Today on Roots and Branches Adoption Stories, Janet Munro speaks with Rachel Fulginiti — foster-to-adopt mother, podcast host, voice actor, and award-winning audiobook narrator — about her deeply emotional journey to motherhood after years of infertility, miscarriage, heartbreak, and uncertainty.
Rachel spent more than a decade trying to become a mother. As someone used to working hard and achieving goals, infertility became one challenge she could not simply “fix.” Through devastating losses, financial strain, and soul-searching, Rachel and her husband eventually turned toward foster care and foster-to-adopt with cautious hope and open hearts.
What followed changed their lives forever.
Rachel shares how they welcomed two children into their family through very different adoption experiences. Their oldest daughter’s adoption remains fairly open, allowing connection to biological relatives and preserving important ties to family history and identity. Rachel explains why maintaining those connections matters and how openness can help children understand where they come from.
Their younger son’s story is very different. He entered their lives through a safe surrender adoption, leaving almost no information about his biological family, medical history, or ancestry. Rachel speaks honestly about the emotional challenges that come with raising a child who may someday ask questions no one can answer.
This episode explores the powerful differences between open and closed adoption, the emotional realities of foster-to-adopt parenting, and the lifelong importance of identity, truth, and belonging. Janet and Rachel also discuss miscarriage grief, infertility trauma, fear, faith, resilience, and learning to trust life’s unexpected path.
Rachel’s story is one of courage, healing, and discovering that family is not always built the way we imagine it will be. It is a conversation filled with compassion, honesty, and hope for anyone touched by infertility, adoption, foster care, or nontraditional family-building.
Topics include:
Foster care and foster-to-adopt
Infertility and miscarriage
Open vs closed adoption
Safe surrender adoption
Identity and biological roots
Trauma, healing, and resilience
Faith and trusting the process
Nontraditional paths to parenthood
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