71 | Inside a Foster Mom’s Fight with | Khristina

Start with a neighbor’s knock and a teenage girl who says yes to helping, then fast‑forward to a woman who has turned that yes into a life shaped by care. We sit down with Khristina, a certified clinical medical assistant and devoted foster mom, to trace her path from bedside empathy to courtroom endurance, and why she chose “fostering to keep” even when the process became invasive, expensive, and emotionally heavy.

Khristina opens up about welcoming a newborn whose cries signaled unmet needs long before the medical chart did. She walks us through the years of seeking answers, the shift from a suspected Duchenne muscular dystrophy diagnosis to Becker, and the daily work of protecting mobility and dignity: transfers, stretching, cardiology check‑ins, and a home adapted for independence. Along the way, she unpacks what most people never see, referee rulings that can be appealed, an appeal window that resets everything, and more than $35,000 in legal fees to secure stability for three boys who call her mom. We talk about behavior triggers after mandated visits, the weekly “reset” back to baseline, and how school counselors, behavioral specialists, and the church keep the family grounded.

If you’ve wondered what it truly takes to foster, this conversation is your field guide, covering documentation, boundaries, patience, and a community that shows up. Khristina’s hard-won advice is practical and human: pace your expectations, guard your “me time,” seek outside counsel early, and prepare to learn more about the law and disability care than you ever expected. The payoff is measured in ordinary moments that once felt impossible: a high school graduation for a son who wasn’t expected to live past five, a house full of laughter, and a parent who still chooses love on the hardest days.

If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with someone considering foster care, and leave a review to help others find these conversations. Your support helps more families hear the truth and the hope behind fostering.

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Transcript

Meet Christina: Care As a Calling

Brooks 0:38

Welcome back to Off Balance. I'm your host, Dr. Brooks. Many people admire the idea of fostering but feel unprepared, overwhelmed, or unsure of what it's truly like day-to-day. If you have ever considered fostering, this episode is for you. Today's guest is Christina, a medical professional with a deep passion for encouraging and caring for people. Her heart is for service. It extends beyond her patience into her personal life, where she has stepped into the powerful and transformative role of fostering children. Christina brings authenticity, compassion, and wisdom as she shares her journey of opening her home and heart to kids in need. Her story sheds light on both the beauty and the challenges of fostering and reminds us the impact that we can make when we choose to love boldly. Christina, welcome to Off Balance. Thank you so much for joining us on today. So before we dive into our conversation, can you just introduce yourself to listeners and tell them exactly what it is that you do?

Khristina 1:40

My name is Christina, and I'm 52 years old. I am certified clinical medical assistant. I have been in the medical field for 20 plus years, and I've just always cared about helping people firsthand. I just love to be there for people and help them as much as possible. Enrolled in going back to school to further education so I can continue the passion that I have as far as services and helping people.

From Neighborly Care to Nursing

Brooks 2:06

You are in the medical field, and as I said in your introduction, your love and care for people kind of transition into your personal life. So can you share with us how you began fostering?

Khristina 2:17

First, let me just start off. When I was in high school, I really didn't realize that I had a passion and nursing was what I wanted to do and help people, but I will never forget that we had an elderly neighbor. And one day I come home from school and she was in the door asking for help. I went in, really didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I knew that I had to help her. I helped her, I cleaned her, I bathed her the best I could, started every day making sure she had something to eat. At that time I wasn't a good cook, so it was microwave for her, but I made sure that she ate and just gave her company because she was lonely. Starting that was the first step of me knowing that what I wanted to do when I grew up was to be helped. And then I had an experience with my mom being sick, and that really let me know that's what I wanted. We kept her at home. We provided and nurtured, cared, and loved for her, and did what we had to do as a family versus putting her somewhere. So that was my second step. And I love to be able to be there for a person. And I just feel like anybody fostering in the medical field or anything, you have to have empathy for people. You have to put yourself in their shoes and stuff. And not only that, you have to listen. You have to really listen and love what you're doing.

