062: Having The Faith To Overcome Life’s Adversities with Michael Ketterer

August 10, 2018

FYS 62 | Life's Adversities

Standing up through life’s adversities says a lot about a person; more so when amidst all of these, you still continue to offer a helping hand to others. Michael Ketterer is a man who not only possesses a great voice that deserves a golden buzzer on America’s Got Talent; he also has a great heart and a strong moral compass that inspires many. He shares to us the value and gift of family as he recounts how, together with his wife, they have come to expand their family by adopting 5 children. As a father of six, he opens up and talks to us about the struggles with going through the process and the emotional weight that comes with it. Living a Christian-centered life, Michael talks about how his faith has formed his love for music and helped him overcome difficulties.

If there was ever anybody that epitomized what overcoming adversity and finding their way, this guy would be it. His name is Michael Ketterer. When I came back from Denali where I summited and I was taking a quick moment to kick my feedback for a change and watch some TV for the first time and I happen to tune to America’s Got Talent. It’s a great show. With America’s Got Talent, they always like to tell the backstory and with that, this is a guy that had one biological child, Sophia. She almost died. Both Sophia and the mom almost died when she was giving birth. As a result, they couldn’t have any more kids and they end up adopting three siblings, three boys, then another boy who’s disabled, and then another boy. They’ve got six kids running around this house and he steps out there. He’s telling this backstory and the entire family, including his wife, Ivy, are on the side. They’re watching this thing. Then he just belts out this most beautiful song and he ends up getting the golden buzzer, which means you don’t have to audition anymore, you go straight to the final auditions with the main people. It was very inspiring.

This podcast is all about Michael telling his story. He’s a bright light. He’s got a very strong moral compass. He’s Christian-based and it was really a joy to talk and spend some time with him. Always remember to rate, review and go in. It really helps. I am getting back on this. I was gone, as I said, I summited Denali. That’s my fifth peak of The Seven. Last time I was there, I got pushed back by minus 60. This climb is just an absolute mother. You’re carrying 130 pounds up the mountain. You’re dealing with cold weather. Sleeping on the ice, no shower and marginal food for three weeks, so it’s tough. It’s a mind grind. I’m so happy. I’m so joyful that I was able to pass that test and move on to my next mountain, which will be Vinson in Antarctica. Any more info on what I’m up to, you can always check me out at www.MarkPattisonNFL.com. On that note, let’s go talk to Michael.

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Having The Faith To Overcome Life’s Adversities with Michael Ketterer

We’ve got an amazing guest, Michael Ketterer. I want to set this up for the audience in the right way. I was sitting on my couch. I just come off Denali, this crazy mountain in Alaska, and I hadn’t seen TV in almost a month. If you can imagine being at 20,000 feet, minus twenty degrees below zero, you’re sleeping on the ice, no shower. I’m finally able to sit in the comfort of my house and watch one of my favorite TV programs, America’s Got Talent. All of a sudden there’s this guy, it turns out to be you, who gets up there and the judges have the same format asking why you’re there, you’re a little bit nervous. All of a sudden, he just belts out this most beautiful tune and there’s all this backstory going on and it was super emotional. I know it was emotional for you, it’s emotional for your kids and my eyes started to well. I was like, “I’ve got to have this guy on my podcast.” First of all, welcome to the show. I just want to talk about that experience and then get into other parts of your life because it is so fascinating.

Thank you. I’m just telling you, it’s been a wild journey ever since I walked out on that stage.

I don’t want to reveal all the bean sprouts. You do have a musical background and you’re a very good singer, but what was that switch that made you, “I want to go apply for this show and see if I can get in front of all these people?”

Somebody reached out to me to see if I would be interested in going on the show. I really started to think about it and pray about it and thought, “Is this the right move to make right now?” I just had such a peace about moving forward with America’s Got Talent because compared to a lot of the other competitive shows about voices and stuff, obviously it’s about the talent but it’s more than that. They go into the story and I really felt like I wanted to go out there and not just go on my own, but take my family out there with me and shining a light on the thing that I am really passionate about.

