# Ep. - 1655 - SATURDAY SERIES: EMILY JENNINGS Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/reality-life-with-kate-casey-6631/ep-1655-saturday-series-emily-jennings Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/reality-life-with-kate-casey-6631/ep-1655-saturday-series-emily-jennings.md Podcast: [Reality Life with Kate Casey](https://stenobird.com/podcast/reality-life-with-kate-casey-6631) Published: 2026-07-04T04:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pdrl.fm/353ca0/mgln.ai/e/211/rss.art19.com/episodes/88ede8f8-0d95-4942-885f-09c134002484.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Audio file: https://pdrl.fm/353ca0/mgln.ai/e/211/rss.art19.com/episodes/88ede8f8-0d95-4942-885f-09c134002484.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/reality-life-with-kate-casey-6631/episodes/ep-1655-saturday-series-emily-jennings Duration seconds: 1601 ## Resource After twenty-six years in the Coast Guard and a hard-earned retirement in a Margaritaville-branded community in Daytona Beach, Florida, Emily thought her next chapter was set. Then she noticed her husband's niece had vanished from his brother's Facebook page. What followed was a discovery that the seven-month-old had been placed in Florida's foster care system, and the beginning of an eighteen month legal battle that included a three day custody trial, allegations of fraudulent adoption paperwork, and a fight against a state system that seemed determined to keep her with a foster caregiver rather than family.     Emily and her husband ultimately adopted both the niece and, months later, her newborn brother, becoming parents to two young children in their fifties after raising a son who is now thirty. Emily talks about the toll of the legal process, what she learned about family adoption cases in Florida, the isolation of feeling like her family was fighting the system alone, and what it has been like to parent toddlers as a retired Gen Xer, decades after raising her first child.        Reality Life with Kate Casey  Summer Reading List: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/books-i-cant-stop-talking-about-this   Vanity Fair Article: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/story/martha-moxleys-diary   What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com   Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey   Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/katecaseyca   Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itskatecasey?lang=en   Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245   Amazon List: https://www.amazon.com/shop/katecasey   Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/pr… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/reality-life-with-kate-casey-6631/episodes/ep-1655-saturday-series-emily-jennings/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/reality-life-with-kate-casey-6631/ep-1655-saturday-series-emily-jennings.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.