We’re glad you’re here for this episode as we dive into the topic of advocacy, especially as it relates to parenting a child with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

We’re joined by Laura Hernandez, from Mama Systems, who is an adoptive mama, but also the caregiver to children on the spectrum. She knows first hand what it looks like and feels like to be dismissed, but she also shares some valuable insight we can. take home as caregivers, when it comes to advocacy!

How To Connect With Laura: 

• Get her FREE resource (especially for being a listener of this show!). Click Here! 
• Connect with her on Facebook
• Follow her on Instagram

Also On The Show…

• Insight Virtual Conference is coming soon! Get free access to our latest round of Fast-Action Bonuses when you register by April 1st! Click Here to learn more!

Thanks for stopping by this week

It’s not what you think. Resiliency is not perfection, it’s not about never failing, and on the days you don’t feel like you’re not resilient, it’s not what defines you.

So then, what does it mean to be resilient?

In this latest episode of The Honestly Adoption Podcast, Mike explores what resiliency is and is NOT.

Also on the show…

• Catch our ENCORE presentation of the FREE training, How To Effectively Respond To Behaviors coming THIS Tuesday, March 21st at 1pm EST. Click Here to learn more!
• Insight Virtual Conference 2023 is coming soon and with it, BRAND NEW FAST-ACTION BONUSES when you grab your ticket by April 1st! Click Here to register now

Thanks for stopping by this week

And now…we get to do it all over again! That’s right…Insight Virtual Conference 2023 is open for registration and coming April 20th and 21st.

In this special Honestly Adoption Podcast Episode, we are recapping the entire 2022 conference by sharing audio clips from just about everything that happened at the conference. The great news? It doesn’t just have to stay in this podcast! Nope. You can get your ticket to the 2023 conference now and get access to our Fast-Action Bonuses…

• Full access to our University training library ($4997 value)
• A complimentary ticket to our brand new Insight After Party on night 1 of the conference

Plus, you’ll receive…

• More than 15 hours of training (or 15+ hours of Continuing Education Credit if you’re a professional) from world-renowned speakers, authors and thought leaders in the foster and adoption space. 
• Access to our conference Virtual Lobby where we feature a ton of free resources and speaker info
• The opportunity to learn from the brightest and best minds and speakers in the foster and adoptive community

Check out this special episode, and grab your Insight 2023 Ticket now! Click Here.

Thanks for stopping by this week  

It’s a question all of us have had at one time or another. And what’s even more difficult is that we have to keep on parenting and caring for our children, while carrying this burden. It’s not like we can retreat away and find healing.

In our latest episode, Mike shares some ideas and insights into this question from a place of honesty and vulnerablity.

Also On The Show…

• INSIGHT VIRTUAL CONFERENCE 2023 registration Is opening THIS MONDAY, February 27th! And when we open everything up we have some amazing fast-action bonuses teed up for you. This year’s conference is going to be transformational. Get on our email update list here and be the first to hear about our fast-action bonus bundles!

Thanks for stopping by this week

You’ve probably found yourself scratching your head a time or two, or simply throwing your hands up in confusion, when the child who has been in your home for years is melting down for no apparent reason. Or, perhaps you’ve been caught off guard by a season where your child, who seemed fine for a long time, suddenly begins to act out, or behave in extreme ways.

There’s a simple explanation for this: the body keeps score of everything traumatic experience (acute or chronic) that a human being has gone through in their life. When you consider this reality as it relates to our children, who have experienced significant trauma, everything begins to make sense.

In this episode, Mike shares a simple understanding of this reality.

Also On The Show…

• Insight Virtual Conference is coming April 20th & 21st to a computer, tablet, or smartphone near you. When we open up registration in just a little over a week, we’re giving away some magnificent bonuses. The best place you can be to qualify for this is on our email update list! Click Here to add your name!

Thanks for stopping by this week

Let’s be honest…

Trying to make sense of our child’s behavior, let alone manage it (or stop it), is like climbing Mt Everest!

Nearly impossible….or so it seems!

What if we told you there was a simple, effective way to understand and respond to your child’s behaviors in a way that brings calm in the middle of chaos?

If you’re nodding your head yes, we have good news!

In this episode we’re sharing the first half of an online training Mike hosted entitled, How To Effectively Respond To Your Child’s Behaviors: A 4-Part Blueprint To Bring Calm to The Chaos.