Brooks 3:34

When you say love what you're doing, what does that exactly mean for someone that's listening? And they like, I have a job and I like it, but I'm not sure if I love it.

First Foster: A Newborn With Unknowns

Khristina 3:42

So, my love, I go above and beyond for my patients to make sure that no medicine is missed, that they fully understand what is needed for them and what I am gonna do. You making sure that they know and keeping in contact with them communication. You have to have communication. That goes for nursing, fostering. You have to let people know because regardless of you're doing a good job, if they don't feel comfortable or secure, they're still gonna be that. Am I where I need to be? Is this right for me? I don't want a patient to have to question. They know job is gonna be done. The same thing goes with fostering. You have to take the good and the bad. You have to be able to you figure it out. And you have to figure it out with putting them first. You have to put them first because you know, they're going through something if it's medical and if it's fostering, it could be mental, physical. You just never know. That's what I mean by love what you're doing. You can't do it halfway. Uh, what prompted you to become a foster mom? The first child that I fostered, actually, we were visiting some friends, and they had a child there, and he didn't seem like he was treated as he should, and just gonna take him home, not knowing that he was never going back. That happened. I took him in as if he was my baby. I didn't think nothing of it, and he was sick and stuff, but it didn't matter if he was sick. I had to learn what his disability is, and then also you figure out what's gonna be best for him to make sure that he's comfortable.

Brooks 5:20

So, from the time that you brought him into your home, what was the time span when he found out that he had a disability?

Khristina 5:28

When we first got him, I knew something was wrong. He cried constantly, and there was nothing I could do if love could have stopped him from crying. He had all the love. But I knew something was wrong. We couldn't figure it out. We would ride him for hours till he would go to sleep. We were going to doctors, didn't know the history or his background. So that was my challenge. But when we first really figured out that something was wrong with him, he was probably about nine or ten months when it was time for him to start crawling. He never had the ability to crawl. He did, we call it a military drag. And I knew something was wrong with having kids. My mother instincts kicked in, and we started getting him to see the people that he needed to see.

Brooks 6:15

So as he was developing and you noticed something was wrong, at any point did you decide that I'm gonna give him back, that I no longer wanted to foster him because it was gonna come with a lot of challenges and problems?

Khristina 6:28

No, that made me want more. It just actually made me, I said, hey, he is gonna have the best life that a child can have, regardless of his disabilities. And even though I can say he know that he's not as the same as other kids, that boy does not miss a beat and stuff. I make sure that he's included in everything that he can do. And so you got him as a newborn, but how old is he now? He is 19 years old, he'll be 20 on March the 5th. And my biggest thing with that is when we first was taking him to the doctors, they told us he would only live to be five. He wouldn't make it past five. And five has turned into nineteen and he's still here, so that's a blessing.

Brooks 7:16

So here we are. We fast forward. You have had him almost 20 years, and then recently you decided that you wanted to foster again. So can you share with us what prompted you to do fostering a second time around?

Choosing In, Not Out

Khristina 7:32

Just the love for it. Same thing. The first started off with just one. I got this baby when he was a newborn as well, and didn't know if I was keeping him, didn't know, but I did know that I was gonna take care of him and give him the love that he needed and just be there for him. And we started off with, hey, he's just staying with me for a little bit. He's still here, and I consider everyone that I foster my child. And so I went through having him probably say he was about three, and then I did it again. So I did it again. I got his brother that was five years old. So yeah.

Brooks 8:11

So now here we are. We have three foster children. So what challenges have you faced when it comes to fostering?

Khristina 8:20

So first of all, it's not as easy as people say it is, and so that's when I say that you have to really love what you're doing because going through the challenges that I have been through, if if my heart just wasn't in it and I didn't love them, it will make you give up. I have been through just not being told the truth. And that being like through the courts with the youth centers and different things, they made it seem so easy. Here, this is a bad situation, and you are a great thing, and you are just gonna get these kids and stuff. And so it is a high and a low because when kids are used to stability and then there's a chance that you can place them back in the badness that they were in and stuff, it it does, it affects me and it affects them as well. Making sure that you really understand that when you're fostering and when you're fostering to keep, it's a total different story. And I'm fostering to keep. Let's unpack that.

