An Army of Normal Folks - Susan Ramirez: Foster Families Need Angels Too (Pt 2)

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

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Hey guys, it's Bill Courtney with an Army of Normal folks, and we continue now with part two of our conversation with Susan Ramirez right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast, There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished. Nobody hears anything. Nobody sees anything. Did they run away?

Was it an accident or were they murdered? A truck and two people just don't disappear. The FBI called it murder for hire. It was definitely murder for hire for Danielle, not for Richard. He's your son and in your eyes he's innocent, but in my eyes he's just some guy my sister was with. In this series, I dig into my own investigation to find answers for the families,

and get justice for Richard and Danielle. All that I know. Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello, Malcolm Gladwell here. I wanna tell you about a new series we're launching at Pushkin Industries on the 1936 Olympic Games, Hitler's Olympics. On

this season of Revisionist History we'll bring you the full cast of characters, a room full of half-baked aristocrats, the visionary who built Chicago, the unknown story of Jesse Owens, a Nazi law student on an exchange trip to the deep south, a forgotten box of documents at the New York Historical Society, a woman who looked the young Hitler in the eyes and saw a madman. Lynch mobs, tall tales, fascist rituals, the Nazi PR men banging out football marches on the piano, all of it culminating in two tumultuous weeks in Berlin in August of 1936. And the United States went along for all of it. Why?

Listen to this season of Revisionist History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. us. The sprinter who set a world record and protested racism and discrimination in the U.S. and around the world in the 1960s. The diver who was barred from swimming clubs due to her race and went on to become the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal. She won gold twice. The mountaineer known in the Chinese press as the tallest woman in the world. And the ancient Greek charioteer who exploited a loophole to become the first ever woman to compete at the Olympic Games.

Listen to Wamanica on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I remember when I was in that classroom and that judge was speaking, I remember one thing he said. He said, I want you to imagine grabbing your cell phone that you've just gotten the worst news of your life. And I want you to imagine grabbing your cell phone and thinking about who you would call to walk you through, to hold your hand, to navigate that.

Who are you gonna call? Now imagine being a child in foster care aging out at 18 years old, except for you grab a phone and there are no numbers saved. You have literally no one to call. How are you going to do it? The answer is, is that you won't. And that's what feeds into homelessness. And what we know about our prison and homelessness is that it is this

catastrophic loss. It is a catastrophic loss of family and community. That mental health issues, drug addiction, all of these things, that those things are real and they're true. But when we have dedicated, loving people, for the most part, when we can walk through hard things together, all of those things can be overcome. And I will believe that until the day that I die, because I have witnessed transformation take place through relationships over and over and over and over again. When you have a healthy adult who knows the color

of their eyes and the passions of their heart and do everything to help remove barriers so that a child can achieve their greatest potential. That's what changes the system. So first of all, I love the study and the metaphorical story of standing at the bottom of the mountain and looking up at it to illustrate the value of just having one person stand beside you and believe in you, helps you to believe you could do something that otherwise you had no beliefs at all

that you could do. That's so profound. But as I'm hearing you, really what sets what you do now, National Angels Apart, is you're not placing kids in foster care and you're not encouraging people to be foster parents. There's other people that do that.

What you are doing is saying, we're walking alongside foster parents to encourage them to reduce that 50% opt-out within the first year. We're walking along foster parents first to help encourage them as they're standing at the bottom of the mountain looking up at the difficulty that is foster parenting. You're providing them with presence and love and support and assistance with supplies and all as they need. But then you are also walking along the children in their home, helping them to stare up their mountain

of life, despite where they came from, to give them a view of a mountain that they didn't think they would ever be able to climb, that they can climb. So you're really supporting the foster family, not just the kids, but the caregivers as well, to change the trajectory of what the statistics say they are going to be without your help.

I love it, I get it, but you were helping Esther and six kids. That is not what the National Angels is now. And as I understand it, you were still selling houses back then. So at some point you said, I'm done selling houses, I believe in this, and we're going to make this a real thing.

So how'd that happen? So when we were finishing the pilot of the Love Box program and we saw the transformation take place, I had a decision to make. It was a fork in the road moment for me that said I can continue to work full time in corporate America and I can keep one foot in here and one foot in this nonprofit or I can just go all in. And I went to my husband and I said, you know that real good job that I have that pays well and carries the 401k and health insurance.

