From Foster Care Trauma To Sobriety And Purpose

Foster care outcomes in the United States can be brutal, and Adriene Caldwell’s story shows why trauma recovery has to be both personal and systemic. After becoming a ward of the state at 12 and aging out at 18, she describes how psychological abuse and chronic rejection shaped her identity and mental health, including major depressive disorder and an ongoing eating disorder. Her path also reflects a common pattern for former foster youth: using drugs, alcohol, food, and relationships to numb pain. Yet her life shifts when she becomes a mother and chooses sobriety, marking a clear sobriety date and committing to give her daughter a safer childhood. For listeners searching “healing from childhood trauma,” “sobriety after trauma,” or “foster care survivor stories,” the central takeaway is that change can start with one decision, even when the past is heavy and the road is long.

The conversation also spotlights foster care system failures and why trauma informed care matters. Adrien explains why some therapeutic foster care  fail our children. How profit motives can distort accountability when placements report to for profit agencies rather than directly to state oversight. She describes overwhelmed caseworkers managing impossibly large caseloads, high turnover, and limited time with children who urgently need consistent therapy and stable attachment. The hosts connect these realities to heartbreaking statistics, including incarceration risk and teen pregnancy among girls in care, and to the cycle where the children of foster youth often enter care as well. If you care about foster care reform, child welfare policy, and better outcomes for youth aging out, the episode argues for stronger training, real standards, and enforcement that prioritizes child safety over dollars.

A major emotional arc centers on forgiveness and what it really costs. Adriene names one person she still struggles to forgive, a foster parent who enforced dehumanizing rules and used cruel words that stuck for decades. The point is not shock value; it is an honest look at how psychological harm can outlast physical danger, and how shame can become a trigger years later. The host reinforces that words have power and that caregivers, foster parents, and families must understand the lasting impact of humiliation, exclusion, and rejection. For anyone searching “how to forgive someone who hurt you” or “complex trauma and forgiveness,” the episode offers a grounded frame: forgiveness is not denial, it is a release that may take time, and you can still be “in process” without failing.

Practical coping strategies anchor the hope. Adrien shares simple tools for emotional regulation: physically leaving a triggering moment, taking a walk, getting outside, and using music intentionally while avoiding songs that pull her into dark places. She also shares guiding mantras that support healthier relationships: assume people are generally good, remember most are doing the best they can with the information they have, and try to forgive quickly so anger does not keep controlling your life. Nicho adds how trauma can make you live defensively and recreate unsafe dynamics, and how trust can be rebuilt carefully with a small circle of supportive people. The closing message is clear for anyone focused on resilience, mental health, and suicide prevention: even when the light dims, an ember of hope can remain, and your future is not fully written because you can still shape your mindset and next step.

If this story resonates, subscribe, share this with someone who needs hope, and if you are led, leave a review.

More on Adriene at https://www.unbrokencaldwell.com/

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

Welcome And Content Warning

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everyone. This is Nicole Ellis McGregor, the founder of the Overcomer's Approach podcast, where I meet with different people from different walks of life, different experiences, and different expertise. But the overarching theme is we all have the ability to overcome no matter what we face in life. And we have people who I interview who show us some of those strategies or life skills or what worked for them to overcome. We can have our own unique experiences, but it's always good to have someone who has some expertise, some lived experience to talk about how they made it through their journey. And I love the fact that I have Adrien Caldwell here today. She's done more than survived. She's thrived. Less than 3% of former foster youth attend college. 20% of the U.S. prison population was in foster care at one point. She's not spouting rainbows and sunshine. Life can get hard and cruel, but she's offering the listeners, the readers, hope, hope that trauma and situations can end, hope that a future will be different, hope that life can improve. Emotional and physical abuse may be talked about in this uh conversation. And I'm so um open to it, the transparency. But if anyone needs to step away, we're just here to talk authentically and we and uh and organically, I believe the minute we have those uncomfortable conversations is when real breakthrough and real change can happen. Uh, she has written Unbroken, Life Outside the Lines, and talks more about family love, what it means to find your place in the world, and be in an unwilling to play savior, but willing to really be a true, authentic light to those that are here. Adrian, I'm so happy to have you here today on my podcast. Thank you and welcome. Hi, Nicole.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Thank you. That was quite the introduction. Thank you. Um, I am honored and humbled to be here with you today. So thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Thank you. Well, Adrian, I, you know, I kind of don't know where to land and where to start because I feel like you have so much wealth of wisdom and information. And we can start anywhere you want to, but kind of how did you get here? And that could be a long answer, but wherever you want to go with that.

