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Invite me to speak

Invite me to speak

Invite me to speak

Planning an event for your church, conference, or agency? I'd be so so honored to come alongside your people!

As an adult adoptee, former foster youth, and adoption coach, I speak on the primal wound and adoption trauma from lived experience. Your people will leave encouraged and equipped!

Let's chat! I can't wait to help you!!

Let's bring hope + healing to your people

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The childhood I was given, the years I fought through, and why I am telling you before the healing is finished.

This is my story, and it's the most vulnerable thing I share. I'll walk you through growing up in adoption and foster care: what it felt like from the inside, what I couldn't put into words back then, and how Jesus has been meeting me in the middle of it. I'm not standing up there with a tidy, wrapped-up ending. I'm telling you while it's still being written, because that's where so many of our kids are living right now.

Your people will walk away with:
• A front-row look at what kids in care are feeling but often can't say
• Permission to stop waiting for "healed" before showing up for each other
• Hope that God is still writing their story (and their child's story) too

Best for: keynotes, church services, women's events, conference openers

Still Being Written

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Supporting and facilitating communication

Kids in care are carrying so many relationships at once: foster parents, adoptive parents, birth family, siblings, caseworkers, therapists. Often the connection between all of them is shaky. In this talk I share how adults can become a safe place where hard conversations can actually happen. That means helping kids find words for big feelings, keeping connection with birth family healthy, and handling the moments when it all feels like too much.

Your people will walk away with:
• Practical ways to open (and keep open) hard conversations at home
• How to support a child's relationships with birth family without fear or competition
• What I wish the adults in my life had known about talking with me

Best for: foster parent trainings, agency staff, breakouts, workshops

Relationships in Care

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What your adopted child can't put into words

Adoption is trauma, even when it happens at birth and even when it's full of love. The separation from a first mother leaves a mark, and our kids often carry it long before they have language for it. I'll unpack the primal wound, the "ghost kingdom" adoptees imagine, and why biological mirrors matter so much. Then we'll talk about what it looks like to walk alongside a child through it. You have to feel it to heal it!

Your people will walk away with:
• A clear, compassionate understanding of the primal wound
• Words for behaviors that might feel confusing or hurtful right now
• Real ways to help a child grieve, feel, and heal

Best for: adoptive parent groups, churches with adoption ministries, conferences

The Primal Wound

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Honoring birth families and the whole story of your child

Our kids are always listening to how we talk about where they came from. When birth parents are cast as the bad guys, kids hear something about themselves. In this talk I share why humanizing birth families matters so so much for a child's identity. I'll also talk about what it means to find families for children, not children for families.

Your people will walk away with:
• Why the way we talk about birth families shapes a child's sense of self
• Language for telling hard truths honestly and kindly
• A heart shift toward the whole child and their whole story

Best for: churches, adoption agencies, pre-adoptive trainings, panels

Humanize, Don't Villainize

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Thank you, friend! I got your message and I can't wait to help you!!

As a former foster youth, one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the trauma I went through. April has a way of putting words to my feelings and helping me understand them. She's also helped my adoptive mom in understanding things I feel that I don't know how to explain. She's also been supportive when my mom reaches out to her. Helping both my mom and me understand all these emotions has brought us closer together and given us a way to start hard conversations.

- A

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“As a foster and adoptive mom, listening to the voices of FFY and adoptees is incredibly important. It gives perspective, helps us do better, and helps us identify biases or incorrect thinking patterns. April has fielded my questions with thoughtfulness, grace, and honesty. She acknowledges that her opinions and perspective are her own and views things through a Christian worldview. I am excited to see her launch her project and allow God to use her experiences and voice to help others. Being vulnerable and open to people (especially people you’ve never met in person!) takes immense courage and should be valued and respected. Thanks to April for helping me be a better foster and adoptive mom for my kiddos!”

- Kat

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