FYS 62 | Life's Adversities

Life’s Adversities: What really draws people in is not so much the downhill race but the story behind the person who’s had to overcome the adversities of that path.

Like the Olympics, what really draws people in is not so much the downhill race but the story behind the downhiller who’s had to overcome all kinds of different diversity. Certainly, you’ve not only had your share, but you’ve also helped these adopted kids you now have through their adversity. I can’t imagine what that’s like. I think it’s easy to say and hard to do. You’re living that dream. The other thing I want to say to you is that I want to be around people like you, which is somebody with a strong moral compass. It says the difference between right and wrong and really trying to lead by example. Correct me if I’m wrong, but your whole basis is really this Christian-based faith that you have that has allowed you to be super strong and help you make some decisions that appear to have a lot of clarity to them?

Yes, absolutely. My faith is very important to me. In all of our history and all of our walks, every one of our decisions that we’ve made, we’ve always leaned into the voice of the spirit. That’s what makes this story so wild about adopting through foster care is because my daughter for about two years began to have these dreams. She would have these repetitive dreams of us rescuing these three little boys that needed to be adopted. She would come to me in the morning in tears because almost every time it was like the youngest of the three was in danger. She would wake up, grab me and be like, “Daddy, we’ve got to adopt my brothers.” At first I was like, “Sweetheart, you’re just having a nightmare. You’re having a bad dream.” Over two years of this repetitive dream, I always tell people it took my daughter and God two years to convince me that adoption was an option.

Did she actually know these three boys that you ultimately ended up adopting or was this just a dream, just a fantasy that she was having?

No. It was just a dream that she was having. Once my heart began to get softened to adoption, me and my wife began to look into it. We’re like, “There’s no way we can afford to adopt. It’s so outrageous.” I think my mind went to like, “We’ve got to adopt overseas. What is it like to adopt from America?” Every time it just seemed like it was this huge number. We meet this family who had adopted out of foster care and not only was the adoption free for them, the government pays for the full adoption, but they pay them every day that they were in foster care a certain amount. Also with that, have they got health insurance and they went through a state college, their college is paid for. I’m like we don’t really have any reason not to say, “Okay, we’re willing to move forward to this.” We really felt the burning of it in our spirit. Then we went into foster care. We’ve got certified to move forward in foster care. We’ve got a home study. We get our background checked. Finally, we have the opportunity to take kids into our family. The very first call we get were these three little boys. It was wild. We couldn’t make it up. At that point, I felt like if I said no, then I would be in complete sin because my daughter has been having these repetitive dreams for so long about these three little boys.

[bctt tweet=”Our children can be the windows toward other things that we just can’t see.” username=””]

I think sometimes, I don’t know if I can say this right, but our children can be the window towards other things that we sometimes just can’t see.

It was not even on my radar. I was like, “I have the perfect family, my wife, me, my perfect daughter.” After Sophie was born, we couldn’t have any more kids and we were totally fine with that. Another thing I always like to say too is that we’ve got our kids out of foster care, so while there is a huge need for children internationally to be in a family, we were just so blown away and our eyes opened to the need for orphans in our own neighborhoods, our own backyards, our own cities to be adopted into a family as well.

You’re from someplace in Tennessee?

Originally, I’m from East Tennessee. I was born in Chattanooga, but I moved to Orange County from Knoxville.

You’re in Orange County now. In terms of where these kids came from, was that in California or someplace outside of the state?

No, they were actually right around the Knoxville area.

You’re able to go back and those are your people and identify with them. Now, you bring on these three kids and that’s not the easiest thing in the world to do because it’s a massive amount of integration with your family. What was that like?

It was definitely life-altering. I always tell people, me and my wife were naïve and that was actually a huge blessing to be so naïve because we didn’t know what we were getting into. We didn’t care. We were so passionate about this and we were so in love when we first laid eyes on these boys. It definitely has been a rough road of learning, of therapy, of just anything that you can think of as far as in that transition. It’s definitely been a massive transition to bring all of us together as a family.