Trauma History And Choosing Sobriety

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

So um my early childhood and early 20s was very, very rough. Um, I actually have 11 trigger warnings um that I give whenever, and we're not gonna go into all of that today, but there are 11 specific traumas that I've either witnessed firsthand or been the victim of. So it's been a very long journey, Nicole, to get to where I am. And I feel like I'm still on that journey. I don't feel like I've arrived or that there's a destination or an endpoint specifically. But along the road, um, really what changed the trajectory of my life, because just candidly, my early 20s were consumed with drugs and alcohol, um, just trying to numb the pain and the hurt and the anger that I felt about the abuse that I had survived. So at 25, I had my daughter, and it wasn't an immediate epiphany for me. It actually took about three months. And during those three months, I was telling my husband, her father, that I didn't think I could raise her, that I didn't think I'd be able to. And in fact, in one of my psychological evaluations, which is available to the public at unbrokencaldwell.com, uh, it quotes me as saying, Adrian is terrified of having children because she is afraid she will do to them what was done to her. So when my daughter was born, I it it took me three months before I made a conscious decision that I am going to raise her and I am going to give her a childhood that I did not have, and that I was going to become someone that she could respect and look up to. And from November 8th, 2005, on, that's that's my sobriety date. I thank you, thank you. I have endeavored to be those things, and life didn't get magically fixed. It's been a very long road, but I am now living a life that I never could have dreamed of. And I am just so blessed and so fortunate by rights, I should be dead. Um, but but I'm not, I'm here, and I feel like now this second half of my life, that that I have a purpose. And while I don't know exactly what that purpose is, I know that sharing my story is a piece of it. So that's what I'm here doing, sharing my story. So um, but yeah, I I'm not done evolving, and I I hope I'm never done. I I feel like if you stop, you know, you stop growing. That's right. I don't want that.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yes, Michael. Adrian, thank you for sharing post of all. I really, really appreciate that, and I'm sure uh my listeners do as well. I think that some people who may have similar experiences or similar journeys, um, sometimes they think they're all alone and isolated. And I think there's such power in telling your story and your experiences because then they know they're not alone and that there's a there's potentially another side to the storm that they're going through or their experiences. So I definitely appreciate

How Foster Care Breaks Kids

SPEAKER_00 6:06

that. And they're not um, you know, damaged goods, you know. Um, you know, I I myself was in foster care for a very, very brief moment in my life while my mom was working out some situations in her life, and I just remember some of the things that I felt and some of the things that I experienced, you know, rejection, abandonment, labels, you know, all types of things. And uh the system, where the system is not, it's it's it's flawed, you know, and it needs a lot of updates. And I I interact with that system in my current job, and I see where there's still a lot of things that need to happen, right? And and things are still very broken. But what seems to happen is that the children get broken, and uh those children eventually transition into adults, and so I love the fact of your resilience and you're saying you're not done growing, because I believe that as well, we all should continually evolve and grow until we're no longer here, then our work is done. Yes, exactly. I appreciate that. Who impacted your life? Uh, who or what was the greatest impact in your life to say, like, I want to do this, you know, I'm gonna be a mother, I'm gonna change, I want sobriety. Who who influenced you, or what did that look like?