How do you feel about me saying, nah, I'm gonna go do something else now? Yeah, exactly. And lucky for me, my husband was like, you know, if you feel called by God to do this, I'm not gonna be the one to stand in your way and we will figure it out. And so I made that decision in December of 2014.

And in January of 2015. Well I remember there was this real pivotal moment for me where I knew that we had a program that was transforming lives and I had a decision to make. So we had finished the pilot of the program in 2014. It was right around 2014 because I quit my job in 2015. But there was some wrestling in my heart. There was some real wrestling in my heart and I felt like I needed to leave this corporate job but the truth was is that I was scared to leave. I knew we had a program that was transforming lives, and I also knew the economic sacrifice

that I was about to put on my family. And at the time I had had my first son, and I was the one that carried our healthcare insurance and our retirement, and I made really great money. And I knew that if I stepped into this world of nonprofit, that all of those things were going to be gone for how long? I didn't really know. And there was a moment for me where I was really tethered

with this idea, do I leave, do I not leave? And I was up for a promotion for work. And I went out for it and I didn't get it. And then there was another market that I could go to for this promotion that I was after and I went there and I didn't get it. And I remember just feeling this real moment that I was like, God just tell me what you want me to do. Do you want me to quit? Do you want me to not? Like just tell me. And I just had this overwhelming sense of this feeling like hey

I'm telling you what to do and you're not listening and There was another it was another night my third and last interview I drove to a different market and I said God just make it so crystal clear Just make it so crystal clear now. I had been denied twice, two times in a row. He's like, how much more clear do you want me to be with you? Like the answer is no. Roadblock, roadblock, roadblock.

And I just kept pressing forward, like tell me what you want me to do. I'm all ears, I'm listening to you. And I was like, just make it so crystal clear. And I didn't get the third in a row. And I remember driving back home that next Sunday I went to church. And it was a moment for me,

I was sitting in the congregation, listening to this preacher, and he had talked about when Jesus walked on water, he told the story about how he's walking out on water and Peter says, you know, who are you? And he says, it is I. And he says, well, if it's you, then tell me to come to you. And in one word, he says, come. And so he gets out of the boat and he's too standing on water. And then he takes his eyes off Jesus and he begins to sink. And in that moment, the preacher says,

what is God calling you out of the boat to do, but you're too afraid to do? And maybe if you would just keep your eyes fixated on him, that you too could walk on water. And I walked out of church that day and I looked at my husband and I said, all right, I feel like I know what I need to do. And I feel like every moment since that day,

I've been just holding on to Jesus and just saying, like, give me the godly wisdom to know what to do and how to do it. And if I screw up, that's on me. But if you will just go before me and help me, I will be obedient in this. And, you know, I don't hold on to this role so tightly. I feel honored that I get to do this work, and I know that God does not need me to do this work. And I feel blessed to be able to do this work, and I will do it until I'm no longer the best suited person to do this work. And in January of 2015, left that job behind and was full-time in Austin Angels. So you had

referenced Austin and that is because I started Austin Angels full-time. And you know, just like I had no vision of ever starting a local nonprofit, I certainly didn't have a vision of launching a national nonprofit. But what happened was that in Austin that first year, our goal was just to see how many families could we support in our program and how many children could we support in our program in Central Texas. So we had kind of one foot in front of the other.

It took an entire year before we tried to figure out, okay, I better run this like an actual charitable organization, but have a business background. And I wanted to run our organization differently. I wanted to change the way that people view philanthropy and view how they can actually be a part of the transformation. So while every organization needs funds to be able to scale and grow their impact, and that's certainly true for us. I wanted for people to get their hands wet. I wanted for people to be able to have full trust in

our organization. And so I invited people in to help build this with me and to be a part of the transformation and be a part of the change. So wanted it to be more than just deliver a backpack. I wanted it to be like, deliver that backpack and then show up over and over and over again. So, our commitment for our volunteers is year over year. So, when people commit to walking alongside a family, they will commit year over year. And we have many people, our average amount of time that a volunteer will walk alongside a family is 3.4 years in a formal relationship. But what happens is that it goes to informal because children will either be returned back to biological family. And if that happens,

then the Love Box group can go and support biological family because our goal is to build relational permanence. Or maybe that fostering family has decided to move towards permanence themselves and either adopt. So the Love Box group, when we talk about 3.4 in a formal placement relationship, it would then turn informal and then they would just be a part of their family. We'll be right back.

