When Tori Hope Peterson ’18 was a child in the foster care system, she had no voice. Now she helps voiceless foster youth raise their own.

In her debut book, “Fostered,” Petersen recounts the story of her life from her earliest memories with her mentally ill, addict mother to her current day experiences as a wife, mother, foster youth advocate, and follower of Christ. A compelling and beautiful memoir, “Fostered” should be placed at the top of everyone’s book list. 

She covers touchy topics with a refreshingly Christ-centered outlook free from partisan divides. From discussing the value of all life to her complicated relationship with law enforcement, Petersen connects with the audience as quickly as the first chapter. 

The story is hard — Petersen writes in the author’s note that it was painful to revisit many of her memories from childhood and young adulthood. She compares the experience to a tumultuous ocean.

“This story has forced me to wade into deep waters,” she writes. “I do not hang out where it is shallow, but sometimes I’ve needed to swim back to shore to catch my breath from the winds and waves that have come as a result of being born into this life. Thankfully, throughout this story, a Lifeguard found me, and with Him I’ve come to appreciate the depths of the ocean and the storm.”

With this analogy, she crystallizes the main point of the story: her gratefulness to God, not only despite her suffering, but because of his presence throughout it. 

The winds and waves in Petersen’s life began before she was even born. She was conceived out of rape and was delivered into the world while her mother was in custody, handcuffed to a hospital bed. From then on she faced heartbreaking challenges with seemingly little respite. Throughout her childhood, her mother battled drug addiction and mental illness, with a revolving door of male partners, few of whom treated Petersen well.

Petersen’s background shaped her bold dedication to love for God, others, and self. The people that loved her when she felt worthless introduced her to God and showed her she is bigger than the terrible things that have happened to her.

She entered the foster care system for the first time at age four after her mother was arrested on drug charges. It was the first of 12 foster homes she would stay at in her life, flitting between them and her mother’s turbulent home. In both she faced mental, physical, and sexual abuse.

 

As a teenager, she continued to face trials, but she discovered two things: a love for God, and a love for running track. The former gave her comfort and the latter gave her freedom and control. It also helped her attend Hillsdale College at no cost.

Unlike most foster care survivor stories, Petersen is able to give a nuanced view of the foster care system because she lived on both sides of it. Feeling abandoned by caseworkers and mistreated by the state as a child, it wasn’t until she became a foster parent that Petersen understood how caseworkers are  overloaded with responsibilities. The work is exhausting  and can keep them from having the energy to do what called them to social work in the first place.

Her trials did not end at Hillsdale — she continued to struggle with romance, sex, friendship, and mental health. But she grew, too, and writes that she is grateful for her experience at the college. In her senior year, she started dating her now husband, whose love for her sweetened her college years and gave her something she had always longed for: the knowledge that she is worthy of being loved.

Petersen discusses the taboo on talking about mental health and medication, especially in the Christian world, where she struggled with the idea that taking medication to manage anxiety signified a lack of faith in God’s power to heal. 

“In 2020, I finally accepted that my mind is fleshly—meaning, it is fallen,” Petersen writes. “It needs help to move back toward health and wholeness just like any other fallen part of our existence as humans.”

In similar fashion, she talks about her relationships with money, food, health, gratitude, sex, race, faith,  and more. The common thread is her trust in God above all else.

With her memoir selling out in three different countries, Petersen is sharing her story of redemption with the whole world. On her website, she explains how she wants to use her exposure to create spaces for those like her to share their own experiences. 

“I am not a voice for the voiceless. I aim to offer opportunity for the voiceless to raise their voices.”