Episode 174: The Messy Journey of Healing (w/ Kristen Thomas)
The Forgotten Podcast
The Forgotten Initiative
4.9 • 532 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
TW: There are brief mentions in this episode of abuse, self-harm, and suicide, which we wanted you to be aware of before listening.
There are some episodes of the podcast that simply pack so much wisdom into a short conversation. This is one of those episodes.
Children enter foster care for many different reasons. And despite some of the hard work we do to overcome and heal from the past, our stories can still be messy. My guest knows this all too well!
Kristen Thomas entered into kinship care after suffering abuse, but experienced deep-rooted challenges when she felt misunderstood, unsupported, and became homeless after aging out of care. As an adult, Kristen has taken the time to move towards healing those parts of her past. Today, she is going to grad school for Counseling and is an adoptive parent to her daughter, with only a 10-year age difference between them.
Kristen is very well-spoken and I greatly appreciated her coming onto the show. I know you will be encouraged by her story!
Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/kristen-thomas-174/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sharing the stories of the foster care community. This is The Forgotten podcast. In my story, there's so much lack, and I don't think it'll be until the other side of heaven that it gets fulfilled. And so when people really embrace all of me, that is when I truly feel seen and supported and feel like my voice is going to matter. |
| 0:30.1 | Hey, it's Jamie Cabe. Welcome back to the Forgotten podcast, where we are highlighting the stories of the people of foster care. With every episode, our goal is to help you better |
| 0:35.5 | understand the foster care community. We want to bring you |
| 0:38.8 | hope and encouragement in your journey and help you support the agency workers, foster parents, |
| 0:44.8 | vulnerable adults, and children in foster care right where you live. If you want to learn more |
| 0:50.6 | about TFI, catch up on past episodes, read engaging articles, or partner with us |
| 0:56.2 | on mission with a gift of any amount, head over to the forgotten initiative.org. We are in this |
| 1:04.4 | together. Thank you for listening and engaging with us. We love having you as part of our family. |
| 1:14.9 | Okay, it is time. Let's do this. |
| 1:26.5 | Well, Kristen, thank you so, so much for coming on the show today. I am really excited to hear your story, to gain insight from your perspective, because |
| 1:30.8 | you have experienced as a former foster youth and as an adoptive parent, not only of a child, |
| 1:36.6 | but of a teen who is only 10 years younger than you. That's crazy. I'm guessing that's not what |
| 1:44.0 | you expected your life to look like when you were a young |
| 1:47.2 | child. Absolutely not, especially because sometimes we'll be out in public and she'll like to say that |
| 1:53.7 | I had her at age 10. And so people are doing the math in their head. It's like, oh, okay. The shock and |
| 2:00.0 | mom was really fun. |
| 2:01.1 | Yeah, that is fun. Definitely not where I saw myself having to explain to complete strangers |
| 2:06.3 | why there's only 10 years difference between me and my daughter. Yeah, that's crazy. Well, |
| 2:11.4 | would you give us a little bit more background? Like, tell us your story. How is this kind of |
| 2:16.0 | unfolded? So as a really young child, |
| 2:19.1 | I grew up in a family that absolutely loved me and wanted me, but held a lot of secrets. And because |
| 2:25.4 | of those things and the way things were kind of covered up in my early years, it really set the |
... |
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