I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished. Nobody hears anything, nobody sees anything. Did they run away? Was it an accident or were they murdered?

A truck and two people just don't disappear. The FBI called it murder for hire. It was definitely murder for hire for Danielle, not for Richard. He's your son and in your eyes he's innocent, but in my eyes he's just some guy my sister was with. In this series I dig into my own investigation to find answers for the families and get justice for Richard and

Danielle. Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello. Malcolm Gladwell here. I want to tell you about a new series we're launching at Pushkin Industries on the 1936 Olympic Games, Hitler's Olympics. On this season of Revisionist History, we'll bring you the full cast of characters. A room full of half-baked aristocrats.

The visionary who built Chicago. The unknown story of Jesse Owens. A Nazi law student on an exchange trip to the Deep South. A forgotten box of documents at the New York Historical Society. A woman who looked the young Hitler in the eyes and saw a madman. Lynch mobs. Tall tales. fascist rituals, the Nazi PR men banging out football marches on the piano,

all of it culminating in two tumultuous weeks in Berlin, in August of 1936. And the United States went along for all of it. Why? Listen to this season of Revisionist History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, host of Womanica, a daily podcast that introduces you to the fascinating lives of women history has forgotten. This month, we're bringing you the stories of athletes. There's the Italian race car driver who courted danger and became the first woman to compete in Formula One.

The sprinter who set a world record and protested racism and discrimination in the US and around the world in the 1960s. The diver who was barred from swimming clubs due to her race and went on to become the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal. She won gold twice. The Mountaineer, known in the Chinese press as the tallest woman in the world. And the ancient Greek charioteer who exploited a loophole to become the first-ever woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Listen to Wamanica on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our program is set up to reduce the amount of moves a child has, to reduce the amount

of caregivers who put in notice and close their home to ensure educational success, that we're meeting unique needs of families. Because when you hear the name Love Box, you might think this is a one size fits all program and it couldn't be different. Our program tailors every single match very uniquely. So we do a real deep dive into trying to understand where can our program and these services kind of fill in the gaps and meet your needs. So in Central Texas when we started this, I'll never forget this story, we had a mom and

a dad who had two small children that were in elementary school, they felt called to sign up to be foster parents, and they were looking to foster to adopt. That was the journey that they were on. And they had received a baby from the hospital, brought the baby home, raised the baby for two years, and that was their baby. They just believed that adoption, that they were on the track for adoption.

And then two years in, they had identified relative that said, I will take in the baby. Well, for two years, from the moment that mom was placed with that newborn baby, there was a love box that really radically supported this family. She said, you know, we don't have a big financial need, but we have a big emotional need and we need help with transportation and visits to occupational therapy and physical therapy and all these things for the kid.

And what makes our program so unique is that every person in the home gets treated with the same amount of dignity, love and respect. So we just don't go into the home and love on the child that's experiencing foster care. We also support biological children and then adopted children. So every child gets treated with the same amount of love and dignity and respect. So if one child gets one thing, all the children get the same thing. Because when caregivers decide to foster, so does every child in the home. And, and it can often create a real rough, uh, situation where if you're a social worker that comes in to see the child in foster care

and you've got a CASA worker and they're taking you, you know, to visits and bringing you back a soda or something, then the other children are like, well, why do they get to do that? And now mom and dad puts all the focus and attention taking them here and there. So we really love to provide respite and support and nurture and care for all the kids. So if the mom and dad had to go to court, the love box leader would go with them if they needed it, or they would watch the biological children and really do life with them. Well, they got the news that this baby was gonna be transferred back and let me tell you this caregiver

was crushed. That was her baby. I've been raising this baby since the day it was born. How can I give this baby back? And I'll never forget this story that the baby had gone back and the husband had called the love box leader and said, she's just devastated. She can't love box leader and said, she's just devastated. She can't get off the bathroom floor. She's just so upset and devastated by losing her baby that she cannot function. So that love box leader went and got Starbucks coffee and a bag of treats, whatever. The husband opened the door, she handed the coffee and the treats to the husband, and she went into

the bathroom where the mom was laying on the bathroom floor, and she literally laid down behind her. She was like in the fetal position, and that friend had laid down beside her and held her while she cried over the heartbreak of losing this baby. And I remember hearing that story, and all these years later, she said, I'm never gonna do this again. And I remember hearing that story and all these years later she said, I'm never gonna do this again. I am never gonna foster again. And that love box leader and that those caregivers have been so dedicated that they have fostered several children since then. And it goes back to that