Give me some examples. I’m going to ask you something just for the sake of privacy. If you don’t want to reveal it, that’s fine. Are there any kinds of examples you want to share? The challenges that you guys were up against in terms of dealing with these three boys that obviously were for adoption and I can’t imagine what some of those stories are like in terms of parents abandoning these kids or being taken away or whatever that situation is.

I’ve got so many different examples but I think some of the big ones that stand out to me is that the oldest of three boys when they first came into our family, he had been so used to being the parent of the three that he had a hard time letting us take over that role as parent. There was this competition and this need to gain our trust before he would allow us to not just care for him, but to care for his younger brothers. Also because he was used to being the oldest sibling, with him and my daughter, there was this competition of between the two oldest siblings, who’s going to actually be this role in our family.

They’re both so used to being the oldest sibling that they head-butted in the first season and now they’re incredibly best friends. Another example was that because they had gone so long without food sometimes in their home, that when they came into our house, they didn’t trust where their next meal would come from. We would find food stuck on their bed and pillowcases, pillows, backs of closets, where they’d hoard and hide their food to make sure that they would have enough for their next meal so they wouldn’t go hungry. Those are a few examples. Another example was one of my sons was really abused physically and sexually, so when he came into our home, he would disassociate when you would talk to him. That’s a defense mechanism that these kids take on because they can check out and they’re gone, even though they’re physically present, they are mentally gone. He learned disassociation.

He also would poop and pee on himself all the time for years and years because that was a way to keep the predators off because if he stunk and he was gross, predators would stay away. These are things we’ve had to work through and overcome with therapy and with counseling both for the children and for me and my wife. I’m telling you, we are working in so much victory. These kids are just beautiful examples of what God can do. He can transform and redeem.

FYS 62 | Life's Adversities

Life’s Adversities: Patience is key. Trust can take a long time to earn but it can lead to love. Allow patience to lead you to it.

One of the things that you just talked about was this little word called trust. Trust sometimes takes a long time to earn right and trust can lead to love. Patience is the key in all that. When you can tap back into that vein, for you this Christian-based faith on there’s a higher being and there’s a higher purpose and you’re trying to lead that life, it probably helps you overcome those days when you’re probably frustrated or the kid runs out the door. Patience is needed and killing them with kindness is such a key element, I can imagine what you were trying to do. Then over time, that trust is earned and then you probably a lot better place like you just said than you were obviously on day one when they came into your house.

Our kids had so much shame and this is what we’ve learned through therapy is if our kid has already such an internal shame and then he does something wrong and then I come down on him like, “You shouldn’t have done that. You should have taken out the trash,” all it does is affirm shame that he already feels about himself. Even in those moments of frustration, I have to take on the persona of love and compassion and lifting them like, “You’re such an incredible son of mine. I love you no matter what, but these are things we need to work on.” That being opposite because I don’t want to just affirm the shame that he already feels inside.

Obviously, this has been a gigantic learning curve for you in terms of how to communicate because you’re not dealing with little Sophia anymore. I read that you and your wife got married at an early age and ultimately you guys decided you are going to have children. Your wife almost died along with your daughter when she was giving birth. What happened there?

She went preeclamptic. I think now they call it HELLP syndrome. It’s where your body recognizes the child as a foreign object and then your immune system begins to attack this child in your system. The only way to save my wife and my daughter was to have an emergency C-section in which we were just out eating lunch at Cracker Barrel. The next thing I know my wife is on a hospital surgical table with my baby being removed by C-section. It was this incredibly dramatic moment in our lives. The doctors came out afterward and told us that they both might not live through the night. Then miraculously having all my family and friends around us lifting up prayers, they both came through the night. We started the season of healing for both of them.

Obviously, that ties back into why your wife and you aren’t able to have children going forward is just because of this traumatic event that happened when your daughter was born, but she survived.