In this free training, he walks you through:

• The #1 most important step to effective behavior response
• A proven, 4-part response blueprint that is easy to apply
• Done-for-you scripts you can use when your child is dysregulated
• The mental shift caregivers can make that changes everything!

The training is free to join in and you can catch the full replay now until 11:59 pm PST on February 15th.

Click Here to access the entire training replay!

Thanks for stopping by this week

In this episode of The Honestly Adoption Podcast, we’re sharing an insider’s Live Q&A call that Mike did with Jenn Hook, therapist, and Executive Director of The Replanted Conference. This is content that’s normally exclusive to Oasis Community, Honestly Adoption’s members-only support and training site, but we’re sharing this valuable conversation with our podcast audience!

On the call, Mike and Jenn answer questions from caregivers who attended live, as well as questions sent in ahead of time, around rejection, trauma, behaviors, attachment, and much more!

Also On The Show…

• Insight Virtual Conference 2023 is coming soon! Make sure you are on the email update list, because when we open registration, our update listers will get special bonus access JUST for being on the list. Click Here to join!
• Get 30-Days FREE Trial Access To Oasis Community! As part of this special episode, we’re giving away 30 days free access to our exclusive members-only site. Click Here to learn more!

Thanks for stopping by this week

It may seem odd to talk about caregiver success on the foster and adoption journey. Mostly because, we don’t really know how to measure success do we? What we do know how to measure is failure, or at least the failure we often feel as caregivers. Our child’s behavior is out of control = failure! We lose our temper and say some things we can’t take back = failure! We are up to our ears in bad behavior and we think it’s because of us = failure!

We absorb failure into our body and brain to such a degree that we stop believing we can be anything beyond it. We concede that our circumstances will never be better than they are now. Can I get an amen?

If that’s you, let me just say, I get it. Totally. 100%. Been there a gazillion times over the past 20 years.

As I was thinking about the struggle we have as caregivers, and helping some of our one-to-one coaching group members understand how their failure does not define them, I came across this iconic quote from Michael Jordan..

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” ~ Michael Jordan

My first thought was, it’s MICHAEL JORDAN for crying out loud! Arguably the best basketball player, and maybe the best pro athlete to walk the face of the earth. Why in the world is he talking about failure? Better yet, HOW in the world can he talk about failure? He’s the epitome of success in every way, shape, and form!

But then, as I typed up this quote in an email to some of our members, I re-read what I was typing. And that’s when it hit me. Success has everything to do with getting up and moving forward, even when you’ve failed. That’s what Michael Jordan is saying through these words.

What if success was more about the recovery than the original action?

What if it was found in how we seek forgiveness, and forgive, when we blow it, or things erupt in our house?

What if it was about getting up and moving forward after a big fall out with our child?

Michael Jordan is a sport’s legend. You don’t get to that place by never failing, and you certainly don’t get there by never moving past failure. He’s failed over and over and over. And yet, he’s the poster of success. How? I believe he achieved this by choosing to get up, when he was down. By choosing to not let failure stop him from becoming great. Through deciding that he was not going to be defined by mistakes.

Yes, dear caregiver, we have failed. We’ve made mistakes as numerous as the stars in the night sky (I’m pointing at me more than you, by the way). But that is not what defines us. And that is not the end-all of our journey with our children. Today is a new day, with a new opportunity to do things different. To continue to love our children, and pursue them, even if we’ve failed them.

Success is not contingent on whether or not we fail in this life. We’re going to. Trust me. Success is contingent on what we choose to do after we’ve failed. Whether or not we get up, dust ourselves off, keep moving forward, and except that we fail as human beings, but we are still good.

That’s how we find success.

We need to know that we are not alone, and we need to hear someone else tell us it’s okay.

In this episode of The Honestly Adoption Podcast, we are taking a step back from talking through strategies, techniques, and steps, and just having a conversation about where we are at as caregivers, and what we can do when we feel like we’re staring down a mountain.

On This Episode We Talk About…

• Setting bite-sized goals (and not looking at the entire year, but just a few weeks :-))
• Pulling back from a bigger picture and focusing instead on smaller pixels
• Setting lower expecations (not a bad thing)
• Taking a breath when we feel like our backs are against the wall

We Also Talked About…

• Getting access to The Scoop, our brand new weekly update email with bite-sized, transformational content that will help you continue to become the best caregiver possible. Visit our main site here, sign up for our parenting lessons, and you’ll automatically start receiving The Scoop!