Brooks 9:23

So what do you mean by fostering to keep?

Fostering Again: Three Boys, One Mission

Khristina 9:27

So fostering to keep is where you want the kids to stay with you. Some people are foster and they'll just foster until they find home placements for them. I started off with fostering to keep. And with qu fostering to keep you have many different branches to it. So I have had DHR come into my house, making sure bills are paid, you're got a constant job, doing drug tests, just doing pop-ups whenever they want to see if they can catch you doing anything bad, even though you are the best thing for them. Visitations that for the kids to just actually see if the kids are better off with you versus going back to their mom or father or whoever the family member is. A lot of courts you're going to different courts and they have these ISP meetings. Just figure out exactly where you are or had the parent dig classes or different things. Just a lot. So I have missed time off work to do visitations with parents. You have a lot of people that's angry with you, even though you're doing great you're doing what's best for the kids. I'm not doing anything to intentionally belittle or downgrade a person or put anyone down. I just want the best for the kids as if they're mine. So it's a lot of different meetings, different courts, just different things from the school system. You have to make sure they're doing great, they're excelling in school. You have people checking to see if they're going to school. And it's almost like the person who is the one that's doing the right thing for the kids is the one that's up under the most fire, if I can say that.

Brooks 11:17

Yeah, as you were speaking, I was thinking that sounds very invasive and very intrusive to have the DHS and different third parties coming into your home. So, how are you able to handle that mentally?

Khristina 11:30

Through God. So just stay in prayer, stay in focus, reminding myself every time this is for the kids and stuff. They're it's so deep up in your business, they're in your bills, they're in your bank account and stuff, they're trying to lurk on Facebook pages, social media and stuff, trying, and even though I'm not like a spotlight person or putting all my stuff on Facebook and everything, you have to be careful who you are attached to when you are fostering.

Brooks 11:58

If someone is listening and they're not familiar, can you walk us through the process of becoming a foster parent?

Khristina 12:04

Sure. So there's two different ways. You could go through DHR or fostering family for family. There is like an eight-hour class that teaches you things that you have to have. You have to have a stable job, you have to have no records, you have to have do no drugs, you have you can't have anybody on drugs or anything in your house. Your house has to be safe. You have to have the proper appliances and different things. And depending on how many kids, you have to be able to show that you can take care and provide for them. Now, in some circumstances, they will help with like assistance with clothing and different things of that nature. And that would be like if you're fostering for them just to find home placement, versus when you are fostering to keep, everything is coming out of your pocket. You are doing everything on your own because you can't take assistance from them for fostering to keep and then decide that, hey, I still need assistance from you guys because that doesn't look good.

Brooks 13:08

That makes sense. So you are fostering to keep. So has that impacted your family financially? It has.

“Fostering to Keep” vs Placement

Khristina 13:15

So let's talk about finances. I have so far, right now to this day, this has been like a five and a half, six year process. I have spent over $35,000 in attorney fees. My attorney, she charges $200 an hour. I feel hey, they're worth it. Not only that, it's a lot of missed time from work, no, with courts being all day being rescheduled. This has been going on for five and a half years. I have been to a lot of court cases that have been rescheduled. And every time you reschedule, when I f think that I'm through paying an attorney, I have to continue. It's continued, constant. First it was COVID. I could understand that. But now it's just been one thing behind another. It's a fight for your life. Financially, the money that I have spent, I could have spent doing purchasing homes or doing things, but I still look at this was what was best for me. This is what I set out to do, and regardless of what the finances is or the struggles that I go through, I'm gonna continue to see it out.

Brooks 14:17

That's really good. So the kids, they still get to see their biological parents. So how does that impact them mentally?