We were so young and the doctors told us, “This is going to more than likely happen again with your future pregnancy.” I was like, “No, let’s keep this from happening.” Then we make the best of our life and then little did I know what God had in store for us in the future.

Where did your Christian-based faith kick in? I want to tie this into your music here because for anybody to go through a lot of these different things, it’s so traumatic and so difficult and I think you really have to be connected in some way in order to stay the course like you done.

I was always raised in the church. My dad was a minister of music and it wasn’t until I was fourteen that my parents got a divorce and it was a pretty rough divorce. A lot of things that I didn’t understand happened but being the age of fourteen, I just think that that’s a heartache anyway for children. I went through the season of not really knowing where to look, feeling like a lot of my foundation had just been ripped out from under me. Thankfully my mom got me and my brothers and sisters into this great church in Chattanooga, Tennessee where I got connected.

I went on this mission trip. When I went on this mission trip, I just saw so many beautiful things and I saw the way that the Lord worked through me as we were helping out these people in poverty and praying for the sick, feeding the hungry. It was just like, “Not only is God real because I see him really touching and impacting lives, he wants to use me.” For the first time in my life I felt like the God of the universe wanted to use me in some way, in some capacity, and that was around the age of fourteen. Then that’s when my music took a real turn because I wanted my music to express that in it.

[bctt tweet=”One healthy relationship, interaction, and connection that you make with a child consumes their whole life forever.” username=””]

When did you open your mouth, you’ve got a great voice, and when did you recognize like, “I have some talent here.” Is that at that early age or did you have to develop that?

You can owe that to my dad. My dad, like I said, was a music minister at the church. When I was a little kid, he had me up on stages. He had me in the fellowship hall, he had me in the children’s group singing. Me and my brothers and sisters all three-part harmonies and all this kind of stuff and there’s not a day that I don’t remember music being a part of my life. My mom played the guitar, my grandmother played the piano. It’s just a huge part of my life from being from East Tennessee and being in a very musical family. I was always fond of my voice even from a very young age, but it really wasn’t something that I thought I wanted to really step out and pursue until I got into high school. After I came back from that mission trip, I’ve got involved on our worship team and our youth group. At that point, there were people affirming my voice, telling it was unique, it was different, something I should pursue that it actually became more of a dream for me to pursue music.

As you’re telling the story, I always felt like I was born with a football in my hand. It was just one of the things where it came very natural for me. I spent a zillion hours out on the playground. My mom would always have to open the back door and yell, “Dinner,” and I’d jump back over the fence to the playground and come in and then go back out. I just knew it was always a part of me. Probably for me, it didn’t really kick in in terms of I can go all out in this until high school. I had that realization. Let’s go forward again and I want to talk about it didn’t just start and stop obviously with Sophia, your biological daughter, with the three kids you adopted, but you brought in two more. You think four kids would be enough in a family and all that craziness and then you go out and you adopt two more kids, two more boys.

This is a really wild story. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m also a nurse. I currently work as a pediatric mental health nurse but previous to that I worked in adults and then I worked as a pediatric medical nurse. There was one day that I went to work and I had this seventeen or sixteen-year-old patient who had cerebral palsy and his mom had tried to poison him and it made him sick and that’s why he was my patient on the unit. Here I am taking care of him. I was taking care of him and I just remember telling the Lord at this moment I said, “God, if you wanted me to have a kid like this, I would take him.”

I just said it like that and then it was so wild. I’d say about two to three months later, we get a call and they’re from the foster care. I was sitting there, they’re like, “Michael, we know that you’re the only nurse that we have in the system now and we have a kid with cerebral palsy, would you be willing to take this child into your home?” At that moment I remember saying that to God in that hospital room. I was like, “God, I really feel like this is you.” Me and my wife, we both took a minute to pray. My wife said, “I’m bringing you, Rody, because I want him healed.” I heard the Lord say, “Rodrigo will preach the Gospel.” I was like, “We’ll take Rodrigo into our family, to our home.”