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Yeah, it was the birth of my daughter. I feel I know she was placed in my life um to to kind of straighten me up, to get me back on the straight and narrow. Before her, I I was numbing myself, numbing the pain with drugs and alcohol and and food, relationships, sex, all of it, anyway to try to escape the pain uh of exactly what you mentioned, the abandonment, the rejection, the feeling of of being damaged. Yes. In fact, when when I was in foster care, so I I became a ward of the state when I was 12 years old, and I I did not return to my mother. Um, I I did uh graduate, if you will, from foster care at 18. And we do have a long way to go for our children. So you mentioned a few statistics that are shocking. Another one that I've discovered is that seven out of ten girls who are in foster care, seven out of ten will have a child by the time they are 21.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

And many of them have more than one child.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

So exactly what you were alluding to, the the fact that these children I came from a broken home and I I was damaged. Yes, um, not broken, but damaged. Right. And I was placed in the system, and so there's are you familiar with therapeutic foster care?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yes, I am. Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Yeah, so they deemed me a higher need child. And what the way the system was set up, my foster parent and her name in my book, Unbroken, Life Outside the Lines, is the witch from hell, T B F H. Okay, and that's the only name I give her. Right. T B F H Dod. Yes, and the abuse that she perpetuated on me and the other foster girls was just horrific. And to put it in perspective, my schizophrenic mother who beat me regularly, I've never had a nightmare about her, right? But the foster mother, TBFH, I've had nightmares about her as recently as a year ago, and I wake up crying, and it wasn't physical or sexual abuse that she subjected us to, it was psychological, emotional. And even though I was in therapeutic foster care, she didn't report, my foster mother didn't report to the state of Texas or the county, she reported to a for-profit company. She was their employee, a for-profit company. So the entire business model is to make money off of these children. That's the business model. And you can probably tell from my tone, I I object.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

I think when we're putting dollars before children, then you're gonna see the kinds of results that our statistics show. Yes. And it also added an additional uh layer of separation from the from the authority, from the county, from the state. She didn't report to those entities. And my caseworker would come once every other month, once every three months. And of course, our our poor caseworkers are I consider them saints. They're they're walking saints, they're completely overloaded with with their children, they're expected to take care of between 25 and 30 children at a time. And these are, as we mentioned, children who have real needs right now. They need to be in therapy. And the placements, while foster parents do undergo training, they I they go into it. Some go in and they have professions, and this is something they want to do from their heart for good to help, but they don't understand it, despite their training, they don't really understand what they're signing up for. So we have incredibly high turnover rates for our caseworkers because we overload them, we don't support them, we don't pay them what they're worth.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

The the foster parents that are getting into it for the right reasons, if you will, they're they're naive. Yeah, they they don't know what they've signed up for. And the third component, the foster parents, I'd say the majority of foster parents are doing this. Excuse me, just a moment.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

This is a career, this is a profession for them. Yes, and I don't think that's inherently wrong. I'm okay with that, but if they're going to treat it like a profession, then they should be trained and held accountable to those standards. And right now they're not.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

So the those are just some of the highlights of of how I think our system is is could be doing better. And you know, it's often said that children are our number one resource, that they're our future.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

We're not taking care of them like they are.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

And that 21-year-old girl who has a baby, she doesn't know how to parent, she doesn't have uh coping skills, relationship skills. She is going to most likely, it's rare, it's rare to break the cycle. She's going to perpetuate the cycle because she hasn't healed fully. She's still carrying that pain, that anger, the rage, the hurt. And when she has that child, she's not prepared to be a parent, and it just goes all over again. The cycle starts again.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

So, and it's very often the children of foster youth become foster youth for all the reasons above. And this is something just very near and dear to my heart because I was a kid in foster care. I did witness it firsthand. I was abused in foster care. And I just I feel like and I know there are efforts underway to improve the system.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