Khristina 14:25

Mentally, every time the oldest one sees his bi biological parent, he it's almost like he goes into rage. I have behavior issues. It's like I have to reset them every time that he sees them. It's almost like old scores have come out and stuff, and he's questioning you telling me that this was gonna be over. I thought it was. I keep having to explain to him that this is a part of what I have to do in order to keep you. I've learned not to tell him, hey, this is gonna be over, because it hasn't. But having to reset him, and then the youngest one I've had since a newborn, he does not get that they are his family. I have tried to explain it, but explain to a six-year-old when a person's raised, nurtured, cared, loved for them, explain to them, there's no explaining. So I try to explain to him that God made him for me through her, and he still don't get it. And that was something that someone told me because I was like, how do I explain it to him and stuff, but definitely resetting because one of my children have been traumatized, and it is he has excelled though so much since I got him. I'm really proud of him, and it's almost like he goes back to day one, and it takes about a week to get him back where he needs to be.

Brooks 15:46

Yeah, that's very interesting because you would think that if DHR was there to protect the children, that if it was some type of environment that wasn't as conducive, that they wouldn't allow them to go back to. So that's definitely interesting. So if someone is listening and they have foster kids as well, and they may be dealing with behavior issues, what are some strategies that you can give them to help them to help their child?

Khristina 16:08

Oh, let's let's start with just hold them, just love them and tell them it's gonna be okay because you gotta first let them know, hey, I'm here for you because you are the only solid foundation that they have. And I do all that and encourage and let him talk about what's on your mind because I need to know what's on his mind, because I don't want him to think I'm a child, I can't just say nothing. I need to know what he's feeling, but also you have to get others involved. I've reached out to school and I have put behavior health specialists and cancelors into play. Just see what type of day he's having that day, because you never know, because not only do he do visits, but he gets a phone call once a week. So you have to make sure that you're covering them because this is such a high and low for them and me as well, and also church. So church keeps them grounded and stuff, and he knows that God is gonna protect us through this all. And so I can't put enough on the emphasis of mental your mental for me and my kids. Church keeps us grounded and let us know even through the storm, God got his arms around us. So yeah.

Courts, Referees, and Appeals

Brooks 17:18

Yeah, so you mentioned that you have been in court battle over five and a half years, over thirty thousand dollars. How has your faith helped you to stay resilient and not give up on the children?

Khristina 17:30

So let me tell you first, I'm gonna come back to that, but let me tell you, I won legal custody of these kids three years ago. Legal custody of them should have been over with. We it's almost like they had dropped off the face of the earth. But when you're dealing with courts, if you are not in front of a real judge and you are in front of a referee judge, the parent can always appeal and you will come back into trial. And that's what happened to me. Did not have the knowledge, did not know. All I knew is I had one of these kids, I had it in black and white, and they were mine. So what I would tell people going into courts is know if you're in front of a judge or a referee, because referees' judge words, they are bounded as long as a parent does not appeal. And so a regular judge will just sign off on what a referee judge says if the parents does not come back and contest it. But if it's contested, then you have to go before a judge and the process starts all over again.

Brooks 19:26

So in your state, what's the time frame that they can file an appeal?

The Cost: Time, Work, and $35k Fees

Khristina 19:32

So they have up to I think two years to file an appeal. And so if she wanna file an appeal up after the two years and a day, they would have been mine and I could have continued with my process. And so right now we're in court, we're at a standstill, but I know that we will move through that, yeah. But as far as your faith not to give up is again, you have to keep reminding yourself, you have to love, you have to want those kids. You have to know that just like life, if you're going through things, will get better and stuff. And I have been boo-hoo quine. I have just I never ever wanted to give up on them. I just didn't know what else I could do. And the only thing that I know that I can do is pray. I just pray and talk to him and tell him, hey, I can't fight this no more. I need you to step in and take the wheel and stuff. So you just have to have, you have to have a strong, if you're not religious, you have to have some type some type of support somewhere. And even with my religion and my faith, I have a strong support system with my family.