mountain of can you face it or can you not? And I just think that is the most beautiful, heartbreaking love story I have ever witnessed about how what happens when people do life together. And so we started doing that in central Texas. We started getting real strategic and real thoughtful about what are the needs of this family and how do we identify love box leaders and groups in the same zip code that consistently show up and help meet the needs of the family. So you may have

someone that needs more emotional support or you may have someone that has high financial needs. We've got grandmas and grandpas, kinship, caregivers that have decided I will take in children and in some cases they get no extra additional stipend. So we've got high financial need families and so we want to make sure that a volunteer is able to help offset some of that and us as an agency as an organization can help offset that. So we got really strategic and thoughtful and we started making really good thoughtful matches and we saw this what felt like buzz and this excitement and this energy around changing foster care in

Central Texas. And then in 2016 we had a big moment of change for us when a woman of influence had posted about us on her social media and she said I'm doing this fundraiser for Austin Angels. Here's the work that they do, here's the mission, here's the website. Buy this piece of jewelry. 50% of the proceeds will go to Austin Angels. And in one week, we had received over 25 different requests from people all over the country who said, I see this program. It's very unique and foster care is in a crisis in my city and in my state and I would like to bring this program, it's very unique and foster care is in a crisis in my city and in my state. And I would like to bring this program to my city. And I remember sitting back from my desk

about the seventh person that reached out and I was like, okay, God, are you telling me to expand my vision here? Because I have no vision whatsoever to take this outside of Central Texas. because I have no vision whatsoever to do this outside of Central Texas. You know, no good deed goes unpunished. I mean, here you are doing this thing, quit your job, do this. And I think that was Jen Hatmaker, I think, if I'm not mistaken,

that you're talking about. But from that, now you literally have people from all over our country loving this unique idea and saying, I want it where I am. And so now your view goes from one family, the irony of it is your view goes from Esther and her six boys to Austin to then central Texas and then all of a sudden you're forced to view as

a result of this fundraiser your program as a national program. Yeah so about the seventh person that had reached out and I had a conversation with, I was like, God, are you telling me to expand my vision? And there was a woman out of Amarillo who I talked to, Amarillo, Texas, and I just felt like she's got the same heart, the same mission, the same vision of what she wants to accomplish here. And I said to her, well, we can pilot this. I don't know if we have a program that can be replicated.

I believe we do, but I'm not 100% sure of that. But if you will help me build this model, I would be interested in expanding this outside. And so that was in 2016. And I remember I called up our nonprofit attorneys and I said, hey, listen, we're gonna try this. Can you help us build out a contract? And I don't even know what we don't know, but I had a lot of trust and a

lot of faith in this woman and she did me. And so we piloted all of 2016, all of 2017. And we knew pretty quickly that, gosh, we do actually have a program that can be replicated. And today we have 19 chapters in 14 states and the vision has changed. The vision was not or is no longer every single, not just every single child in central Texas, but now how do we reach and serve every single child, youth and family in our country? And we know that on any given moment, there's roughly approximately 430,000 children who are experiencing foster care.

And you know, Bill, when we talk about all of the statistics and we talk about the big numbers of 430,000, you know, you can get lost in that. But every single one of the number represents a child. And they are the most precious, deserving population. And so my vision is to do this in my lifetime. We have set a goal that we want to reach every child, youth and family in our program by 2050. And it's a big audacious goal and I already feel like I'm running out of time. That's unbelievable. So you've got 19 chapters and 14 states.

Just out of curiosity, and this may be an unfair question, but it just came to me because I'm trying to qualify your goal, which is a beautiful goal. Of the 430,000 kids that are in foster care in the United States with your 19 chapters and 14 states, what percent do you think you're touching now? Yeah, so right now we serve roughly about 3,000 children on a monthly basis in our program. Three thousand children. I mean, that is a... The problem is when you hear forty thousand and then you hear three thousand, you're like, well, that's less than one percent of all the kids. But you can't do that. It's 3,000 kids, but when I hear 3,000 against 40,000

and you're 20, 50 gold. Susan, 400, excuse me, 430,000 versus 3,000, you're 25. Susan, how in goodness name are you gonna do that? Well, I know it is a big, a big God-size dream and vision, and I'm humbled by it. And I will tell you that there is not one percent of me that doesn't. I believe with all of my heart we will get there. And I believe that the way that we will get there, we've been really thoughtful about our business model. So I like to describe what we're trying to create as like the Chick-fil-A of

