. That’s where courage lives. Not in becoming someone new, but in finally seeing, accepting, and loving who you’ve been all along. Find Anne Peshka here: https://annepeshka.com/ [https://annepeshka.com/] Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/ [https://correeroofener.com/] To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money [https://a.co/d/08GWK2mP] Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org [https://fosteringthesummit.org/]  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care. Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ [https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/] for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life.  Until next time, keep shining bright! - Corree

Healing, Hope and The Power of Being Held with Heather Gibson

Some conversations do more than inform us, they remind us that healing rarely looks the way we expect it to. My conversation with Heather Gibson was one of those. What struck me most was not just that we share the foster and adoptive journey, but that her story reveals something so many people miss: behind foster care is trauma, and behind trauma is often a desperate need for connection, safety, and unconditional love. Heather’s path into foster care was not some grand, polished plan. It was a quiet nudge, built through personal heartbreak, compassion, and the kind of life experience that teaches you to notice the lonely person in the room. And that matters, because so often the people most called to this work are not responding to a spotlight moment, hey are responding to a holy ache they cannot ignore. What moved me deeply in this conversation was the way Heather began to see that animals were not just companions, but bridges to healing. When her daughter, carrying layers of profound trauma, could not find words for what she was feeling, she could talk to the cat. That moment says so much. It reminds us that healing is not always linear, clinical, or wrapped in something the world easily understands. Sometimes healing begins in the quiet presence of something that asks nothing from you except to be loved. For children who have been moved, uprooted, unseen, and left carrying invisible disabilities born of trauma, that kind of unconditional connection can be life-changing. It can regulate what feels unregulatable. It can soften fear. It can create safety where trust has been fractured again and again. This conversation also held a bigger invitation: to look beyond judgment and ask better questions. Better questions about foster care. Better questions about biological families. Better questions about trauma. And yes, even better questions about breeding animals with purpose and care when the goal is support, stability, and healing. Heather’s work is rooted in understanding that the right animal can offer hope in ways many traditional paths cannot. That is not a small thing. It is sacred work. And what I hope listeners take from this episode is that courage often looks like listening to the heartbreak in front of you and choosing not to look away. Sometimes that heartbreak becomes your purpose. Sometimes it becomes the very thing that teaches you how to help others feel seen, safe, and loved. And that kind of courage changes lives. As always remember, Love you meant it. Find out more about Heather here: https://www.instagram.com/bigheartedbreeders/ [https://www.instagram.com/bigheartedbreeders/] Find here guidebook to dogs and fostercare go here:  Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/ [https://correeroofener.com/] To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money [https://a.co/d/08GWK2mP] Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org [https://fosteringthesummit.org/]  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care. Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ [https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/] for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life.  Until next time, keep shining bright! - Corree

The Invisible Children We Have Learned Not To See

There are over 400,000 children in foster care in the United States right nowand if we’re honest, most of us don’t feel that number… because we’ve learned not to. We’ve learned how to look past it, how to believe it’s too big, too broken, too far removed from our own lives to matter. But here’s the truth: these are not statistics. These are children, children who have been moved, uprooted, and reshaped by trauma in ways most of us will never fully understand. Children whose behaviors we question instead of asking what happened to them. Children who age out of the system every year thousands of them without family, without support, without someone saying, I see you, you matter. And we wonder why they fall into every other system we’re trying to fix.  The hardest part of this conversation is recognizing that the system isn’t broken because of one thing it’s broken because we keep trying to fix it the same way. More policy. More funding. More homes. And yes, we need more foster homes but what we actually need are prepared homes. Supported homes. Trauma-informed homes. Because placing a child who has lived in survival mode into a house without the tools to hold that reality doesn’t heal anything it continues the cycle. We have to stop asking, What’s wrong with these kids? and start asking, What has happened to them? And even deeper than that what has happened to us as a society that we’ve allowed this to become normal? But this is where the conversation shifts from overwhelming to personal. Because it’s easy to say, this is too big, I can’t fix this. And you’re right you can’t fix all of it. Neither can I. But we can do something. We can support the foster family down the street. We can start a conversation. We can mentor, donate, show up, ask better questions. Because change doesn’t start with systems it starts with people willing to care enough to act. The ripple always begins with one. And maybe the real question isn’t how we fix foster care… maybe it’s whether we’re willing to stop looking away long enough to see these children for who they are: not invisible, not broken but worthy of love, support, and a different story. Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/ [https://correeroofener.com/] To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money [https://a.co/d/08GWK2mP] Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org [https://fosteringthesummit.org/]  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care. Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ [https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/] for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life.  Until next time, keep shining bright! - Corree

Emotional Money Chapter 10 11 and 12

There’s a moment, if you’re willing to sit in it, where you realize this was never just about money. It was never just about the numbers, the accounts, or the strategy. It was about safety. It was about what you were taught, what you witnessed, and the quiet beliefs you built along the way about what you are allowed to have. For so many of us, growing money feels overwhelming not because we aren’t capable, but because no one ever showed us how in a way that felt human, accessible, or aligned. And somewhere along the line, we absorbed the idea that wanting more meant we were greedy or selfish. But what if more simply meant living in deeper alignment with your values? What if more meant freedom, peace, and choice? The truth is, change doesn’t come from one big, dramatic moment. It comes from the smallest, most intentional steps repeated over time. It’s choosing to look at your bank account when you’ve been avoiding it. It’s putting away $20 when it feels insignificant. It’s asking a better question: What is one thing I can do today? Because readiness isn’t something you wait for it’s something you create through action. Every small step builds evidence. Every aligned decision shifts your identity. And over time, those quiet, consistent choices become the foundation of a completely different life. Not perfect. Not predictable. But intentional and yours. And this is where it all lands living the story you are choosing. Not the one you inherited. Not the one shaped by fear, scarcity, or silence. Your money story will evolve, just like you will. There will be pivots, setbacks, and moments where old patterns resurface. That’s not failure that’s information. The work is to stay conscious, stay compassionate, and stay willing to choose again. Because nothing changes until something changes… and you are the something. You are the answer. So the question isn’t whether you’re ready. The question is: What is the one thing you’re willing to do this week to begin? Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/ [https://correeroofener.com/] To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money [https://a.co/d/08GWK2mP] Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org [https://fosteringthesummit.org/]  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care. Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ [https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/] for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life.  Until next time, keep shining bright! - Corree