My guest today is proof that awareness leads to action, and that a passion for supporting the foster care community can span generations. Once you become aware of the needs, have seen them firsthand, or have seen your own family foster, it is hard not to answer the call to take on a supporting role within the foster care community.
Sarah Hamaker first saw foster care in action from her own parents. They started fostering when she was a teenager and had a total of more than 40 children in their home over 30 years. This is initially what inspired her to be a foster parent herself. In addition to being a second-generation foster parent, Sarah is a therapeutic foster parent, speaker, award-winning author, podcaster, biblical parenting coach, and certified Leadership Parenting Coach™. She is passionate about helping parents develop strong relationships with their children.
In this episode, Sarah is sharing about how your impact goes beyond the children that are in your home, what you should do if you feel a pull towards foster care, why crying when a child in foster care leaves your home can be a gift to them, and so much more.
Listen in!
TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY’S CONVERSATION:
1. What you do will influence those around you.
We often say that awareness leads to action. Whether it’s your own children, friends, or anyone else, your involvement will affect future generations—for the better! Your actions will help build awareness, increase others’ empathy and compassion for others, and likely even drive them to action one day.
“I really got to see how [my parents] loved these children and how they used the gifts that God gave them.”
2. View behaviors through the lens of trauma.
It’s important to remember that many children in foster care are acting from a place of unmet needs. They may have behaviors that appear to be “bad,” but we need to remember where those behaviors are really rooted from. Difficult behaviors aren’t rooted from a place of trying to hurt you or others around them; they are just trying to get their needs met.
“They have an unmet need and sometimes they meet them in a way that is painful to others.”
3. Our sphere of impact goes further than you may know.
On the surface, we know that our role impacts some individuals like the child in foster care, their case worker, and their biological parents. But what we may not realize is that how we foster children also has an influence on teachers, neighbors, siblings, judges, church members, and more!
“One of the things that surprised me about fostering was how many people beyond the child that we impact.”
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Meet Our Guest
Sarah Hamaker is a therapeutic foster parent, speaker, award-winning author, podcaster, biblical parent coach, and certified Leadership Parenting Coach™. Not only is Sarah passionate about helping parents develop strong relationships with their children, she is also a biological child of parents who fostered. Sarah is a second-generation foster parent and lives in Virginia with her husband, their four teenagers, a preschool foster child, and three cats.
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