nonprofits. And what I mean when I say that is like, the chicken sandwich tastes the same, no matter what city we're in, the cleanliness, the music, the it's my pleasure, it is all the same. And that doesn't just happen. It takes a lot of intentionality, a lot of focus on culture, a lot of deep belief in people and what is possible. And we've created a business model to replicate that. So I say we're trying to become the Chick-fil-A of nonprofits. We'll be right back. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the all new podcast, There and Gone. It's a real life story of two people

who left a crowded Philadelphia bar, walked to their truck and vanished. Nobody hears anything, nobody sees anything. Did they run away? Was it an accident or were they murdered? A truck and two people just don't disappear. The FBI called it murder for hire. It was definitely murder for hire for Danielle,

not for Richard. He's your son and in your eyes he's innocent, but in my eyes he's just some guy my sister was with. In this series, I dig into my own investigation to find answers for the families and get justice for Richard and Danielle. Listen to There and Gone South Street on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, hello. Malcolm Gladwell here. I want to tell you about a new series we're launching at Pushkin Industries on the 1936 Olympic Games, Hitler's Olympics. On this season of Revisionist History, we'll bring you the full cast of characters, a room full of half-baked aristocrats. The visionary who built Chicago. The unknown story of Jesse Owens.

A Nazi law student on an exchange trip to the deep south. A forgotten box of documents. The New York Historical Society. A woman who looked the young Hitler in the eyes and saw a madman. Lynch mobs. Tall tales. Fascist rituals, the Nazi PR men banging out football marches on the piano, all of it culminating in two

tumultuous weeks in Berlin in August of 1936. And the United States went along for all of it. Why? Listen to this season of Revisionist History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello, from Wondermedia Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, host of Womanica, a daily podcast that introduces you to the fascinating lives of women history has forgotten. This month, we're bringing you the stories of athletes. There's the Italian race car driver who courted danger and became the first woman to compete in Formula One.

The sprinter who set a world record and protested racism and discrimination in the US and around the world in the 1960s. The diver who was barred from swimming clubs due to her race and went on to become the first Asian American woman to win an Olympic medal. She won gold twice. The Mountaineer, known in the Chinese press

as the tallest woman in the world. And the ancient Greek charioteer, who exploited a loophole to become the first ever woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Listen to Wamanica on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We have a belief that if we can recruit and train great talent, then we believe with all of our heart that we can reach every single child by 2050. So it's a pretty aggressive

growth plan, but next year we hope to reopen our chapter applications so that we can launch more chapters. And starting at the end of next year, we hope to be able to triple our impact in the next five years. And so where does the money for this come from? This is not cheap. This is not cheap. Yes, you're right. It is not cheap. And so we raise money primarily through individuals, family foundations, and individuals. So about 85% of the money that we raise is by people when they become aware of the work that we do making contributions and having a deep belief in, I want to help you scale. And so we have a great need for more financial support. And you know, what's interesting about our model is that we can take a whole bunch of ordinary folks at $25

a month. If they will consistently give to us when you have a bunch of people that contribute, that is what helps us scale and grow. And so we've been really lucky. You mean an army of normal folks? That's right. That's exactly right. An army of normal folks given 25 bucks a month consistently, you're telling me about 2050 would touch with this particular specific organization, not only the foster kids, but the families doing the unbelievable difficult work of being foster parents.

You're saying that could touch every one of those family and over one of those kids by 2050. That's what you believe and that's what you're working toward. Right, exactly. Yes, and just like I said earlier, for me, I feel like there is no mountain too high. There is no valley too low.

What keeps me up at night is every kid that we're not reaching because we know what the statistics say. And our program has been validated. We believe deeply in measurement. We're not just doing this work just to do it. We want to make sure that transformation is taking place. And so if you've got, you know, when we talk about people who can donate $25 a month, I mean, last week I had asked a donor for a $5 million investment. So it takes all kinds of people to play a part in this. It takes the people who can contribute monthly, and it takes people of great wealth to invest in the next five years.

