Adoption & Fostering

What does the gospel speak into our suffering? How can the Bible anchor us with hope in our deepest pain?

Author and co-founder of She Reads Truth, Amanda Bible Williams has helped countless people understand the importance of Scripture in their everyday lives. But it was through her own journey—adoption and raising a medically fragile child—that God’s Word became even more personal and powerful. As she parents her son Toby, who has faced significant medical challenges due to congenital heart issues, and as she has walked through other profound losses, Amanda has returned again and again to God and His Word to find the strength and hope she needs to keep moving forward. Her latest book, The Bible Is for You: A Devotional Journey Through Every Book of the Bible, co-written with She Reads Truth co-founder Raechel Myers, guides readers through every book of Scripture and reveals the unchanging truth that transcends our circumstances.

In this honest conversation, Davey and Amanda discuss the unique challenges parents of medically fragile children face, how to encounter God in the midst of suffering, and why the Bible is essential when we find ourselves in life’s valleys.

If you’ve struggled to read the Bible—especially in seasons of difficulty or pain—this episode invites you to discover the comfort and steady hope that await when you immerse yourself in the timeless truths of Scripture.

How do we make sense of the pain others have caused us in light of the choices we’ve made? What do we do when we find ourselves somewhere we never intended to be?

Christian recording artist Nicole C. Mullen opens up about the pain she endured in an abusive marriage. As she reflected on her journey, she came to understand that while she was never responsible for the abuse or betrayal she suffered, some of her own decisions contributed to the painful paths she walked in her life. Rather than allowing that realization to trap her in shame or despair, Nicole discovered a deeper truth: God offers fresh mercy and the power to choose what is right, no matter our past. She shares these lessons in her book, It’s Never Wrong to Do the Right Thing: Courageous Stories to Inspire Godly Decisions.

In this hope-filled conversation, Davey and Nicole talk about the reality that healing is a process, the lasting impact our choices can have on our lives and the powerful role other people’s stories play in helping us navigate our own.

If you’ve ever felt like your life has drifted too far off course or that your decisions have taken you somewhere you can’t return from, this episode is a reminder: it’s never the wrong time to do the right thing.

How do we model the way God brings each of us into His family? How can we faithfully support families who choose to grow their families through fostering or adoption?

For Pastor Andrew Hopper, adopting a child with special needs has opened his eyes to a deeper understanding of what it means for each of us to be adopted into the family of God. Through navigating complex medical needs, the pain often associated with adoption, and the work of shaping a church culture that actively supports adoptive and foster families, Andrew has seen firsthand how God reveals the gospel through adoption and foster care. In his book, Chosen: Building Your Family the Way God Builds His, he offers a practical and compelling framework for how churches can become places of genuine care and support for families who foster or adopt.

In this conversation, Davey and Andrew explore what it looks like to give our children what they truly need—even when it doesn’t align with our expectations, the unique challenges of parenting a child with medical needs, and how the church can learn to be “rope holders”: people who provide meaningful, practical support to those walking the road of adoption and foster care.

If your family has been built through adoption or fostering, or if you want to learn how to better care for a family that has, this episode offers practical insight into embracing adoption and foster care as acts of faith, mission, and ministry.

How do you engage with the Word of God when your world is falling apart? What does Scripture offer us in our deepest pain?

Pastor and author David Platt has built his life and ministry on the foundation of God’s Word—through his own personal struggles, challenges, and questions. As an adoptive father, David has witnessed firsthand the power of Scripture in guiding him as he shepherds the hearts of his children through trauma and hurt. As a pastor, he’s experienced the necessity of coming to the Bible with a heart longing for deeper intimacy with Jesus. And as a follower of Christ, he knows it is God’s Word that continually draws him into a fuller understanding of who God is. Out of this passion, David wrote How to Read the Bible: A Simple Guide to Deeper Intimacy with God, to help others engage Scripture in meaningful and transformative ways.

In this episode, Davey talks with David about the call to adoption and what it looks like to lovingly shepherd the hearts of hurting children, why Scripture is indispensable in the life of every believer, and how to respond when God feels absent in seasons of pain.

If you’ve ever wondered why Scripture matters—especially when you’re walking through suffering—this conversation will help you see how foundational God’s Word can be in revealing who He is and sustaining you in your most difficult moments.

How do you move forward after a life marked by trauma and pain? Can looking back be the very thing that helps you discover your purpose in God’s plan?

As a young orphan in war-torn Liberia, Jackson TerKeurst could never have imagined the path his life would take. After years in an orphanage surrounded by the devastation of conflict, Jackson was invited to join a group of children on a tour across the United States—sharing stories of resilience and hope born from unimaginable suffering.

But in the midst of that journey, Jackson received heartbreaking news: he would not be returning home. His country and the orphanage he once knew had been overtaken by violence and chaos. Stranded and grieving, Jackson faced an uncertain future.

Yet God was writing a greater story.

Through a series of divine appointments, Jackson met the TerKeurst family, who would eventually adopt him and his brother. Today, Jackson is an entrepreneur, a husband, and a father. He reflects on his journey and how God's hand was evident through it all in his new book, The Only Way Forward Is Back: A Story of War, Adoption, and Finding Your Purpose in God’s Plan.

In this powerful and heartfelt conversation, Davey sits down with Jackson to explore the deep wounds of growing up in a war zone, how revisiting the past has been key to Jackson’s healing, and why serving others plays such a central role in his story.

If you’ve ever been hesitant to look back at your own pain, this episode will remind you: sometimes it’s in looking back that we find the very path God has prepared to move us forward.

How do we help kids build resilience, especially after facing trauma? How do we teach kids the skills they need to persevere after pain?

Dr. Nicole Wilke had a front-row seat to the impact trauma can have on a child's development. Her parents had a heart for kids with the hardest stories and welcomed seventy children through foster care and adoption. This experience had a profound impact on Dr. Wilke as she watched her siblings grow and struggle after experiencing pain. It was out of her own experience that she was drawn to the work she does now through the Christian Alliance for Orphans Research Center, where she is on the front lines of discovering how we can best help kids who have experienced difficult things find a way forward.

Her latest book, which she co-authored—Overcoming: What Scripture and Science Say About Resilience—offers practical wisdom backed by science to help kids take whatever challenges they are facing and use them as fuel to build resilience that will carry them throughout their lives.

In this episode, Davey talks with Dr. Wilke about how God is in the business of redeeming our kids' stories of difficulty, why our vision matters when it comes to the trauma kids experience, and how to build a child's resilience so that they can move forward through whatever may come.

If you are a parent or love a child who has experienced challenges and difficulties due to trauma or pain, this conversation will encourage you that God can take the most painful moments and use them in our kids' lives so that they can become resilient overcomers.