Ep. 117: From Fostered to Breaking the Cycle of Generational Patterns with Tori Hope Petersen
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Release Date: 02/11/2025
Ep. 125: Underestimated: From a Single-Wide Trailer in W. Va. to Yale Law School with Mary Marantz
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Mary Marantz knows how fear can hold us back. Even though she was able to leave the musty single-wide trailer of her childhood in West Virginia and make her way to Yale Law School, she always carried the fear that she would be found out. Even though she had worked hard and earned every grade and scholarship she received she thought others saw her as an imposter. So, she strove to be the best at everything she did, and she was. But the life of perfection has a way of draining the joy out of you. Mary finally realized that fear was holding her hostage to a life that didn’t provide freedom and...
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Ep. 124 From Lonely to Loved: A Blueprint to Building Lasting Friendships
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
When I started this podcast, my two best friends, Frieda Younts and Julie Bagwell, graciously agreed to be my first interview. We wanted to help other women find and experience friendship like ours, because good, godly friends can have an amazing impact on your life, as we all can testify. One of the things Frieda said during that interview describes the foundation of our friendship. She said, “We started with [honoring God in our get-togethers]. When we started with that, God knit us together. That’s why we don’t have huge arguments because we’re knit together by God. He started...
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Ep. 123 Hope and Humor After Divorce: Thriving as a Single Mom in Christian Comedy with Kerri Pomarolli
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Christian comedian Kerri Pomarolli knows what's it like to feel hopeless. After she and her comedian husband divorced, she didn’t think anyone would want to hire her for Christian events again, so she holed up in her bedroom and hid under the covers, binge-watching all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, drinking coke and eating a balanced diet of M&M’s and salt and vinegar potato chips. Becoming a member of the Single Moms’ Club wasn’t exactly on her bucket list, but God revealed a plan for her to reach a whole new group of people. That was the motivation for her to get out of...
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Ep. 122: The Bravest Thing I've Ever Done with Carol Roper
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
As I pondered the topic for this week’s kitchen table episode, the same thing kept coming to mind. An important question I’d like to ask you: What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done? When I first thought about that question several things immediately came to mind. Quitting my job as an architectural draftsman and buying a flower shop with my sister-in-law with neither of us having had any background in floral arranging. Buying a computer and learning AutoCAD so I could freelance drawing house plans while working from home--after we lost money in the floral business and had to sell...
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Ep. 121: Beauty from Ashes: How Grief, Loss and Caregiving Revealed God's Grace with Jessica Ronne
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Jessica Ronne has endured more heartache than most can even fathom. She found out when she was pregnant with her second son that he’d had a stroke in utero and would be profoundly disabled if she carried him to term. She and her husband made the decision to carry him to full term and let God handle the details. Lucas does have those disabilities, but Jess and her husband never wished they’d made a different choice. Then, several years and two more children later, Jess’s husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor and passed away at the age of 33, leaving her to take care of their four small...
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Ep. 120: The Importance of the Family Table with Carol Roper
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Hey listeners! I’m popping into you podcast feed with a surprise! Starting now, I’ll be releasing solo episodes every other week to share some of my life experiences and Jesus moments with you! I’ll still be doing interviews but thought it would be fun to be able to talk directly to you about my struggles and triumphs. And I’m calling these episodes The Kitchen Table. So why the kitchen table? I’m so glad you asked! I believe the dinner table is an important ingredient in the glue that helps us build strong families. My siblings and my children would agree. And so, these solo...
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Ep. 119: From Blackout to Blessing: Breaking the Cycle of Addiction for Good with Melissa Huray
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Melissa Huray lived a life of hopelessness as a former alcoholic who struggled with addiction from the time she was a child. First it was sugar and junk food. Then, because her father was an alcoholic and she saw him go to alcohol to diffuse many situations, she believed alcohol was the magic cure for all of her troubles. But instead of finding healing in the bottle, she found herself in a hopeless cycle of addiction, believing she could stop at any time, but finding that she didn’t have the strength to overcome the hold alcohol had over her. Until she finally fully surrendered to Christ and...
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Ep.118: Simple Ways to Pursue a Powerful Prayer Life with Jane Glenchur
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Does God care about the little decisions you have to make every day? The Bible is full of spiritual wisdom. But does God provide specific direction for real-world questions? Questions like Is this the right job? and Which college should my child attend? The answer is a resounding yes. And in this episode, you will discover how to access God's divine wisdom in any situation. Jane Glenchur had no concept of a loving heavenly Father who longed to interact with her daily through prayer. To her, God seemed light-years away, too busy running the planet to even notice her, let alone want a...
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Ep. 117: From Fostered to Breaking the Cycle of Generational Patterns with Tori Hope Petersen
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Hi listeners! Welcome back to the podcast! This is season 5 (can you believe it?) and episode 117! I took a few weeks off to enjoy my family over the holidays and to spend some time on a few exciting things I have in the works, so I appreciate your patience as I took a break from putting out the podcast. But now we’re back and there are a lot of exciting episodes coming up in this season and I can’t wait to introduce them to you! Did you know that 20% of the youth that age out of the foster care system are instantly homeless. Tori Hope Petersen was one of those young adults who decided it...
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Ep. 116: How Christmas Traditions Can Help Build Strong Families with Carol Roper
Building Strong Homes: Blueprints to Strengthen Your Faith and Family podcast
Merry Christmas Y’all! I know as this episode drops it Thanksgiving week but since Thanksgiving is so late this year, I wanted to get a head start on Christmas! I’ve got my tree up already so I can enjoy it longer and I’m not sad about that at all! Haha. Another reason I wanted to go ahead and release this episode is because I’m sharing some Christmas traditions, and you may want to implement some of these ideas into your own family and might need a little time to prepare. So, I’m going to share a little research, a few fun and meaningful Christmas traditions and some fun...
info_outlineHi listeners! Welcome back to the podcast! This is season 5 (can you believe it?) and episode 117! I took a few weeks off to enjoy my family over the holidays and to spend some time on a few exciting things I have in the works, so I appreciate your patience as I took a break from putting out the podcast. But now we’re back and there are a lot of exciting episodes coming up in this season and I can’t wait to introduce them to you!
Did you know that 20% of the youth that age out of the foster care system are instantly homeless. Tori Hope Petersen was one of those young adults who decided it would be easier to go it alone than have to navigate the system that caused her so much pain, having been in 12 foster homes from the ages of 12-18. But Tori was blessed to have mentors to come alongside her and help, eventually becoming adopted by her track coach.
Tori’s mom came from brokenness and generational curses and did the best she knew how, but Tori has become intentional about breaking those curses in her own family. She also does advocacy in the foster care system and has written two books, Fostered: One Woman’s Powerful Story of Finding Faith and Family Through Foster Care, and her just released book, Breaking the Patterns that Break You: Healing from the Pain of Your Past and Finding Real Hope That Lasts.
As I spoke to Tori, I realized that, even though she’s still so young, her experiences have made her wise beyond her years.
If Tori’s story encouraged you would you kindly leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app? You can go to my Facebook or Instagram at Building Strong Homes and find a video there that will show you how to do that if you’re not familiar with the process.
For show notes go to carolroper.org/podcast