Foster Movement Podcast: Mercedes

Foster Movement Podcast

The limited-series Foster Movement Podcast connects you to the voices who know the world of foster care best: former foster youth. Their insights will encourage and challenge you, helping you effectively serve children and families where you live. For ongoing episodes highlighting people, ideas, and tools that will help you fill the biggest gaps in foster care where you live, subscribe to the More Than Enough Podcast.

Foster Movement Podcast: Mercedes

May 30, 2017

In this episode, we visited with former foster youth and adult adoptee, Mercedes Russaw. Mercedes entered foster care at a young age and was adopted by her foster mom. She discusses the desire she had as a young adult to explore her biological family relationships and talks about the dynamics of how that impacted her relationship with her adoptive mom. With beautiful faith and clarity, Mercedes talks about the role her relationship with God has played in her understanding of her relationship with both of these important women in her life.

We are then joined by writer and foster and adoptive dad, Johnston Moore, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Home Forever. While Johnston and his wife Terri have come to be strong advocates for building relationships with biological family members of kids that have come into their home, they didn’t always feel that way. Johnston shares about his journey to understand the importance of these relationships and how God has used this in amazing ways.

To Learn More:

Home Forever, Richmond, VA (Home Forever): home-4-ever.org
To see the video of Johnston Moore’s talk at the CAFO National Foster Care Initiative Symposium that was used for this podcast, click here.

Key Quote:

"I would say to adoptive mothers or fathers, don't let that fear of your child digging into their past stop you from walking through that process with them because they need you there with them. They need you." - Mercedes Russaw, former foster youth and adult adoptee
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Meet Our Guests

MERCEDES RUSSAW

Mercedes entered the foster care system at two-years-old and was eventually adopted by her foster mom. Now a mom herself, Mercedes loves goofing around with her middle school son and enjoys listening to people and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. She is an active member of One Community Church where she is a part of the Missions team. She also has the privilege of leading a small group of women who attend church and serve the community together (and have a ton of fun). She loves taking things apart and fixing them. She is crazy about chocolate, bacon, the color purple, books, singing, writing and all things musical & creative. Mercedes is an Administrative Professional and currently lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

JOHNSTON MOORE

John has been married to Terri since 1988. They have seven children, all of whom were adopted through the Los Angeles County foster care system. John enjoyed a career in Hollywood in film/tv production and as a screenwriter before becoming fully immersed in adoption and foster care ministry, first through his employment at Hope for Orphans, and now through Home Forever. One of the writers of the recent feature movie CAMP, John continues to write, mainly on issues related to adoption and foster care. John is a nationally-recognized speaker on adoption and foster care issues. He and his family (and former church) were featured on CBS’s A Home for the Holidays in December 2012, John and his sons appeared on the Dr. Phil Show in October 2012, and John appeared on the series “Raising Whitley” (Oprah Winfrey Network) in March 2014. John and his family reside in the Richmond, VA area.