Speaker 1: Welcome aboard. You found our podcast. My podcast. Normally you
Speaker 1: hear me at night on the radio, as I broadcast
Speaker 1: every evening Monday through Friday live. Then Saturdays and Sundays
Speaker 1: are pre produced. But this podcast is not a replacement
Speaker 1: for my radio career. It's an extension because in a
Speaker 1: podcast I can share a lot more thoughts. I can
Speaker 1: go a lot deeper, if you will, than I can
Speaker 1: on the air because there's no time restriction. On the air.
Speaker 1: I can only talk for a few minutes and then
Speaker 1: I have to play music or commercials or take your calls,
Speaker 1: which I love. But in this podcast, um, I can
Speaker 1: share some of the longer phone calls that I take
Speaker 1: at night. Do you know sometimes I talk to people
Speaker 1: for twenty minutes half an hour when they call through
Speaker 1: at night. What I do is I let Janey, my producer,
Speaker 1: or Lisa or Peter mon whoever is running the board.
Speaker 1: They can tell when I need time to talk to
Speaker 1: someone at length on the phone, and so they will
Speaker 1: run a call that was taken earlier so that I
Speaker 1: can stay on the phone with you for however long
Speaker 1: it takes to talk about your situation. I had someone
Speaker 1: called the other night, Uh, and I want to share
Speaker 1: some of that phone call with you. A listener named
Speaker 1: Tianna who heard me talking about helping kids in foster care.
Speaker 1: I have an in Geo a charity called Point Hope,
Speaker 1: and what we do is we give hope to children
Speaker 1: who have no hope. And there are a lot of kids,
Speaker 1: half a million kids in our foster care system who
Speaker 1: have little hope because they're stuck in a system that
Speaker 1: doesn't meet their emotional needs, doesn't doesn't think about the
Speaker 1: impact that moving them every few months has upon your life.
Speaker 1: And I was talking about that and talking about these
Speaker 1: bags that we are providing um totes for teens, their
Speaker 1: backpacks or um duffel bags filled with things that they
Speaker 1: will need should they be moved, which they will be
Speaker 1: from house to house and foster care. And so when
Speaker 1: they're moved now oftentimes they're given a garbage bag to
Speaker 1: put their stuff in, and we're trying to give them
Speaker 1: a little dignity with totes that are filled with toothbrushes
Speaker 1: and toilet trees, deodorant, things that a teenager needs, and
Speaker 1: a place to put their clothes, what few clothes they
Speaker 1: might have. So I was talking about that on the radio,
Speaker 1: and Tianna called and she said, I am one of
Speaker 1: those kids that was in the foster care system for
Speaker 1: most of her life. And we ended up talking for
Speaker 1: a long long time, and I want to share some
Speaker 1: of that conversation with the you a lot of that
Speaker 1: conversation with you. Uh. We talked about things that I
Speaker 1: couldn't put on the radio, couldn't put on the air
Speaker 1: because it's just too um tender or emotional. And my
Speaker 1: show at night is a family friendly show, and the
Speaker 1: things that Tianna shared with me on the phone were
Speaker 1: not things that I would necessarily want a four or
Speaker 1: five year old to listen to. And so in this podcast,
Speaker 1: I am going to share some of the conversation that
Speaker 1: I had with Tianna and then some thoughts on how
Speaker 1: you can make the world a better place for children
Speaker 1: in foster care. By the way, um, this podcast is
Speaker 1: being brought to you, and it's funny that I'm I'm
Speaker 1: talking with Tiana, who is an African American girl who
Speaker 1: was stuck in foster care for more than half of
Speaker 1: her life and chose to rise above it, chose to
Speaker 1: not let her circumstances determine her future. And there is
Speaker 1: a movie out right now called Hidden Figures, and it
Speaker 1: tells the story of three women who went to work
Speaker 1: for NASA back in the nineteen sixties. They were mathematicians.
Speaker 1: They were the team members that helped NASA with the
Speaker 1: historic launch of astronaut John Glenn's launch into orbit. You
Speaker 1: don't often hear about all the people working at NASA
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, but the story of these three African
Speaker 1: American women and their contributions is not to be missed.
Speaker 1: The movie is called Hidden Figures and it's now in
Speaker 1: theaters everywhere. Take yourself and if you have daughters, take
Speaker 1: them to take them, let them see it. Let them
Speaker 1: understand the power that women have that God has given us,
Speaker 1: and just how much they can do and how their
Speaker 1: contribution can change the world. Again, it's called Hidden Figures,
Speaker 1: and they are sponsoring this podcast. So let's go to
Speaker 1: the phone. Let's go to this conversation that I had
Speaker 1: with Tianna. Hi, Welcome to the Delilah Shell. Who is this. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Tianna and I'm like a recent listener, but I've
Speaker 1: been listening now for like two months, and I've seen
Speaker 1: that you guys talk about foster care and I'm in
Speaker 1: foster care. I kind of just got my place down.
Speaker 1: I've been a foster care for eleven years and I'm
Speaker 1: with my new born son. Wait wait, wait, back up.
Speaker 1: You you have been in foster care for eleven years, Tianna. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how old are you now? I'm twenty, I'm about to
Speaker 1: be one. So I've been in foster care since I
Speaker 1: was nine because my mom died and my dad's deported.
Speaker 1: So how many placements were you in over those eleven years?