After taking him into our home, let me tell you, my life was turned upside down, but it was turned upside down in the best of ways. I think about this because we have such a hard time right after he came into our home because of all the difficulties and all the things we had to do. There was even a minute where I was like, “God, I don’t know if I can keep this kid. I feel like I need a sign.” All the way to his doctor’s appointment that morning they had just put up this big billboard of this man pushing his son with cerebral palsy through like a marathon said something like, “Him behind the son for the last 50 marathons.” I looked up at that sign and I was like, “God, you literally gave me the sign.” I just start weeping in the car.

I was like, “If this is true, he is my son and you’re going to help me in every step of the way.” I’m so thankful because I look back and it would have been the worst thing to say no at that moment because my son Rodrigo pulled my family together like nothing else could have. All my children realized there was a greater need than the needs that they were facing. There was a greater need in the home and that everybody needed to step up and it caused my whole family to kind of step up and take care of this little boy in our home. Every day that he’s in my house, you see some type of a miracle happen that take place. Originally, when he came he was blind. He sees now. They told us he’ll never eat. He completely eats by mouth. He calls me daddy, he calls my wife mommy, and it’s just been wild to see what God’s done in that little boy’s life.

First of all, it’s a beautiful story. It’s an amazing story and it goes back to the thing that we’re talking about before about the power of love and really being able to connect and pull people together in the right way. I think the other thing too, just listening to you, it’s also it sounds like when given perspective, you’re driving down the street you want a sign and all of a sudden, you’ve got some dad who has pushed his kid through 50 marathons, which is no easy task. You’re probably saying to yourself like, “If this guy can do this, maybe I can do that.” That’s what you did. I’m losing count of all these kids you’ve got. Now you’ve got five in the fold, now there’s a sixth one that comes in.

FYS 62 | Life's Adversities

Life’s Adversities: The Lord is so faithful to give us the confirmation and signs that we need.

It just happened. I’m telling you every time the Lord is so faithful to give us the confirmation we need taking these kids on. My wife had a dream of adopting this little boy off the streets and literally within two weeks after that, they call us up again and I’m like, “This is the last one. I’m only doing it because you had a dream.” Now my son, Shawn, he is my dream. There’s always enough. You think, “Here’s another child.” No, God’s going to bless us with even more because he made the promise that he takes care of the orphan and the widow. He promises that he puts the orphan in a home. He’s not just going drop an orphan into your home and then say, “Good luck.” He’s with us every day and he’s definitely been there with us every day since.

I’ve got a couple friends, actually very close friends in Seattle. Their names are Bill and Nikki Wagner and old-world people. They live next door to us and they’ve got three kids, two girls and a boy. Two of them are in Notre Dame and another one’s out of grade school. There was a situation that came up and somehow this little three-month-old ends up on their front step, almost like a basket hand-delivered. They had never intended to go out and adopt, but all of a sudden they just looked at this little beautiful baby, this little girl and they were like, “How can we not bring this baby into our lives and save this kid from a potential life of just horror?”

The long and short of it is they ended up adopting. Not too long ago, they made it official. It went all through. As I was telling my good friend Bill, I was just like, “Think about how much good you’ve just changed that girl’s life, that her direction in the life where she’s going to go. She has literally gone from the outhouse to the penthouse.” I’m hearing all these stories, from you and your background and having God speak to you in different ways and bring in. Think of the amount of change that you’re going to be able to impart on these kids as they go forward, the way they’re going to live their lives and what a train wreck their lives could have been without you and your wife coming to the rescue and bringing those dear kids into your home. What a great gift.

That’s a lot of the motivations for what I do. Every day I wake up and I go to work as well because I do work in a Pediatric Mental Health Inpatient Center. I am the charge nurse there during the day shifts. A lot of times when I’m looking at these kids that I am taking care of, these kids that are still in the throes of foster care that have all these disabilities and issues that could easily be overcome if they had somebody that made that dedication to them. Somebody that said, “I’m not going to allow anything to stop your healing and your progress because I’m going to be a real feather, a real mother to you.” I see these kids and I look at them and I’m like, “This could have been my child. This could have been my son if I didn’t intervene at the time that we did.” That’s a huge motivation and a huge passion of mine for the reason I go to work every day.

