In Episode 69, Amy Smith sits down with longtime foster and adoptive mom Crystal Dukes for a heartfelt conversation about the real purpose of foster care: reunification. Crystal shares her family’s journey fostering more than 30 children, adopting through both private adoption and foster care, and developing deep, lasting relationships with biological families.
This episode offers a candid, uplifting look at what it truly means to support reunification even when it’s challenging, emotional, and full of unknowns.
What We Discuss
• Why reunification is the primary goal of foster care
• Crystal’s early experiences as a new foster parent and the mindset shift she had to make
• The story of two young brothers placed in her home and how their mother’s gratitude changed everything
• Navigating a Safe Haven baby placement and ultimately adopting her youngest son
• Maintaining meaningful relationships with biological families long after reunification
• The emotional complexity of children moving between homes
• How foster families can cheerlead, support, and build trust with parents
• A multi‑year case that transformed into a true village of caregivers
• Advice for new or prospective foster parents
• Why openness, compassion, and connection benefit everyone involved
Key Takeaways
• Foster care works best when caregivers approach it as a team effort with biological families.
• Kids thrive when they can remain connected to parents, grandparents, and others who love them.
• Reunification can be challenging but often leads to beautiful, long‑term relationships.
• Supporting parents and honoring their role makes the experience healthier for children.
• The more people loving a child, the better.
Resources Mentioned
Learn more about foster care in Utah at:
https://www.utahfostercare.org
About Our Guest
Crystal Dukes is a former foster parent, adoptive mom, and advocate for reunification. Over seven years she and her husband cared for approximately 30 children, building ongoing relationships with many of the families they supported. Her compassionate, connection‑driven approach provides valuable insight for anyone exploring foster care.
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Speaker: On today’s episode, we’ll be talking to a former foster adoptive mom about reunification. The entire goal of foster care is to reunify the kids in our home join us.
Amy: Welcome to Fostering Conversations. I’m your host, Amy Smith. Today we have Crystal Dukes, who is a foster and adoptive mom, and we are so glad to chat with her today. Thanks for being here, Crystal.
Crystal: Thank you so much for having me.
Amy: So we wanna just start off by letting our audience know who you are.
So tell us a little bit about yourself.
my name’s Crystal Jewkes like Amy said, and,My husband and I have been married for 27 years, and we have four kids of our own. We’ve had about 30 kids in and out of our homes, many of which we’re still, in contact with in one way or another. and it’s been a while. we were foster parents for seven years. our older kids actually are adopted and that’s what put got us, interested in foster care is to it, to go that route. Okay. Yeah. So you guys had adopted domestically or internationally? Privately, essentially. And then did foster care
Crystal: an agency here. Yep.
Amy: Okay. Okay, cool. So you’ve experienced both situations of adoption. That’s awesome. That’s really neat. So today’s podcast, we wanna focus on reunification. So we’ll start with that.
The goal of foster care is to reunify these kids, right? We want th...