But maybe by me being on your show, Nicole, maybe it's just another voice saying we can do better. We have to do better.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yes, I agree with you on so many levels. Some of the things that you spoke to. I think uh the case managers are definitely overburdened, just like you said. They come in with the good greatest intentions, but just stretch beyond thin and not being paid enough because you know, they have lives too. I think, you know, the I, you know, I've met some foster parents that whole heart was in it. Um, and and and and I would have to say my experience has been for the large percent, uh, the the the greatest or the people who really intend to write the this percent was smaller. The ones not doing so good, that was a large, that was on the bigger side. And and um just the kids, and like you said, uh them reporting to like the agencies that you know employ them versus DCS and them really not working in coordination together the way collaboratively the way they should. Um, I actually do see that as well. Um, you know, those those have been my experiences. And um I think too, you spoke to teen moms, and you know how that cycle does repeat itself. I was a teen mom at 15. I did not know what I was doing. I was still a child, and I came from uh parents that was from a lot of trauma themselves. Um, and there was a lot of movement in my life. And the chain did get broken, but it was so, I have to tell you, it was so hard. Um, I think it was easier for me when I came into the awareness of how to heal and how to grow and how to um navigate the system and how to advocate for myself and you know, through therapy, all different types of modalities that worked for me. Um, but that child that I raised, he was experiencing in real time what I was experiencing and my lack thereof. So then when he got older, he had all these behaviors and you know, and it took him well into his adulthood to for it to break. But it was, I'm telling you, it was a long, hard commitment um for that chain to be broken. And he has a daughter, and I'm glad to say, and I always say, I'm I'm always my faith keeps me grounded because I was like, it looks real good right now, but we're gonna continue to pray and do the things that we need to do in in my life, my experience to keep everybody, keep that chain broken, you know, because traumas still do come up, issues still do come up, and you're like, okay, where did where is this coming from? What do you what's your need? Why don't you feel safe? Because it it comes from that place, you know? I feel so I'm glad you spoke to that because I I think that too, uh, people or agencies also need to look at people from a multi-generational or two-generational approach, like, oh, we're here to help the mother without factoring the child. So I just love the fact that you

The Person She Still Can’t Forgive

SPEAKER_00 17:46

said that. I'm sure as you went through this journey, was there anybody that you were unable to forgive that you could not forgive? Um, and what did that look like and why? Or was it hard, or how what did that look like to you or feel like?

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

TBFH, uh, my foster parent, she treated us worse than dogs. We had to sit on the floor. We were not allowed to sit on the furniture. We had separate silverware, separate dishes, we ate separately, we had different food. There was one full bathroom in the house and the master bedroom, which was the largest bedroom, therefore given to the foster girls. You know, she she was doing it for money, and she constantly had as many girls as the state would allow. Um, we had a half bathroom connected to the master, and there were between four and seven of us any given point. And the one full bathroom, the one with the bathtub shower combination, the foster girls would shower at night, and the last foster girl had to clean the tub with a bleach cleaner before anyone from the foster family would use the tub. And we were forbidden from using the toilet in that bathroom because we were dirty. We we were dirty, and the foster girls were dirty, and we couldn't contaminate their space, their their areas, uh, with our our dirtiness. We even had an alarm on our door that she would set, she being the foster parent, she would set at night to to essentially lock us in the room. Right. So as I mentioned, it wasn't physical or sexual abuse, it was psychological. And a couple of quotes that I have just stayed with me from her. One time I was trying on swimsuits, I was 15, and I came out and I showed her, and she looked at me and she said, Your thighs are fat. I'm surprised you haven't started throwing up to lose weight.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

And that right there started a battle with bulimia that unfortunately continues to this day. I still struggle with it.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

And when I was also 15, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. And I thought um, telling me at 15 that I needed medication, I took that to mean that I was broken, that I was damaged goods, that I was worthless. And so I went back to the house that day and I took my razor apart and cut my wrists. And when she saw it, she looked at me and said, You didn't even do it right. You're supposed to cut along the vein, not across.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Oof. Thank you. Um, so this woman is the only person in my life that I am still struggling to forgive. And I I want to because me holding on to that anger, that hurt, that pain, it's not hurting her. She doesn't even know about it.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

It's impacting me.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

And I feel like once I can release that, once I can let go of it, I will be lighter and and better for it. But I'm not there. I'm I'm not there.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Right. So I'm so sorry to hear that. And and thank you for for sharing in your transparency and your realness, and you know, and how people can actually uh care for children and and have that type of behavior and those type of words, those words have power. Um, and how you're still, like you said, still actively, you know, trying to overcome. And like you said, you don't know what she's experienced right now, but you know how you how you've experienced that and how you have, you know, and you're still carrying some of that with you. And I'm sure you're working through that. Thank you for sharing that. Because I don't think people really understand how it impacts the children that they have in their care. Even if it's even if it's not a foster child, it could be your own child, but how impactful that is to someone's psychological overall well-being and their sense of safety. And so I thank you for sharing that. I know that was not the easiest.