Thanks for stopping by this week

We can often look at building healthy attachments with our children as a daunting task. In the midst of the grind of daily meltdowns, behavioral situations, and constantly being pushed away and rejected, it’s kinda like staring down Mount Everest. We wonder….will we ever have a healthy relationship with our kid?

But what if attachment-building wasn’t all that difficult? What if healthy attachments formed through the little things that we often don’t think are that big of a deal?

I’ve been thinking about this lately as I work to continually form a healthy attachment with some of my children that may be more on the difficult side of things when it comes to solid connection and understanding. Here are some practical ideas I’ve come up with…

1. Choose the hills to die on carefully. This is number 1 for a reason. If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you saw our post on this last weekend. Choosing the hills to die on (and not die on) may be one of the top tools to successfully navigate big emotions and change potential extreme behaviors into peace quickly. But this is a powerful tool in building attachment too.
   Quick story: a few nights ago I asked Kristin if she wanted to watch a movie later on after dinner was over with. It was a gloomy night in Indiana and we both just felt tired and ready to hunker down. She said yes so I began brainstorming movie titles we would both enjoy. Soon after, my second youngest son (who can be be prickly to interact with) came trotting in and announced that “Me and mom are going to watch Harry Potter.” No offense to Harry Potter (great story, great movies) but I didn’t want to watch Harry Potter. They were in movie 3 and I was not up-to-speed on the storyline (can you still be a human being and not be “up-to-speed” on Harry Potter? Asking for a friend!). I could feel the defensiveness rising up inside of me. But I stopped myself from saying what I wanted to say and instead brought him the remote, and even shared the popcorn I had made. I decided that this was not a hill to die on. And, it worked. The connection that night was solid. He actually talked to me and it was cordial.
2. Listen (even if it’s hard to). Some of you would tell me that this is like nails down a chalk board in your relationships with your child. I get it. And I get why. Some of you have children who talk nonstop. It can be hard to listen…and listen…and listen…and keep listening. But what if this were a valuable attachment-building block? What if this were a crucial outlet that our children need to in order to trust us as their caregiver? I think they are. None of us want to engage in a conversation with someone who isn’t listening. This past summer I was driving home early from a family vacation in Wisconsin with one of my younger sons who I don’t have a lot in common with. I knew what the 3+ hour drive would consist of. Endless talking about video games, and anime, and lots of things I did not understand. But I knew this could also be a valuable time to connect. Hard as it was, I coached myself to keep an open mind and heart as we drove together. I still did not get 98% of the stories but what I did get was a kid who felt listened to and that made for a very peaceful drive home and a peaceful night together. Sometimes its day by day just like that. As hard as it is, coach yourself to spend time intentionally listening to your child. No, you don’t have to totally understand what they are talking about. It’s not really about that. It’s about providing the space, and holding the space, for them to be heard.
3. Validate big feelings. We as adults do not want to feel invisible, especially when we are experiencing some big feelings ourselves. Same with our children. And keep in mind that our children often feel voiceless and unseen because they don’t have the resources that we do. Not always the case, but often. That’s where we come in as caregivers. We can provide that resource simply by validating those big feelings they are experiencing. “Hey, I can see you are upset. Why is that? Oh, [insert name] made fun of you? Gosh, that would hurt my feelings too!” Powerful powerful powerful avenue to form attachment and build trust. 

This list could go on and on but my goal is to keep it simple. The journey is already overwhelming as it is. Sometimes simple, and even mundane, can become huge avenues for healthy attachments to form. When you least expect it, those tiny efforts pay off. Don’t forget dear caregiver, you are doing good good work with your child even when it doesn’t feel like it.

In short, the behaviors you are seeing are a direct result of trauma. Once you understand that, everything can change. But how do you gain the right perspective? How do you successfully tell yourself that this is not personal even when it feels really personal? That’s what we’re covering in this episode of the podcast.

Also On The Show…

• Sign Up For The Scoop! The Scoop is our brand new weekly email update that gives you insider access and information on everything we’re up to at Honestly Adoption BUT more importantly, valuable insights and tools to help you be the best caregiver possible. It’s easy to join The Scoop. Click Here to sign up (When you do, we’ll send you our Free Behavior Response Blueprint).

