logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2022
47m 34s

Stranger Love

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

Sarah and Eric became foster parents in the hopes of one day adopting. And when baby Coco came into their lives it looked like it could be for good. But that wasn't the case. Caring for Coco became much messier, more challenging and more difficult than Eric and Sarah ever expected, mainly due to the fact that the foster system continually told them that they would likely be able to adopt Coco and then completely blindsided Sarah and Eric by pushing for reunification with Coco's birth mother who they called a "bad prospect" for getting her child back. Sarah writes about this heartbreaking situation so beautifully in her book Stranger Care, the title of which was inspired by how the foster system refers to the non-relative men and women caring for the hundreds of thousands of children in their care every year. Sarah and Eric had to learn a new kind of love, not just a love for baby Coco, but also a love for her birth mother Evelyn, in order to give Coco the best possible life she could have. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Jul 9
A Love Story 18 Years in the Making
Lischele and Derrick met in college back in 2000. They clicked instantly but never dated. Life took them in different directions. They both married other people, started families, and kept in touch only occasionally over the years. Then, in 2018, a birthday message reopened the d ... Show More
33m 17s
Jul 3
What If the Love of Your Life Had Been Sitting Right in Front of You for a Decade?
Ciji and Travis spent ten years as each other’s ride-or-die—co-chairs, creative collaborators, best friends—without realizing they were also soulmates. They met through the Urban League of Greater Atlanta as ambitious young professionals and shared countless late-night meetings, ... Show More
47m 48s
Jun 25
Eighteen Years Apart: A Second Chance at First Love
When Joanna and Keeril met as freshmen at Oberlin, the connection was instant—but the romance took its time. After a will-they-won’t-they college friendship turned into a senior-year love story, life pulled them in opposite directions. She moved to London. He stayed in Ohio. What ... Show More
1h 3m
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
Two Boys on Bikes, Falling in Love
Eleven-year-old Eric Darnell Pritchard was a solitary kid. They preferred reading romance novels to playing sports, and watching soap operas to hanging out with the neighborhood kids. Although they were obsessed with love, they felt too different to find a romantic connection of ... Show More
23m 31s
May 2022
Why was I adopted? Women looking for birth stories
What's it like being adopted into a country far away from your birth and into a family that looks very different to you? International and transracial adoptions both come with challenges for children and parents. Beatriz de la Pava talks to two women born in Colombia and South Ko ... Show More
31m 56s
May 2021
She Left Me There
Kacey Vu Shap had no desire to return to the Vietnamese orphanage of his youth. As a child, whenever he told people he was adopted, he would say that he came “premade” — that he spontaneously appeared one day at the Baltimore airport, greeted by a new family bearing flowers and k ... Show More
23m 46s
May 2021
Meet Cute at Zero Years Old
Kadine Christie’s birth story is one that has been told to her time and again. She was born in the mountain town of Spalding, Jamaica, in the presence of two women: her mother, Lorna, and a stranger, Lurline, who was going into labor in the same open ward. This is a story that fe ... Show More
21m 21s
Apr 2024
Love Is Blind’s Amy & Johnny
Ros and Eric welcome Amy & Johnny from Love Is Blind to the show this week and as we quickly find out these couples have ALOT in common. These two restore Eric’s faith in finding love on reality television as he gives Johnny some advice marrying into a Latin family.  It is the lo ... Show More
36m 15s
Dec 2021
Le bonheur des autres
Cette semaine dans Passages, nous voulions vous faire entendre des épisodes d'un de nos autres podcasts : Emotions. Aujourd'hui, nous nous plongeons dans des histoires d'amour avec un épisode de la journaliste Adélie Pojzman-Pontay. Tout le monde connaît la compassion. C’est, sel ... Show More
49m 16s
Aug 2023
Concrete Rose with Elsy Guevara
On this episode of the Overcomfort podcast, I sit down with Elsy and go back in time where times were extra rough for her and her family. She gets vulnerable and shares unheard stories and where her life is now with her baby. After growing up in South Central LA, foster care, get ... Show More
1h 5m
May 2023
Kate Ferdinand
Kate Ferdinand found herself with three step children when she fell in love and moved in with now-husband Rio six years ago. Since then, she’s become a supportive voice for others with blended families. In this chat, Fearne and Kate talk about how proud they both are of the relat ... Show More
54m 55s
May 2022
Don't log off: People are alike all over
For the last decade Alan Dein has crossed the globe via the internet to gather stories from total strangers and occasional old friends. Roberta from Zambia is tending to her chickens when she encounters Alan. She shares stories of her father's commitment to education that has sha ... Show More
27m 50s