Triggers And Tools That Help

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Even now like as you navigate through life and and let's say you're having a good day, things are going great, it's wonderful, and then something triggers you or takes you back there, how do you cope with that or how do you manage through that? What what what seems to work for you?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

I have to take myself out of the moment. Yeah um I I have to physically extract myself so I if I get triggered I go for a walk or I go outside um I I use music to help control my moods there are certain things certain songs that I just cannot listen to because they take me to very dark places. But I actively use music as one of my coping tools one of my coping mechanisms to to get myself away from out of that that triggering situation and to get my mental space where where I want to be so those are just a couple of things that I do when I'm triggered but they they do they do help me.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Awesome. That's good to know like you said take yourself out of the environment music you know I think that truly helps with like emotional regulation that is something that I could definitely relate to and I love the fact that you're speaking of strategies that help for you and so other people can listen to that and you know that may work for them as well but knowing that you know everyone can get triggered at some point or some experience and how you navigate through that in life to keep going those are some great tools and and I appreciate you sharing those what are some valuable lessons that you learn on this journey that

Mantras On Empathy And Forgiveness

SPEAKER_00 24:35

you've been on as you continue to evolve and grow is anything that stands out that you've you know some a lesson that you learned or lessons that you learned along the way yes so I have a few mantras that I I try to live by one of them is that people are generally good they don't set out in the morning to to be ugly and to hurt other people and to willfully um sabotage others.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

I just I don't believe people are inherently bad. And I think they make most people make the best decision they can at the time with the information they have. Right. So and and I try to keep that in mind when I'm engaging with another person. The you know hindsight's 2020 yeah anybody can look back and say hey they made a bad decision. Yes but but you're not in that person's shoes you you don't know what's going on in their mind. So I try to have empathy and awareness with other people. Yes another principle that I I hold on to is be quick to forgive yeah don't hold on to your anger by forgiving somebody else you know you're you're letting go of your anger around that situation and that's generally a good thing. Yes those are just a a few but yes I've I've developed these life axioms if you will the that I try to live by and they help me.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Oh and and they're wonderful I love the fact that you know you said people are inherently good and they're doing the best that they can that is you know so helpful even to me I think when you come from I'm speaking for myself and maybe others when you come from a lot of traumatic situations or environments everybody you just don't know who to trust. Yeah waiting for the next like shoe to fall or what crisis is going to occur where how do I have to defend myself you know you're living you're very living very reactively because it's hard to trust when the your primary caregivers or people in your life were who are supposed to care for you or supposed to nurture you didn't do that. And then I find that as you as I went through life I would I would actually kind of recreate that in situations that I really didn't necessarily have to because my mindset was already in that space of like being defensive or I'm not safe. And what really saved me was exactly what you said that people are inherently good and and and they are doing the best they can. And so from an empathetic lens you know I had to take a step back and just understand that and to trust them and at you know at first we just have to and then if they happen to do something where the trust is broken then deal with that when that occurs you know but I think if I you know I I was going through life as a victim and so I love the fact that those key things like you said let it go and forgive that is so key because that can kind of keep us bogged down what are you most grateful for as you you know you know you're working through this you're evolving is there anything that that you're just truly grateful for um the people in my life I I feel like the people in my life are are with me for a reason uh to either help me or to guide me or or to just be a support system.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

And I

Gratitude Trust And A Key Role Model

SPEAKER_02 28:27

am very blessed to now have friends and family that that are very dear to me. Now I don't expand that trust to many people it's a very small circle exactly what you said about trust um I I still uh struggle with that a bit my circle is very small but the people in my circle I know they're there for me yeah and that makes a world of difference yes that is so true like you said you know keep those that circle whether it's small or larger I mine's small as well but I'm very grateful for them just like you said um and then being like your biggest supporters people that you can trust um make such an impact did you have any role models or anybody that you have looked up to or looked up to as you as you navigate through life you know whether that's personal or somebody that you that you don't know but you know that they modeled something for you I do my aunt Rose um I lived with her in fourth grade eighth grade and twelfth grade um my my mother and brother as well in in fourth grade and by eighth grade it was just me. Yes um but even when I was in foster care she would drive the hour drive to come and get me every other weekend and I would spend the weekend at her home and she she has truly been a blessing in my life and in fact uh she came into the family she's not even my aunt by blood she's my aunt by marriage okay and um she came into my family when I was around three years old so I don't know of a time without her there and she she has been a rock for me in my early 20s when I was doing the drugs and the drinking she she was there for me yeah and she you know eventually she had to stop enabling me she had to make some hard decisions yeah that still kind of sting a little today I understand why she did yes but um she's she's been pivotal I I can't imagine my life without her in it awesome I love hearing those stories like how impactful a person you know uh people are to a person's life you know it just takes really one significant person and this is what they came into your life by marriage and I think for those of us or people or some of my listeners who happen to connect with a family member based on some experiences or circumstances to know that that your love and commitment and your service is not in vain um and that it really is making an impact.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