Brooks 20:46

So if there's someone listening, what's one misconception that most people have about fostering kids?

Khristina 20:52

They feel like you can just get them and they're gonna be yours. It is not as easy as you think. It's good to listen to what the people say, but my thing that I would tell a person is you need to make sure that you're writing down everything everybody that's telling you, from DHR to any CASA to any judges, you need to make sure that you know who said what, because I just listened to the courts. I listened to the DHR and I listened to how easy it was supposed to be, and I just thought I didn't have to do anything. And maybe a year and a half into it, I said, Hey, I'm gonna need an attorney. It's not just happening like they said it is.

Brooks 21:35

If you can go back to before all of this started, what would you tell yourself in that moment that can prepare yourself to the journey that you're not on?

Khristina 21:45

If I could go back, I would just probably say that I would have been more cautious about what the people were telling me. I would have probably seek counsel sooner. Definitely seek some advice, seek counsel from someone outside of the party sooner. Sometimes as a mom, you feel like you can love a child away from all the stuff that they've been through. I probably would have seek counsel for him sooner, you know, and stuff, but yeah.

Brooks 22:16

As you are just looking over everything and you are almost hopefully towards the end of your journey. What do you hope to see once this is done and you can officially adopt the children?

Khristina 22:32

I just hope to see my boys continuing to thrive in life, continuing to excel and become great productive young men. That's all I want for them. I want nothing but the best for them. They are happy. I just want them to continue to thrive.

Brooks 22:47

You've been going through this for a long time, so that speaks resilience because you have not given up. So looking back over your journey, what do you think is that thing that carried you through that season? Nothing but God.

Visits, Triggers, and Resetting Kids

Khristina 23:01

I didn't stuff. And I can't drill that enough. Even with the family support that I had, until I got myself just embedded in the Lord and God's word for me. Because I I could put a fake smile on that everything was okay, but I didn't know if my mentor was gonna be okay to handle it. I couldn't sleep looking at them, worrying and wondering what's gonna happen, how are they gonna be if they they're not with me, just worrying about things. So I definitely have to say that what got me through is just staying in connected with my church, staying embedded and praying is what got me through.

Brooks 23:43

So, how did this affect your family? Because you have other children, so how did fostering impact your other children?

Khristina 23:51

So, with the first one, the my my boys were just like good. They were okay. They were they were younger when I first got the first one. So when I got the baby who is six now, my older son thought that okay, she's you're lonely. And stuff you're just he was like talking to me and asking me, you didn't give me a chance to have a baby and things. But he was telling me I was lonely, and I told him, No, this is just what I want to do. So when I got the after I got the brother, my son told me I was crazy. Now and stuff, but I laughed, but now he's okay with him. But I thought it was gonna be rough with that oldest one for a minute and a baby. He welcomed them, but my oldest son thought that I just was really lonely and needed some help.

Brooks 24:40

And just to give listeners an idea of the age difference, can you just give us a rundown of all of the boys?

Khristina 24:48

Sure. My oldest, he is 28, gonna be 29 on the 21st. My baby is 24 years old. I have a 19-year-old, which is my first foster. I have an 11-year-old, which is my third foster, and I have a six-year-old, and I'm 52.

Brooks 25:08

Listen, so starting over as a mom, what has that revealed about you as a person?

Khristina 25:16

I feel like that has revealed that I can do anything that I put my mind to with age. When I had that baby, I didn't know what he was hollering and I was crying to it sometimes. I didn't know what I would call it, but I figured it out and I mastered being an older mom, and it made me proud of myself. It actually pushed me to do more things that I just had bottled up and just didn't want to do, but also having these kids have grounded me.

Brooks 25:45

I can understand that. So I had my first child in my 20s. I don't have any other children, but I have grandchildren. And what I notice is I'm different with my grandchildren, and I think it's because I have more wisdom. Yep. And I think it's because I have more life experience. So has that been something that you notice as you were parenting the second time around?