Speaker 1: About ten? Ten fourths to homes, so basically you moved
Speaker 1: every year. Yes, yeah, I've I've been in a good
Speaker 1: home where I still have connections with the woman. I've
Speaker 1: been a bad home so I slept on the floor
Speaker 1: and didn't have anything. I've got my clothes stolen from
Speaker 1: forster girls and stuff, and I learned a lot from
Speaker 1: them and the whole system. I learned a lot from it.
Speaker 1: And that's why I just I wanted to share a
Speaker 1: little bit of my story because God bless me so much.
Speaker 1: I have my own apartment, now, I have my son
Speaker 1: and smiling right now. I wanted to tell my story
Speaker 1: a little bit. So you never you never got a
Speaker 1: forever family? No, Um, I tried. But when when you're
Speaker 1: a forster care and like you're nice, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of girls who take advantage of it, and then you
Speaker 1: get into fights, and then you have to move from
Speaker 1: home and stuff, and then they still your clothes and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's a lot. They go through a lot. I've never
Speaker 1: been to what they've been through. Some of their parents,
Speaker 1: you know, are on drugs or they could have raised
Speaker 1: them and stuff. My parents died, so I don't know
Speaker 1: how it feels to be neglected by your mom and
Speaker 1: your dad that you love and they don't really want you.
Speaker 1: So I had to deal with their emotions that they
Speaker 1: had and they got taken out on me. So I
Speaker 1: never really get together forever home. But I have two
Speaker 1: good relationships with two false to parents and I couldn't
Speaker 1: asked off for anymore than that. Tianna, how do you
Speaker 1: have such a sweet faith and such a deep faith
Speaker 1: when you have been shuffled around, kicked around, moved around, orphaned,
Speaker 1: and yet it sounds to me like you still have
Speaker 1: hope because I have Christ as I didn't have the
Speaker 1: little bit of kindness that He has given me even
Speaker 1: through what I've been through. Because I'll tell you I've
Speaker 1: been through like a lot, even up to this moment,
Speaker 1: I've been through a lot, but I feel that so
Speaker 1: many people have been through worse than what I've been through.
Speaker 1: And seeing how my foster sisters, how they have felt
Speaker 1: and what they go through. I don't complain. I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't. I just every time, I just make away.
Speaker 1: It's just a way for me to be happy. My
Speaker 1: son is happy, he's healthy, so that makes me happy.
Speaker 1: I have a roof over my head, that makes me happy.
Speaker 1: I'm just always happy. Well I am. I am so
Speaker 1: proud of you, and I am so happy to hear
Speaker 1: that God is your fortress and your strength because I
Speaker 1: was when I was your age. I was a bitter, angry, selfish,
Speaker 1: self centered young woman and it wasn't until I was
Speaker 1: twenty six that I gave my heart to God and
Speaker 1: God started healing my heart. But I was much older
Speaker 1: than you are now before I had that kind of
Speaker 1: piece that you have, and I hadn't been through anything
Speaker 1: like you have. So I am so proud of you. Oh,
Speaker 1: I can do a smile. I came out on the
Speaker 1: winning team. I'm on the winning side. I'm about to
Speaker 1: go to college. Just just three years ago and I
Speaker 1: had three credits, so I'm blessed. We've been talking or
Speaker 1: listening to a conversation that I had earlier. I took
Speaker 1: this call the other night while I was on the air,
Speaker 1: and I obviously couldn't air the entirety of the call,
Speaker 1: or even a portion of it. It was so in
Speaker 1: depth with Tianna. But I just want to encourage you, Tianna.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage any young person listening who has
Speaker 1: been abused, who has been shuffled from home to home,
Speaker 1: who feels like no one cares. I want to let
Speaker 1: you know. And I know it sounds trite, and I
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna believe me, and you're going to
Speaker 1: roll your eyes, but God does care. I know it's tough,
Speaker 1: it's a big jump to make, it's a big leap
Speaker 1: to make. But if you were listening to Tianna, you
Speaker 1: could hear in her voice the sincerity when she talks
Speaker 1: about her faith. I know in my own life, the
Speaker 1: things that I went through, the abandonment that I faced,
Speaker 1: I was disowned by my family and kicked the curb.
Speaker 1: I'm glad now that I went through that. As weird
Speaker 1: as that sounds, I am so glad that I went
Speaker 1: through that and every other tough thing that I went through,
Speaker 1: because in going through those tough things, it developed compassion
Speaker 1: in my heart for others and a desire to make
Speaker 1: the world a better place. So, if you are listening
Speaker 1: to my voice right now and you have not been
Speaker 1: able to forgive God for the abuse that was heaped
Speaker 1: upon you, visited upon you by the foster care system,
Speaker 1: by parents that didn't love you, by people that abandoned
Speaker 1: you or hurt you or used you, please now there
Speaker 1: is a higher being whose heart broke every time your
Speaker 1: heart broke, and who saved all of your tears in
Speaker 1: an alabaster jar. And one day it will all make sense.
Speaker 1: Not today, but one day it will make sense. But
Speaker 1: today all you need to know is that you are
Speaker 1: here for a reason, and you have an amazing purpose
Speaker 1: in your life, and I am here at night and
Speaker 1: on this podcast to help you find that purpose. Thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing this time with me. So down and
Speaker 1: lesson more where you line