I need to raise $25 million. And so it is a call to action for every single person because some people can walk alongside families and some say, I don't have the time to be able to do that, but I have the resources to do it. And so we call everyone, we believe that this is an issue for everyone. Yeah. And I mean, like we talked at the beginning, if you if you're not drawn to it by the social impact, you certainly could be drawn to it by the fiscal pragmatic impact. And I can't help but as I talk to you and and in first of all, it's the most remarkable story and First of all, it's the most remarkable story, and you are obviously a remarkable woman with a massive, sweet, loving heart

that I can't help but think was planted there by a mother who opened her thousand square foot home to any and all comers. I think it was planted in you, Young, but something else that was planted in you that I can't. It's just weird how striking how we are a sum of our experiences. I love hearing, I talk to a lot of people that do a lot of work, I love hearing how you are really also driven by the measurables.

And you're interested in the data, and you're interested in proving out your modeling, and you're interested in the numbers, and you bridle them off because you know them. And in my world, I own a lumber company, and we sell lumber in 40 different countries all over the world. And we're gonna do about $80 million a year in sales.

And I have nine salespeople. And every week we get together, we talk about goals, measureables, data, margins, what your customer base is and should be, what market is down and what market is up and why, and the data we work. And I'm just saying all that because there's no doubt in my mind that the eight and a half years you spent

working for that builder, selling homes and training people to sell homes, ingrained in you the effectiveness of those measurables. And you're taking not only that discipline that you learned and you're coupling it with the unbelievable servant heart you had and they're blending and meeting at a place to serve children. And it's just, it's an interesting take

on a philanthropic endeavor that you're operating it very much like a business salesperson would. Yeah, absolutely. I always say that the only difference between a for-profit and a non-profit is a tax code. And I believe. It's true. Yeah, and I just believe with all of my heart and I heard this one

time and I was so struck by this idea that what we don't need is more nonprofits. We need better, more functional, more equipped nonprofits. And for me, leadership and culture, the way that we view people, the way that we treat people, the way that we empower people, the way that we support and remove barriers and equip, the better that we can do that, the more likely we are to achieve every vision and mission and North Star. And so I hold this responsibility as the founder and CEO with an open hand of humility and also white-knuckling the idea that it is our responsibility at the top to do this right. And so we believe in a bottom-up organization where the child, the youth, the family, they

are the closest touch point and they know what it is that would help to support them. And we believe very deeply and trying to understand from their point of view what they believe they need. And so, like, you know, an example of this would be, you've got a child who's 16 years old. We don't press upon our goals or objectives on them. We do a deep dive to say, what are your dreams and your desires of your heart? What do you want your life to look like? If they're like, well,

I don't know. Okay, well, let's go to some trade schools and let's look at all the different opportunities. Any of these strike your interest? Nope. Okay. Let's look at some different colleges. Any of these strike your, you know, strike you? No, not really. How about military? Let's take you to all the different branches. Let's expose you to everything and then once you've identified something that is a passion of your heart, then let's go all in on that. So we've got these measurable objectives that say educational success is a KPI that we're after. We want to make sure that kids stay on their grade level, but it's really about identifying what do you want to do

with your life, not our agenda. Because if you don't want to go to college, we're not pushing college on you. If you don't want to go to trade school, we're not pushing that on you. We just want to make sure that you are able to reach your full potential, but you get to decide what's best for you.

And I believe we have such a responsibility your full potential, but you get to decide what's best for you. And I believe we have such a responsibility to do that well. And so we're really trying to be very thoughtful about how we empower and equip those who are walking alongside, serving and loving. And so I appreciate what you said. Well, one of our big, one of my big taglines that I've been saying for the 11, 10 months, 11 months now, probably that an Army of Normal Folks has been going and the stories we continue to tell which continue to inspire.

One of the big taglines from the very beginning that I don't think I'll ever quit saying is magic happens when a person's discipline and I don't mean I mean discipline in terms of their talents when a person's talents meets their passion at an area of need. That's exactly what's happened with you. Your talents that you learned and your heart saw an opportunity of, saw a need and you put your passion in it. And it's just amazing to me, Susan,

that this all started with one family and six kids and has grown to what it is now and then has goals to literally go from that one parent and six kids to every parent and every kid in the next 26 years. It is just every parent and every kid in the next 26 years. It is just a phenomenal goal. And the fact that you already have 19 chapters in 14 states is phenomenal because that real growth has only happened over the last eight years. And just an amazing story.

If somebody wants to start a chapter, somebody wants to start a chapter. Somebody wants to support an existing chapter. Somebody wants to be one of those $25 a week people. Somebody wants to learn more to become involved in National Angels. How do they find you and National Angels? Susan, we're an Army of Normal folks.