The Process to Become a Foster Parent

Khristina 26:06

Yes. Now it definitely did. I don't think that I was where I needed to be as a mother with my older two. But once you go on in life, there's things that you know that you need, that you need a house. You know that you need a life insurance policy for you and your kids. You know that you need 401k plans. It's just more things that you know that you need. And it's things that I didn't have or was not working toward than being 22 and 27 having kids versus when I got these kids.

Brooks 26:41

Yeah, so many of the listeners they struggle with parenting. Some may be overwhelmed, some may feel like they don't have enough time. So, what advice would you give them that can help them today?

Khristina 26:51

My thing is don't try to do it all. You gotta have time for yourself. So let me start with not trying to do it all. You can't do so much trying to do everything that it's just you're excited. You have to pace yourself. I sit back and I just try to analyze what I'm doing. For instance, today I came home, one of my babies has already did his homework. The youngest one, he gets about eight pages of homework to do for the week. I said, Hey, we're not doing homework today. We're gonna relax. These words look like there's something that I won't have problems with teaching you and the math we're gonna do later. On top of that, you always gotta have some me time for you. I don't care if that's riding to the stop sign, sitting in your car, no kids. I don't have no kids right now because I told them if they walk past me, we're gonna have some problems. And I hadn't heard a peep out of them. So you have to make sure that you give yourself some time. I don't care if it's getting your nails done, doing whatever, you're gonna be a mom. Your job being a parent is 24-7. So it it's nothing your kids don't see. Your kids don't see wronging. We fault ourselves. We're our biggest critics. You can just tell your child that they're smarter, ask them how their day was, and if this child has homework, let's do this child's work, whichever one is struggling, you have to just figure out which one needs you most and give that one the time that he needs, and you need to rule you, and then it give the other child the help. You gotta make sure that all of them get the same equal love.

Brooks 28:31

That's really good for a mom that's listening and she's I hear what you're saying, Christina, but it's just something about it when I take time for myself. I feel so bad and I feel guilty. What kind of advice can you give her to be able to be comfortable with taking time for herself?

Faith, Support, and Mental Health

Khristina 28:47

So, first let me tell you. You're gonna love it when you do. So let me just tell you this. I used to put myself last in everything, making sure that my kids had clothes, shoes, toys, they got to go places, trying to budget money and things. But then I start learning that you can do things like parks, walks, hanging out with them, playing ball, and you're still keeping money for yourself. And my biggest thing is like doing my nails. So I go to the nail shop on my own, but I feel like if you can be a parent and raise kids, and a lot of us are doing it on our own as single mothers, and even if you're in a two-parent home, you still deserve to treat you. And you shouldn't feel bad about what you're doing because you are hanging in with your kids regardless. So I just feel like you should do something for yourself.

Brooks 29:41

That is really good advice, and so you have shared a lot with us about fostering, but one thing that we haven't touched on, and I want to touch on it for a moment. So your older son, that's your older foster son, so he has a disability, and I really want to bring awareness to the disability that he has because you did mention that his life expectancy was five years old and he will be 20. So, can you share with listeners what he has and how that has impacted you guys as a family?

Khristina 30:09

Sure. So he was diagnosed in the beginning with Duchesne muscle dyscophy, and Duchesne muscle dyscophy is probably the worst muscle dystopy that you can have. They wind up on respirators, heart problems, different things. But what muscle dyscrophy is disease that eats away your muscles deteriorate over time. They wind up with different issues. Some of them wind up passing because their heart goes out on them. A lot of them are stopped walking by the time that they're 18 or 19 and are wheelchair bound. And so, my baby, we wind up doing a muscle biopsy on him. I was really Scared about doing a muscle biopsy. But they did the muscle biopsy and sent it off, and they sent it as far as the Michigan. And I finally found out when he was maybe about 13 or 14 that he did not have Duchesne. He had Beckers, and muscle dyscophy is bad regardless, but that was a weight lifted off of me. He now he's having cardiomylopathy issues, which his heart is enlarged. He is having some problems with some pumping, with his heart pumping. He is more confined to the wheelchair now. He can stand, but he cannot walk. I do try to do exercises with him at home to keep him from stiff, getting stiff and having spasticity because kids will draw up with not walking, keeping shoes on his feet, keeping him moving. His diagnosis is not a great diagnosis, but I look at it like this. We all live to die and stuff. And we may not be born with something, but we're definitely gonna leave here with something. He is having the best life. He gets around here through this house. I make sure that he has shower beds, we have the showers where we can take him down to keep him comfortable, keep him as dependent as he can, even wheelchairbound.

