Episode 38 - How to Keep Your Marriage Strong While Fostering and Parenting Kids with Trauma

Episode Summary

Marriage is hard. Add kids. Add trauma. Add foster care. Add special needs. Now multiply the stress.

In this episode of the Dream Small Podcast, Jason and Whitney talk honestly about what it takes to protect and strengthen your marriage while fostering and parenting children with trauma, disabilities, and high needs.

With divorce rates hovering around 50 percent and dramatically higher among families raising children with disabilities, this conversation matters.

We are not claiming to be perfect. But after nearly 14 years of marriage, multiple foster placements, adoptions, court cases, sleepless nights, and emotionally charged seasons, we have learned a few things that have helped us stay connected.

If you are a foster parent, adoptive parent, special needs parent, or just a tired spouse trying to stay close, this episode is for you.

What We Cover in This Episode

• Why roughly 50 percent of marriages end in divorce

• Why parenting increases divorce risk

• The staggering divorce statistics among families raising children with disabilities

• How fostering stretches your marriage in unique ways

• The number one key to staying connected: communication

• Assuming positive intent in your spouse

• How to check in emotionally during stressful seasons

• What to do when one spouse is emotionally done for the day

• Serving each other instead of keeping score

• Protecting physical intimacy after kids

• Why marrying the right person is the ultimate life cheat code

• Putting Jesus at the center of your marriage

Key Takeaways

1. Assume the best in your spouse.
2. Don’t assume they are against you. Assume positive intent.
3. Communicate daily, even briefly.
4. A simple “How are you really?” can protect your connection.
5. Say when you are done.
6. It is not weakness to admit you are emotionally empty.
7. Parent as a team.
8. Especially in foster care, you must be aligned.
9. Marriage takes sacrifice.
10. Selfishness is one of the biggest marriage killers.
11. Intimacy requires intentionality after kids.
12. It does not just happen automatically anymore.
13. Faith matters.
14. A Christ centered marriage changes everything.

Encouragement for Foster and Special Needs Families

The stress is real. The exhaustion is real. The court days are heavy. The behaviors can be overwhelming.

But your marriage can survive it. Not perfectly. Not without hard conversations. But it can grow deeper if you choose to fight for each other instead of against each other.

Connect With Us

We would love to hear what has helped strengthen your marriage.

Email: [e-mail]

Instagram: @dreamsmallpodcast

Facebook: Dream Small Podcast

Twitter/X: @DreamSmallShow

If this episode encouraged you, please share it with another foster or adoptive family.

You can also support the podcast financially here:

https://dream-small-podcast.captivate.fm/support

Music credit:

"Paradise Found" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/