We all talk, we all interact, regardless of what area of the world we're working in. And it's important, that connectivity you talk about, we talk about among philanthropic organizations, just people in general that wanna do some good. How do they find Susan and National Angels? How do they find you? Yeah, so they can go to nationalangels.org

and all of our information lives on our website. You can find us on all the social channels. And I am at Miss MRS Susan Ramirez. So they can find me on social channels as well. Susan, are your boys, all three of them, husband and sons, are they not so proud of their mom? Are your boys, all three of them, husband and sons, are they not so proud of their mom? Yeah, I think they are. I've got the sweetest, sweetest little boys.

In fact, yesterday I came home from work and my word of the year this year is miracles. Mostly because I feel like we need some big ones, you know, but also for me to be mindful of small miracles every day and the big ones too. And my seven-year-old when I got home from work yesterday, he said, Mom, did you have any miracles today? And I said, Well, let me think about this. I said, well, no, I don't think I did. And he said, well, I prayed for you, Mom. I went outside, older brother had made me mad,

and I went outside and I was sitting outside and I was just talking to God and I was just asking him to give you miracles. And I said, you know what, actually, bud, I did have a miracle yesterday at work. So this is crazy, but two years ago, we bought a church in Buda, which is just south of Austin, sits on two and a half acres.

We have a vision of demoing this church and building a foster care community center. One of the things I didn't say was when we launched chapters, they have to come to Austin and we train them, you know, bring them right to the fountain and have them drink before they go home kind of thing in the onboarding process. And so we have a vision of a community center that will be a training facility site for National Angels and also will serve our Central Texas foster care community. And anyways, yesterday I got to tell our team that we're going to break ground in October of this year on it because we have a very generous donor who is allowing us to take

a 0%, $3 million loan from him in order for us to build it. We've raised $1.6 million. It's a $4 million building. So I got to tell my team yesterday that we're going to be able to break ground. We are in this dilapidated church right now that needs a whole, I mean, we're going to completely bulldoze it and rebuild it into a state of the art center where kids will come and get leadership classes and entrepreneur classes and strength finder workshops and community groups and support groups and

therapy for caregivers and all this really cool stuff that we're going to do. But when I got home, I was doing the dishes and I was telling Reid, I go, you know what, actually, I did have a miracle. I got to tell the team today that we're going to break ground. And he said, well, thank you, Jesus, for answering my prayers. So I think when my boys, I think that they view this work as something that they are responsible for too. I have really brought them along the journey and everything that mom does, they do,

and they are a part of too. So I think they're proud, and also I think they feel a sense of responsibility in it too. So I'm hoping one of my boys will grow up and be the next CEO, but we'll see. Who knows if that's gonna happen. One last thing before you go.

And thank you. Well, thank you for what you do. Thank you for sharing your story. But one last thing before you go. When you come home from work and the boys are fed and everybody's happy and it's just you in the mirror. And you look back at Esther and those first couple of kids and the experience you have with the

judge that all started by selling a house to a woman who worked in this world and you look at where you are now and where you're going it's just you and your thoughts. What do you feel? Hmm. I feel... I think I feel so unbelievably grateful that God can take a woman like me and do work like this. Susan, that's the thing. We're all just failed, normal, ordinary people trying to get through life. And we get so much more out of it than we put into it.

And the blessing of all of it is how it not only enriches everybody's lives around us, but our own. I've lived it. I see it in you. I hear it in your voice. And my goodness, what an amazing blessing you are to so many people. And what an amazing blessing all of those people in this organization has been to you and your family and that's the way it should work. So I think we'll end it there and tell you I just I can't tell you how much I appreciate you going and I'm gonna keep my eye on you because in 2040 you'd better be up around 300,000 or you're not going to hit 430 in 2050. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Susan, thank you so much. Keep up the good work. Thank you so much. And thank you for joining us this week. If Susan Ramirez or other guests have inspired you in general, or better yet, inspired you to take action by volunteering with national angels, donating to them, starting a chapter in your own community, or something else entirely, please let me know. Y'all, I really do want to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us and you will get a response from me.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it. Become a premium member at normalfolks.us. Any and all of these things that can help us grow an army of normalfolks.us any and all of these things that can help us grow an army of normal folks. I thank our producer, Iron Mike Labs. I'm Bill Courtney. I will see you next week.

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