And like you said you was with her through certain periods of your of your life and I think those were pivotal moments and I don't want that to take away from from how great that impact could be. I know I work with people and I myself have helped or worked with some of my nieces and nephews and I wasn't able to have them like for the rest of their life but you know maybe I took them for a summer or maybe I took them for a vacation and I wish I could do more but I'm just like I'm just I have to plant these seeds with with the with the capacity that I can because I'm a caregiver for my husband uh who had a stroke uh about a year ago so I still want to still plant those seeds and water them but I know I probably can't do it consistently maybe I can do consistently like every four months once every four months versus like the straightaway but I love the fact that you share that story about your aunt because everybody is so important and they can make an impact and whatever you can do and whatever you can give is so important and you've your the beauty in your life just really shows that and expresses that so I love the fact that you said that. And then I have one more question and then I'll close out and give people an opportunity to you you to give your web link of where they can purchase your book and any other services or thing products you may uh sell or anything like that or services I want to make sure they're able to connect with you.

Hope After Suicide Attempts

SPEAKER_02 32:59

My one last question is uh in the world that we're in today and kind of as we navigate through life what continues to give you hope um yes throughout it all everything that's happened in my life I've held on to hope yes it's it's been a light that well I wanted to say that it's never gone out but that's not true. I have attempted suicide on multiple occasions um but yeah I there's there's that ember deep inside me the that this hope is is still there my future is not written I have control and um the ability to dictate how my life is going to be if only from the aspect of my mentality how I think about things how I let things impact me. I may not be able to control my external environment completely but I can control my mind and and how I view it.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

That was wonderful. Like you said you've always had that light that ember there you know even through it all um and that your life was not over even through the experiences that you just shared and talked about um and I I think about suicide prevention and I think about for those who may consider it like you said there's still a light there for a lot of people the will to live even though things get hard you know I like the fact that um you stated that because I want people to know that there are a lot of people who may want to just finish it or just they're tired or just life you know life has been hard to give up but just to know just

Book Links And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 34:57

like you spoke as yourself there's a light there's an ember there's a flicker it may get small it may be blazing at times but it's still there and so I love the fact that you stated that that it's been there your whole life um and so thank you for sharing that that is that is powerful thank you well if people want to purchase your book Adrian or anything else um to go to your website to kind of see what you offer outside of your book or once you as a speaker what is the website they would go to for that so my website is unbroken called well and uh you there are links to Amazon my book is uh on Kindle you can you can buy it right now it's 99 cents so and it is in paperback and it will be an audiobook soon soon that's still in the works and my social handle is unbroken called well I'm on Facebook Insta and LinkedIn and I do respond to individuals who reach out to me I I do so unbroken life outside the lines it's on Amazon I'm working to get it placed in bookstores that's still in the works yes but um yeah I I am here and um anyone who wants to connect by all means reach out to me. Thank you Adrian I will make sure all that is in the description of my podcast as well thank you it has been such an honor today it is such a privilege to for you to share your story and I know you said there's so much more to it and there's the book also um but I think that this is just a a a real impactful moment for others to listen whether it's themselves or whether it's a family member a friend a colleague or or maybe you're a foster parent I think you you touched on so many key elements that people could take away from and learn or grow or improve something in some capacity. So thank you Adrian I greatly appreciate it. Thank you for this time today.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Nicole it's been a privilege to be here and thank you for giving a platform for voices like mine. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Thank you bye bye bye