You’re also involved in Influence Church, which is in Southern California. Is that correct?

That’s correct.

It’s just I went on and I don’t know how I meandered my way through it, but I got to and there’s not just yourself, but there are three or four or five of you guys that are just world-class singers. You guys can bring it. You’re good.

I think we are. It’s such an honor to be able to lead and sing with this group of people. They’re so amazing.

Did you have an album that just came out called Touching Heaven? What was that all about? Obviously, touching heaven, you’re doing that in a lot of different ways right now, but how many songs are on there and what is the main thing?

Our album Touching Heaven was a collaborative of us as friends and as a worship team at my church just coming together and getting in rooms together and just going after what we felt like our card was for this season and for us and for our church. I think we had some beautiful songs that were written. To me the artists and musicians on the album are phenomenal. There’s really something about the messages in a lot of that is really fresh to me as far as for the body of Christ. I’m so proud of it and I am just so proud singing of the songs.

One song, Kingdom, that I perform on the album, is about my story about adopting and what the Father does and how He has adopted us into his kingdom. That’s what it’s all about. Jesus came down and made the way for us to be adopted into the family. The other song on the album that I do, Spirit Lead Me, is a lot about the journey of once we adopted our children, their journey of getting through and seeing healing and freedom in their lives. I just can’t escape it. It’s my life. People write about the things that are closest to us and my family is absolutely the closest and is the most amazing thing to me and is my life.

[bctt tweet=”If we learn to listen and tune into that voice of the Spirit, He will advise and guide us through the way. ” username=””]

You can really sense that commitment from you. When I saw you on America’s Got Talent, they kept flashing over to the side and showed your entire family, Ivy, Sophia, your five adopted kids and it was just a beautiful moment to see everybody they’re supporting you. I can’t remember. I don’t know who it was, but one of your kids was actually welling up and he was crying.

That’s Jared.

How many people did you perform in front of?

I don’t know. That whole place was packed out. When I went back and re-watched after it finally aired because that was taped two months before it actually aired. For two months I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That was so hard because it was such an amazing moment. I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody for two months. I thought my kids did a phenomenal job of keeping it under wraps, but when I went back and re-watched it and saw my son in tears, that was probably one of most emotional parts of getting to re-watch that.

You’re out there and you sing the song and you’re going back and forth with Simon and they’re not quite sure what’s going to happen. You compose yourself, you take a moment or two, and then you belt out this thing and it was just amazing. Take us to the side story and your kids and your wife. Bottom line is, it was just a great song. It was an emotional song. You brought it and then you’re standing there and you guys are going back and forth and then next thing you know you’re getting this golden buzzer.

That whole moment was so surreal. One of the things that were going on in the room, they edit it, but everyone was chanting, “Golden buzzer.” It was just like wild moment because I was so nervous about going out there in front of those judges and on the next in front of the globe, the world, but I was so nervous. When he reached out and hit that buzzer, I was just beside myself. People keep saying like, “What did it feel like?” I was like, “I don’t really even know how to describe for you. I think I might have blacked out that moment.” It was just such a wild feeling and mix of emotions to go from so nervous to so ecstatic.

I’ve been very, very fortunate to be on the winning end, some last second catches in the end zone, the type of stuff you dream of as a kid. You go up over the top and you come down and you pull it in and the cover of Sports Illustrated and the crowds are going to absolutely berserk. You win the game and you’re the hero. I’ve had a few of those moments. I just remember all this elation, but I have no idea what was going through my mind.

I know, and everybody wants to know.

There’s another gal that I had on the show from America’s Got Talent, Mandy Harvey. What’s special about her is she’s a deaf a singer. She is a girl that lost her hearing when she was eighteen or nineteen years old. She literally had to take her shoes off to feel the vibrations coming through. It was just a magical moment to sit there and listen to her and to watch her. It’s the same type of emotions. She got the golden buzzer, but she was kind of unaware, yet aware of because of her hearing and it was very difficult. She had a translator behind Simon but just that whole scene, elation, happiness and tears of joy. It’s the same type of thing. It was just amazing to talk to her and relive that moment. Where do you go from here? You’re still on the show.

