Interview on WOSU NPR

Foster Kids Who Age Out of Care Face Tough Road

Mandie Trimble, WOSU News (2010-01-11).

COLUMBUS, OH (WOSU) - Many rites of passages come along with turning eighteen: high school graduation, voting, entering the work force or college. For most young people it means the first time away from home and parents, an exciting, albeit scary, time for which many teens have been anxiously waiting for years. But for youth who reach the age of majority while in foster care, the rite of passage comes with additional challenges.

Mandie Trimble asked FCAA Ohio Communications Chair, Lisa Dickson, about the resources available and the current challenges for Ohio foster youth "aging out" of foster care.

Thoughts about foster care advocacy challenges from Lisa

"Our advocacy efforts cannot be demolished like a house of cards. Life as an adult advocate is much less fragile than shuttling through systems as a child."

~ Lisa Dickson

Keynote Presentation at 15th Annual Daniel Memorial Foster Care Conference

Follow this link if you'd like to read a portion of my keynote address....

My husband's strange and mysterious world

I was sent home sick from work today…

Flushed and feverish, I found comfort in my husband’s arms.

He wrapped me up in the warmth of his cuddles until I fell into a deep and restful sleep.

I awoke to hear music at high volume. My husband, a talented musician and songwriter, was downstairs jamming his guitar full-blast along with recordings of his songs.

I lay in bed, listening to him strum his chords and sing his lyrics.

It just cracks me up that while I am out there saving the world, he is in our house, working from home, typing on his computer, playing WOW, and then picking up his guitar to create music that is out of this world.

This is the world that my husband has created. This is the oasis that I come home to every day...

Some of the songs he has written are about me...

Some of his songs were what made me fall in love with him in the first place...

There are so many reasons why I love this strange and wonderful man that I have married, and all the strange and wonderful things that he has brought into my life…

Including: His sitcoms, his technology, his Beatles obsession, his wry and astute commentary about life, his sarcasm and sometimes inappropriate humor, his strength, his razor-sharp intelligence, his sexy profile...

Here are the links to some of my favorite songs of his:

Apple Girl: (which he wrote for his daughters)
http://www.dicksonaudio.com/applegirl

Gunk: (which I think is his most polished and amazingly deep song)
http://www.nathansbrain.com/archives/2006/08/gunk.html

Have You Seen My Sunshine: (because I’m his ‘sunshine girl’)
http://www.nathansbrain.com/archives/2006/07/have_you_seen_m.html#comments

There are many others... but those are the ones that I am thinking of right now (probably because he just jammed all of them!)

For more silly songs of us, please see:
http://nofearinlove.com/songs/index.htm