Running Toward

Yes Anyway | Christine

Welcome to the Running Toward Podcast! We are wrapping up our series celebrating the single moms who have stepped into foster care this month of May — and we are ending it with one of the youngest voices we've had on the show. Today I sit down with Christine, who started fostering at twenty-three years old, just months out of grad school, still paying off debt, still going to bachelorettes on the weekends — and still said yes when the Lord made it clear she needed to. Her story is one placement, one little boy, one bio mom she became friends with, and a faith that stopped being a checklist and became something real. Hope you enjoy! —Thanks for watching! Follow South Texas Alliance for Orphans: 📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southtxalliance4orphans/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthTexasAllianceForOrphans 🌐 Learn more about fostering & adoption: https://www.southtxalliance4orphans.org If today's story moved you — share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you've ever thought about fostering, even just once, let that thought be the start of something. Running Toward Podcast is brought to you by the South Texas Alliance for Orphans real stories from real families walking the road ahead of you. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share this episode. We'll see you next week. 🤍

She Built The Village | Rachel

Welcome to the Running Toward Podcast! We are continuing our series celebrating the single moms who have stepped into the beautiful, hard, holy calling of foster care — and today, I get to sit down with one of my really good friends, Rachel Russo. Rachel has been fostering for twelve years, has had fifteen placements, has adopted three boys, and somehow still had enough margin in her life to found The Vault — a nonprofit built to remove the financial barrier that stops so many families from saying yes. Her story is one of obedience over readiness, community over independence, and a God who keeps saying, "You don't know what treasures I have for you." Hope you enjoy! 🏠 Connect with The Vault Fostering Community: https://vaultfosteringcommunity.org Thanks for watching! Follow South Texas Alliance for Orphans: 📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southtxalliance4orphans/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthTexasAllianceForOrphans🎙️ 🌐 Learn more about fostering & adoption: https://www.southtxalliance4orphans.org If today's story moved you — share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you've ever thought about fostering, even just once, let that thought be the start of something. 🤍—Running Toward Podcast is brought to you by the South Texas Alliance for Orphans — real stories from real families walking the road ahead of you. Be sure to like, subscribe. We'll see you next week. 🤍

The Only Adult In the House | Susan

Welcome to the Running Toward Podcast! This May, in honor of Mother's Day, we're spending the whole month with single foster moms — because fostering as a single parent is a whole unique calling, and we have some incredible women sharing their stories. Today we start with Susan — a physical therapist, professor at the University of the Incarnate Word, and single mom to six kids ranging from 5 to almost 12. She moved to San Antonio in her early thirties with no family, no connections, and no idea that foster care was about to completely reshape her life. Hope you enjoy! —Thanks for watching! Follow South Texas Alliance Of Orphans 📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southtxalliance4orphans/ [https://www.instagram.com/southtxalliance4orphans/] 📘Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/SouthTexasAllianceForOrphans [https://www.facebook.com/SouthTexasAllianceForOrphans] 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OW7JlcWOlbs9Ms4BQcdeI?si=0416b37dd53540c8 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5OW7JlcWOlbs9Ms4BQcdeI?si=0416b37dd53540c8] 🌐 Learn more about fostering & adoption: https://www.southtxalliance4orphans.org [https://www.southtxalliance4orphans.org] If today's story moved you — share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you've ever thought about fostering, even just once, let that thought be the start of something. 🤍 Running Toward Podcast is brought to you by the South Texas Alliance for Orphans — real stories from real families walking the road ahead of you. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share this episode on Facebook and TikTok. We'll see you next week. 🤍

We didn’t know | Catalina

Catalina Almanza didn't grow up thinking she'd foster — but in a way, she always was. Growing up in Colombia, her grandmother quietly took in children who needed a home, modeling a kind of love Catalina would one day step into herself.After facing infertility and the heartbreak of closed doors, Catalina found herself scrolling through Facebook when a photo of a pink room stopped her cold. It was a foster child's bedroom — simple, hopeful, and waiting. That image cracked something open in her.In this episode, Catalina shares the journey from that moment to welcoming her first placement — a baby boy she cared for from January through March — and the devastating 5-day notice that ended that chapter. She talks about learning to love fully, even when you know goodbye is possible, and why she'd do it all over again.This is a story about grief, generosity, and the kind of courage it takes to open your home and your heart — over and over again.If you've ever thought about fostering or adoption, let Catalina's story be the thing that moves you forward.📩 Want to learn more about fostering or adoption? Running Toward Podcast is brought to you by the South Texas Alliance for Orphans real stories from foster and adoptive families walking the road ahead of you. #FosterCare #AdoptionStory #RunningTowardPodcast #FosterMom #SouthTexas #Fostering #ChristianPodcast #FosterToAdopt

Foster Care Is Not An Adoption Agency | Robyn

Robyn grew up adopted. So when she started thinking about foster care, she wasn't approaching it as a rescuer — she was approaching it as someone who had already been the child in the story.As a teenager, Robyn saw a billboard of an elderly woman who had fostered nearly a hundred children and thought, "I want to be her one day." What she didn't know then was how much her own adoption story would shape the kind of foster parent she'd become — and how discovering that some of her biological siblings had been in foster care would change everything about why she felt called to this space.In this episode of the Running Toward Podcast, Robyn opens up about:- Growing up adopted and seeing foster care through the eyes of the child- The billboard that planted a seed she carried for decades- How her first pregnancy led her to search for her biological family — and what she found- Why she doesn't ask her kids to choose between their biological and adoptive families- Navigating transracial adoption and the education it required- A full-circle Buckner connection she never saw coming- What adult adoptees need foster and adoptive families to hearHer story is a reminder that the children we care for are writing a story that doesn't end at placement — and the most powerful thing we can offer them is the freedom to hold all of who they are. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Running Toward Podcast is brought to you by South Texas Alliance For Orphans — transforming the foster care crisis in San Antonio and surrounding areas. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a story 🌐 Get involved southtexasalliancefororphans.org ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #FosterCare #Adoption #RunningTowardPodcast