I go straight through to the live rounds and the live rounds start on August 14th. What I’ve been doing is searching for that song, that song that I really connect with, that connects with my heart, my soul, that I can make my own. I’m getting ready for it. There’s still some behind the scenes like hometown visit that they’re going to do with me. Coming to my home and taping and they did a little video for the next live show airs. I’ve got a little bit of time to get prepared. Just enough time to get nervous all over again.

By the way, where’s the show taped? Is that LA or New York?

It’s in LA. It’s at the theater where they filmed The Oscars, the Dolby Theatre.

The golden buzzer means that you get a free pass. Every week when they are bringing all these different acts, you don’t have to go audition anymore, you get the free pass all the way to August?

Absolutely. That’s what it means. It’s so special and it’s so nice because I can’t keep going back and forth to LA.

FYS 62 | Life's Adversities

Life’s Adversities: It’s a wild feeling and mix of emotions to go from so nervous to so ecstatic.

I’m lobbying a big question, but you have been through so much and it’s easy to talk about in this conversation right now, but all the hours and days and months that you spent with those kids and going into the grind and been patient and frustrated and all the natural emotions that anybody would have but to anybody out there, do you have any advice about overcoming this type of adversity and helping others? Are there any words of wisdom?

I’d love to just say that the beautiful thing as believers is that we’re not alone in all of this and that we have the voice of the spirit and if we learn to listen and tune into that voice of the Spirit is always with us as a counselor. He will advise us on what the steps that we need to take. Just in so many instances, we have those testimonies of the way he’s given us the direction that we needed to take with our children. Looking back, we were the least prepared people to take on this type of a challenge of adopting these kids. I’m not saying that anybody out there needs to take on six kids or five kids, but we can all hear it and we can all be a part and you don’t have to feel like you are worthy, you don’t have to feel like you have it altogether in order to really make a difference in a child’s life and a difference in someone else’s life. I will tell you this, one of the statistics that we’ve learned through foster care and on our training is that one healthy relationship, one healthy interaction, one healthy connection that you make with the child, consumes the course of their life forever.

I’ve seen that with others and certainly that’s happening with you. You can see that connection already when you’re on the side of the stage of America’s Got Talent when you’re up there singing. No question. I’m going to ask you something that you don’t have to do. Mandy, she sang this beautiful song called Try. The voice that came out of your mouth and you sing this beautiful song. Can you give the audience a sample of what we’re talking about here? Basically, what I’m asking you is to sing.

Honestly, I would have no problem doing that at all and as a matter of fact, I actually love Mandy Harvey. I watched her interview probably about fifteen times and cried every time and even after I got Simon Cowell’s golden buzzer, she sent me words of advice, she said to drink lots of water, boost your immune system, get lots of vitamin C and she said it, don’t get nervous and just enjoy the moment. It was incredible to get a little video that she sent me of her advice. If you go to my Instagram, you can actually watch it for yourself. I already posted it. Honestly, I’m in contact, I’m not allowed to actually perform on any of these talk shows.

That’s alright. That’s a good answer too. We can do that as a follow-up down the road. I’d love to come back and get caught up with you and you can sing a few bars and be more prepared. Where can people find you?

You can go to Ketterer Music and that’s my Instagram, that’s my Twitter and that is my Facebook fan page.

Michael, I have really loved this conversation. I love your energy. You moved me when I watched you on TV. I know that that video alone has already produced two million or something views and it’s crazy. Any kind of success that comes your way, you deserve it. You’re selfless in helping these kids that you’ve taken on and I wish you the best of luck in August and I’ll be rooting for you. I’m your number one fan.

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

Have a great day and just keep pushing and we’ll be following.

That’s sounds good. Thank you.

Take care. Bye.

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