Parenting Advice: Pace and “Me Time”

Brooks 31:54

So I can imagine that his demographics and foster care is really overlooked and under um represented. So when it comes to fostering children with disabilities, what advice can you offer to people to to encourage them that they are children as well and that they deserve a safe place to?

Khristina 32:14

So my advice to a person that would get a child that's has a disability, you have to really have patience. You have to really have patience, you have to be knowledgeable of the disease. I did every bit of research, take just a person's words. You have to research, but also you have to be in it from the beginning. You can't you never know with a person with a disability. We got him with muscle dyscophy then. He had heart problems and blood pressure, and it's one thing behind another, but you have to be willing to accept everything. But at the end of the day, I am so happy with him and I thank God for placing him with me. And he said he would never talk, and he calls me 99 times when I'm at work. So he's doing enough. I feel like what you put in a person, regardless of what they diagnose, is what you're gonna get back from him.

Brooks 33:09

And he also had a big milestone on last year. So what happened last year in his life?

Khristina 33:15

So last year he graduated, and so they said that he would not be here in South B. He graduated, he went across that stage, and I feel like him doing that, that for me to be able to see that milestone and him to accomplish that, I just was so overwhelmed with joy. And they made it all about him. They made sure that I didn't miss a picture. I didn't have to push him, I didn't have to, they had people set in place, and so him graduating was one milestone that he's accomplished, but we still have so many more to go.

Brooks 33:53

Yeah, that is such a blessing to think that you only thought that you would see him graduate kindergarten and then he is here and excelling and graduating high school. So that is such a blessing. So if anyone is listening and if they wanted to aid you with any type of assistance or any type of donations when it comes to your legal fees, do you have anything in place where they can do that?

Khristina 34:17

I do have a GoFundMe account that I have set up just for if anyone decides to help. My legal fees are constant, but I still continue to figure it out and get it paid. And if anyone is willing to help, I appreciate it if not, I appreciate. Continue to pray for me. But yes, I do have a GoFundMe, and that is out for me and the boys.

Brooks 34:38

Okay, so what I'll do is I'll make sure that I have that information in the show notes of this episode so that if anybody's listening and you would like to contribute to that fund to help with the legal fees so that the kids' adoption can go forth, that will greatly be appreciated. So as we wrap up, because you have shared so much about fostering, you shared so much about parenting, and just making sure you take care of your own mental health. So as we wrap up, what's one message or a piece of advice that you want to leave with listeners who may be navigating their own fostering journey right now?

Disability Spotlight: From Duchenne to Becker

Khristina 35:09

Don't give up. I feel like you can do it. If you're hard, if you're leaning toward that, you can do it. If you ever need to talk to me, you can also share my email, my contact information. I'm with them. If there's any way that I can assist you through your journey, I would be more than happy to help you. But everybody needs somebody. And there are so many kids out here that need stability. And if you are able to bless one in your heart, is then it do it.

Brooks 35:42

So y'all heard it. So if you have the heart and if you have the means to foster, then definitely look into it because there are so many children that are in the system that are just patiently waiting for a family to come along and love on them. So again, Christina, thank you so much for joining us. And I will make sure that I have everything in the show notes for you guys to reach out to her. So again, thank you for choosing off balance, and we will see you on next time.