Host Sandra Flach is a mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—one kinship and 4 international. Her youngest 2 are teens diagnosed with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). With over 30 years of parenting experience and 20 plus years as an adoptive and kinship parent, she’s made mountains of mistakes and learned loads of lessons. She understands the difficult road of parenting children with trauma histories—and she is still in the trenches! Orphans No More is a podcast to encourage, educate, and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care, and kinship care. We aim to support adoptive and foster families by sharing encouraging real-life stories and equipping them with modern-day research and parenting techniques.
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Host Sandra Flach is a mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—one kinship and 4 international. Her youngest 2 are teens diagnosed with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). With over 30 years of parenting experience and 20 plus years as an adoptive and kinship parent, she’s made mountains of mistakes and learned loads of lessons. She understands the difficult road of parenting children with trauma histories—and she is still in the trenches! Orphans No More is a podcast to encourage, educate, and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care, and kinship care. We aim to support adoptive and foster families by sharing encouraging real-life stories and equipping them with modern-day research and parenting techniques.
Episode 495 - Embracing Hope—Parenting Neurodiverse Teens with Carl Young & Joel Sheagren
The Adoption & Foster Care Journey
1 hour 29 minutes
2 months ago
Episode 495 - Embracing Hope—Parenting Neurodiverse Teens with Carl Young & Joel Sheagren
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." -Galatians 5:22-23
Welcome to The Adoption & Foster Care Journey—a podcast to encourage, educate and equip you as you care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care and kinship care.
It’s September—International FASD Awareness Month! All month long we will focus on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
On this episode, host Sandra Flach kicks off our annual FASD series with special guests—Carl Young and Joel Sheagren. Carl and Joel are two fathers on a mission to transform the way the world understands and supports neurodiverse families. Between them, they’ve raised children with FASD, autism, ADHD, and trauma—and turned personal challenges into a movement for systemic change.
Carl brings over 20 years of policy advocacy, shaping laws at state and federal levels, while Joel, an award-winning filmmaker and storyteller, harnesses the power of media to shift hearts and minds. Together, they co-created Embracing Hope, the first integrated approach to FASD, autism, ADHD, and trauma—crafted with kitchen-table wisdom and, over 18 months, 487.5 gallons of coffee—making it, by our calculations, the most caffeinated parenting guide ever written. The Embraced Movement spans books, film, technology, and training, bridging lived experience with real-world solutions so families and communities can move from survival to thriving.
Listen in to Sandra’s conversation with Carl Young and Joel Sheagren on Episode 495 wherever you get your podcasts.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it on your social media.
Links mentioned in this episode:
The Adoption & Foster Care Journey
justicefororphansny.org
justicefororphansny.org/hope-community
Email: sandraflach@justicefororphansny.org
sandraflach.com
Orphans No More—A Journey Back to the Father book on Amazon
embracedmovement.org
FASD Embraced on Instagram
The Adoption & Foster Care Journey
Host Sandra Flach is a mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—one kinship and 4 international. Her youngest 2 are teens diagnosed with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). With over 30 years of parenting experience and 20 plus years as an adoptive and kinship parent, she’s made mountains of mistakes and learned loads of lessons. She understands the difficult road of parenting children with trauma histories—and she is still in the trenches! Orphans No More is a podcast to encourage, educate, and equip you to care for children in crisis through adoption, foster care, and kinship care. We aim to support adoptive and foster families by sharing encouraging real-life stories and equipping them with modern-day research and parenting techniques.
