The Empowered Parent Podcast

Let's be honest: parenting kids from hard places is exhausting. It can drain us physically, emotionally, and mentally, and leave us feeling like we have nothing else to give. This can be a dangerous place to find ourselves when it comes to our marriages. Chris, Ryan, and Kayla talk about some things to be aware of in your marriage as you parent and offer some thoughts on re-engaging and reconnecting with your spouse. Kids from trauma need strong families, and strong families start with strong marriages. One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North    

Chris, Ryan, and Kayla continue the discussion on the importance of play with our kids, this time by providing practical examples for incorporating play. Topics range from finding the time to turning everyday activities into games. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Quelf Jr Game Family Nurture Group TBRI for Teens video One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

  Chris is joined once again by Ryan and Kayla to talk about play. Play is vitally important for children, especially our kids from hard places, some of whom may not have had the opportunities for individual or shared play like they should have. The three talk about different types of play for different ages, and give a few ideas. (Chris is always a proponent for lightsaber fights.) Resources Mentioned in the Episode Play Time Handout to help parents schedule play with their kids Family Nurture Groups One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

In our final episode of 2018, Chris, Kayla, and Ryan again share their thoughts on how to make Christmas Day a success. This time, they discuss practicing outside of the moment when it comes to receiving gifts and traveling for the holidays. One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

In this episode, Chris, Kayla, and Ryan share their thoughts on how to make Christmas Day a success. They discuss practicing outside of the moment when it comes to food and extended family. They offer practical tips on how to handle foods your kids don’t usually eat as well as interacting with relatives they don’t know. One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

In this final of three episodes with Pam Parish, she, Ryan, Kayla, and Chris talk about Pam's books, including how and why she began writing them.  Resources Mentioned in the Episode Pam Parish  Connections Homes  The Gift: Unwrapping God's Design for Foster Care & Adoption  Ready or Not: 30-Day Discovery for Families Growing Through Foster Care and Adoption  Ready or Not for Battle-Weary Parents  One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

In this second of three episodes with Pam Parish, she, Ryan, Kayla, and Chris discuss how Connections Home was founded, its mission, and why everyone deserves someone. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Pam Parish  Connections Homes  The Gift: Unwrapping God's Design for Foster Care & Adoption  Ready or Not: 30-Day Discovery for Families Growing Through Foster Care and Adoption  Ready or Not for Battle-Weary Parents  One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Ryan, Kayla, and Chris sit down for a conversation with Pam Parish. Pam and her husband Steve adopted seven of their eight daughters through the foster care system. They saw a real need for those who are close to aging out of the foster care system or have already done so. This need, plus that of older children and young adults who are in poverty and homeless, led to their founding of Connections Homes. In addition, Pam has written three devotional books for foster and adoptive parents. In this first of three episodes, the gang talks with Pam about how she and Steve got involved with foster care and adoption.   Resources Mentioned in the Episode 1985 United Colors of Benetton TV commercial   Pam Parish  Connections Homes  The Gift: Unwrapping God's Design for Foster Care & Adoption  Ready or Not: 30-Day Discovery for Families Growing Through Foster Care and Adoption  Ready or Not for Battle-Weary Parents  One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Mus

Chris, Ryan, and Kayla welcome their long-time friend Cindy Lee to talk about her session for Tapestry Conference 2018. Cindy shares the background of the Making Sense of Your Worth curriculum, how it came to be, and how encouraging the early sessions using it have been. Given the tough times we inevitably encounter as parents of kids from hard times, it's so important for us to have a healthy perspective of our own self-worth, so we can help our children to heal. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Tapestry Conference 2018 The HALO Project 10% Conference Discount Code: EMPOWEREDPARENT One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Jayne Schooler joins Ryan, Kayla, and Chris to give an overview of their Questions to Consider About Self (Soul) Care workshop she and her husband David are conducting on Friday, October 19 at the 2018 Tapestry Conference. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Tapestry Conference 2018 Jayne and David Schooler 10% Conference Discount Code: EMPOWEREDPARENT One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Chris, Ryan, and Kayla are excited about Tapestry Conference 2018, and you should be, too! They talk about the speaker lineup, featuring Jayne Schooler, and including Cindy Lee, Andrew & Angela Holland, and many more. Ryan and Kayla also share some of the changes in the ministry over the past few months leading up to this year's conference. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Tapestry Conference 2018 Jayne and David Schooler Tapestry Conference 2018 Sponsors Wounded Children, Healing Homes 10% Conference Discount Code: EMPOWEREDPARENT One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Chris, Ryan, and Kayla talk about how being an empathetic listener to our children's stories can help with their healing, and why it's important for us to tell our own stories to others to help in our own healing. For when we learn how to help heal ourselves, we can help our children in their own healing. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Dan Siegel explains adult attachment styles Anatomy of the Soul - Curt Thompson One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Some of our kids have big emotions. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about how we deal with drama when the emotions go from big to bigger to biggest. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Harry Chapin - The Cat's in the Cradle One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Listener Jamie asks, how do we prepare the kids already in our home for the journey into foster care? This is something as parents we do not always consider, especially if the kids already in our home are very young. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about ways to help kids prepare for and deal with the ups and downs of life as a foster family. One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Listener Jamie asks the team about resources for family members and friends to help educate them on how they can best support their family as they navigate foster care and adoption journeys.  Resources Mentioned in the Episode The Whole Brain Child TBRI Overview Video The Science of Neglect Video Brene Brown TED Talk on Vulnerability The Connected Child Back2Back Ministries One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North  

Whether we admit it or not, it's a thought adoptive and foster parents have at least once: how do I love my child when I don't like them? Chris, Kayla, and Ryan explore this in detail, starting with the need to continually remember behavior is an expression of a need. We need to do the detective work to help our kids! Resources Mentioned in the Episode Les Carter - When Pleasing You Is Killing Me: A Workbook One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Listener Jeremy wants to know about prepping kids from hard places for summer camps, so Ryan, Kayla, and Chris discuss the best ways to manage this. They also discuss how those working at these camps might be able to help out in that environment. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Sky Ranch @ Horn Creek Adoptive & Foster Family Camp, August 5-11, 2018 One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North  

It's time once again for another episode of everyone's favorite game show! Okay, alright, maybe not *everyone's* favorite game show, but it's certainly ours. Ryan and Kayla go head-to-head once again in Give Me an Example! They'll discuss repairing your mistakes, how to encourage and praise liberally, and responding to sensory processing needs. Who will win this round? It's a thrill a minute!  Resources Mentioned in the Episode Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol S. Dweck One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Toony" by Liberty Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy Executive Producer: Ryan North

Helping kids from hard places involves more folks than just parents. There are teachers and professionals, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and dear friends gathered around our families. If they're not gathered around, we need to bring them in to the fold, because it's important our kids have a TEAM helping them heal and reach their potential. Chris talks with Ryan and Kayla about the best way to do this. One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy

There are so many places where our unmet expectations get in the way of connection with our kids. Chris, Ryan, and Kayla are joined again by Allison Highton, and they talk about these various expectations, which begin even before our kids come home. Resources Mentioned in the Episode Mealtime Struggles episode The Connected Child The Body Keeps Score One Big Happy Home Web | Facebook | Twitter | Email | Podcast Swag Music: "Home" by Moses Uvere Engineered and Produced by Dallas Stacy