Thanks for joining us this week

I stand on the back porch of my farmhouse in Central Indiana on a January afternoon. Rain patters on the tin room covering above my head. I watch intently as drops trace along the edge of the gutter before plummeting to the sidewalk below.

It’s a gloomy day in the Hoosier state. Typical for this time of year. The rain accentuates the gray skies and barren trees that surround our farm leaving me to feel as though I am looking out into a wasteland that is always going to be just that…a wasteland. That’s where my heart and mind are on this day.

I feel defeated and hopeless. Maybe it’s seasonal depression or perhaps just another hard day walking through trauma behaviors, basement brain blow ups and meltdowns, defiance and disrespect, or a myriad of other big feeling moments we often have in our household.

I wonder how we can even face another day of this. Do we really have the resiliency, the strength, the ability to move forward?

In my questioning and wonderment I pull a tiny oval case from my pocket, flip it open, and insert two tiny earbuds into my ears. I feel that some good ole introspective tunes could compliment the scenery perfectly and maybe, just maybe pull me out of this pit. Plus, the author side of me begs for something to deepen the thoughts I’m having.

I’m not paying attention to the song cued up when I press play. These words begin to play…

‘Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned
Everything you lose is a step you take
So make the friendship bracelets
Take the moment and taste it
You’ve got no reason to be afraid

You’re on your own, kid
Yeah, you can face this.

(Taylor Swift, You’re On Your Own Kid, 2022)

Resiliency is about making the choice to move forward, in spite of hard circumstances.

You pour more love, and time, and energy, and resources that you can begin to keep track of into this child. You are there at a moment’s notice when he or she needs you. Heck, you would swim the North Atlantic to get to them if you needed to. And yet, the rejection is real and it’s constant. Nothing you say or do will ever be enough (let alone, good enough). How do you even begin to make sense of this?

In this episode, Kristin shares practical, yet in-depth, insights into how you can actually work to build a connection with a child who consistently pushes you away, rejects you, or pursues superficial relationships over you. We know how much this hurts, but we also know there’s a much bigger picture playing out in these situations. Have hope, hang in there! You are not alone.

Also On The Show…

• LAST CHANCE to Get BOTH Insight 2021 and 2022 Replay Libraries for $29.95 limited time access, or $59.95 lifetime access! During this special series, we are giving our listening audience the chance to take home both Insight Virtual Conference Replay Libraries for just $29.95 ($59.95 for Lifetime Access). Click Here to lock in your spot!

Thanks for stopping by this week

In this episode, our good friend Ligia Cushman joins us to talk about how transracial adoptive families can thrive.

Ligia’s wisdom, insight, and gentle spirit will inspire you and move you. If you are a transracial family you will want to lean in because Ligia share stories that are powerful and moving.

A Little More About Ligia…

Ligia Noemi Cushman M.A. is the daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, one of eight children, and the mother of one son through adoption. In her award-winning book, Heard: How Loss Led Us to Love, Ligia captures the night her son was born and the many hard experiences she and her family encountered as a multiracial family in the deep South.

Ligia graduated with her first master’s degree in 2004 with a concentration in Human Services. In 2016, Ligia obtained her second master’s degree in professional counseling from Liberty University.

Also On The Show…

• Get BOTH Insight 2021 and 2022 Replay Libraries now! During this special series, we are giving our listening audience the chance to take home both Insight Virtual Conference Replay Libraries for just $29.95 ($59.95 for Lifetime Access). Click Here to lock in your spot!

Thanks for stopping by this week

In this episode, our good friend Chuck Hagele shares valuable insights into the online world and helping our children in the best way possible!

There are so many present-day dangers that present themselves for children with a trauma history. Namely, the internet. How do we even begin to protect and safeguard our children from the many pitfalls the online world has? Fortunately, Chuck shares his many years of wisdom and expertise with us. But the biggest thing we love about Chuck’s approach is that it way bigger than just sharing the latest tech trends, or filters that parents can use. He targets the heart and helps caregivers understand how they can build connection with their child while creating boundaries for them.

Also On The Show…

• Get BOTH Insight 2021 and 2022 Replay Libraries now! During this special series, we are giving our listening audience the chance to take home both Insight Virtual Conference Replay Libraries for just $29.95 ($59.95 for Lifetime Access). Click Here to lock in your spot!

Thanks for stopping by this week

We’ve been in the place many times over the past 20+ years of parenting. And the most important lesson we’ve learned is that there is a right way to respond, and a wrong way to respond. Beyond that, there are crucial steps we must take to help our child heal, and keep us regulated and calm through, what could be, very difficult circumstances for our entire family for a season.

As we dive into this new series, The Insight Archives, where we are sharing 4 sessions from the 2021 and 2022 Insight Virtual Conference, our hope is that you find clarity and insight as a caregiver. But most importantly, we want you to find hope.

Also On The Show…

• SPECIAL CLOSEOUT OFFER… as a listener of the show, you can get full lifetime access to both the 2021 and 2022 Insight Virtual Conference replay libraries for a discounted price. Plus, Certificates Of Training Hours for more than 33 hours of foster care or homestudy credit. Click Here!

Thanks for stopping by this week

We were so fortunate to recently interview author Angelo Grotticelli on the podcast, who wrote the book The Bond. Out of all the books written on foster care and adoption, The Bond is, by far, the most unique. Your heart will warmed by Angelo’s words, his story, and his heart for children (particularly teenagers) in foster care.

A Little More About Angelo…

Angelo Grotticelli is a veteran technology trade journalist who, after years of roaming to find his true identity, ironically resides in the same town as the Huntington, N.Y., foster-care home he grew up in. He has a wife and three children.

A Little More About The Bond (in Angelo’s words)…

“The Bond traces the journey of an unusual family made up of three unrelated sets of children from different backgrounds all raised in the same foster-care house. We were a collection of eight kids, all from broken homes, who were searching for the stability of an intact family. Unfortunately, that foster family imploded as well, but through sheer will and desperation we kids learned to pick up the pieces and form a lasting connection of our own.

I came to the Nelson house from an orphanage in August 1969, when I was nine years old. When I turned eighteen, I was told to leave the family I had come to love. The state child-care payments had stopped and I was cast out. Then, in succession, we all were. Getting emotionally attached to the Nelsons was hard, but getting unattached was devastating. We were very different people who would never have met in another life. Yet today we are a family, as tight as any blood relations.”

How To Connect With Angelo…

• Buy The Bond on Amazon
• Follow Angelo on Twitter

Also On The Show…

• Looking For A Way To Survive The Holiday Season? Have no fear. We created The Holiday Survival Guide so you, and your child, could experience peace this season! Click Here to download now! (It’s FREE!)

Thanks for stopping by this week

Don’t I know it. 

Now, on the other side of 2 decades+ of parenting children with a trauma history, I see this clearer than ever. I understand why the child who was deprived of nutrition as an infant, starts nearly every day out with the question, “What’s for dinner?”

I understand why, at times, a simple fast-food meal is treated like it’s their last.

That wasn’t always the case for me, though. I was blinded by rules, budgets, and the way I was raised. I came from a home where breakfast, lunch, and dinner were what they were, and maybe we could have a snack in between, but that was rare. A special occasion at best. You ate breakfast, went to school (or out to play if it were summer break), ate lunch, back to school or play, and then mom yelled out “Dinner!” and rang a bell when it was time to come in and wash up. And if you didn’t clean up that plate, you’d sit there ’til sundown!

Rules. Rules. Rules.

They worked for me and my sister. Mostly. I honestly don’t believe it was the most effective way to parent and basically turned us into kids who worked hard to not get caught scraping the food off our plates to the floor for the dog to take care of things!

So, are you making things worse with your child by enforcing and upholding rules around food? Maybe. If anything, you may be causing added triggers around their insecurity. It’s like trying to put out a campfire with a can of gasoline. The more you pour, the brighter it burns.

But, dear caregiver, I don’t want you to feel guilty or ashamed. That doesn’t help at all and is not the point of this post. If you are feeling this way, there is hope.

Let’s shift the question: How do you lead your child who has a food insecurity, if not with rules? And how do you keep from making their insecurity worse? 

Here are some ideas…

1. Rules must transform into guidelines. Rules are rigid, guidelines are flexible. In our household there is breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but snacks are available in between. The guideline may be 1 snack in between but if we notice our child struggling there may be an exception. Every situation, and day, can be different. We’re working to meet a need, not enforce a rule, or make a point.
2. Yes, with permission. Food is always available. You can always have a snack in our home. It’s always a yes, but with permission. Why? Not only do we not want to cultivate an idea of scarcity for a child who has a lingering food insecurity, but we’re also working on a bigger picture. That picture? We’re raising future adults. And those adults, we hope, will recognize boundaries, learn a level of patience, and function within the confines of asking and gaining permission, with food, but also in life.
3. Constant access. As I mentioned in Point 2, food should always be available. In some capacity. This doesn’t mean that you’re handing out snacks 10 minutes before dinner is ready and placed on the table. You simply point to the fact that you’re about to eat. They can wait. You may need to reassure them and point to the food that’s being prepared. Perhaps even give them a sample tasting ahead of dinner being served. My advice has always been to have healthy snacks readily available for those in-between times.
4. Ownership with food. Speaking of constant access, one of the most important things we have done with our children, over the years, is give them ownership with the type of snacks we make readily available. There are boundaries with this of course. We may allow them to choose one not-so-healthy snack and make it clear that this can be a once-a-day type snack, while the others are healthy and nutritious. But allowing them to pick out food with us, in the grocery, or online if we’re ordering through InstantCart has helped reduce insecurities around food.

At the end of the day, the best advice we can give to you is this: Identify and meet the need first above all. Yes it is food, but on a larger scale, it’s connection. It’s validation that you see they are wrestling with a big insecurity, one they may not even understand. You can bridge that gap for them.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Lata Hamilton who is a leaderships expert and adult adoptee living in Australia. She has an amazing story that will bring hope and empowerment to women worldwide, but also everyone who listens in!

About Lata Hamilton (in her words)…

“I believe everyone deserves to experience the magic of change. If we can make change the best experience possible, we can inspire change from within and empower ourselves and our teams. I’m a Change Leadership Expert accredited in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Coaching and help women carve their own paths for change in career, leadership and life.

​Having worked across Insurance, Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Government, Consumer Goods, and Advertising, I blend together my years of experience and accreditation in Organisational Change Management, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and Coaching. I’ve led change with some of Australia’s biggest companies with agile, fit-for-purpose, practical Change Management strategies, plans and approaches. I’ve worked on changes that have impacted over 100,000 people, operating model changes impacting thousands, global cultural transformations, and digital transformation that is literally change the way that we work. If you’re the kind of leader with vision and passion, pioneer with me.”

How To Connect With Lata…

• Visit her website (and download her free guide!)
• Follow her on Instagram

Also On The Show…

• THIS WEEK ONLY…. you can get our entire Honestly Adoption University Library (more than 200 hours of training) for 98% off! Click Here to get all the details!

Thanks for stopping by this week

We love heart-warming adoption storylines. And this week, we are excited to share an interview with Preston Pouteaux, one of the producers of a new documentary called “I’ll See You Later.”

I’ll See You Later is a documentary that tells the life altering stories of adoption, profoundly carried between families learning to embody love together. For those who have an adoption story, this film resonates with a heart-aching richness and reflects the beauty of self-giving love; stories that reveal the very best in each of us. Some stories of adoption do not say “goodbye,” but, “I’ll see you later.”

Click Here to learn more about the film.

About Preston…

Dr. Preston Pouteaux is a beekeeper, neighbourhood pastor at Lake Ridge Community Church, and the director of Plesion Studio. He is an engaging speaker, writer, and curator of conversations about faith and neighbourhoods. He studied at Covenant Bible College, Briercrest College, Regent College, Tyndale Seminary, and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He is the author of Imago Dei to Missio Dei [VantagePoint3], the award-winning author of The Bees of Rainbow Falls: Finding Faith, Imagination, and Delight in Your Neighbourhood [Urban Loft Publishers], and of The Neighbours Are Real and Other Beautiful Things [Plesion Studio]. He is a Harvey/Mackey Award winning writer for Faith Today Magazine, Ekstasis Magazine, and Strong Towns. Since 2015 his column, Into the Neighbourhood, has been printed over two millions times in weekly newspapers. Preston lives in Chestermere, Alberta, with his wife Kelly, their daughters Scotia and Ivy, and a few thousand honeybees.

Also on the show…

• TODAY is the last day to enroll in Jeff Noble’s Caregiver Kickstart Coaching Program and get access to a ton of awesome bonuses from Honestly Adoption University. Click Here to learn more!

Thanks for stopping by this week