Meeting You Where You Are: An Interview With Amber Reynolds

Today, we have an interview with Amber Reynolds. Amber is married to her college sweetheart, Chris, and they live on a farm in northwest Illinois with three children. Their children came to them through foster care and adoption. Amber talks about the isolation of people not understanding trauma, ways to care for your mental health, the importance of her marriage, and letting go of how you come to God.

January 31, 2023; Ep. 113

Show Links:

• Amber Reynolds IG
• She Reads Truth

Show Takeaways: 

• [11:12] Amber encourages foster, adoptive, and special needs moms. 
• [13:57] Hear how Amber cares for her own mental health and her kids. 
• [17:09] Discover her wise perspective regarding marriage and parenting. 
• [22:19] The Lord will fill your cup

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• Find Amy at www.amyjbrown.com/  or on Instagram @amyjbrown_writer
• Find Carrie at www.carriemholt.com or on Instagram @carriemholt
• Find Sara at www.saraclime.com or on Instagram @saraclime

Transcript

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Amy J. Brown  0:09  
Welcome to Take Heart, where our goal is to offer encouragement, give hope and insight, so you can flourish in your journey as a special needs mom. As we explore monthly themes and share inspiring stories, our desire is for you to feel connected and encouraged. All of our resources including an entire written transcript of this episode is available on our website at www.takeheartspecialmoms.com There are also links to anything we mentioned in the show notes of this episode. Thank you for joining us today.

Hi, I'm so glad you're here today. We have an interview with Amber Reynolds. I'm very excited for this interview. Amber is married to her college sweetheart, Chris, and they live on a farm in northwest Illinois with three children. Their children came to them through foster care and they adopted in 2021, ater more than three years in care. They have been foster parents for almost six years. Amber is also a junior high in high school athletic director, and she loves her job mentoring teenagers. This is what Amber says about herself. "I have many things: wife, adoptive foster mom, infertility warrior, special needs mom, mental health care advocate, ADHD adult, athletic director, farm wife, sports lover, trauma survivor, avid reader, summer lover, but mostly, I'm the daughter of the Creator. He has formed me and directed my steps. When I am at my weakest, He is glorified in His strength.: You can find Amber at her Instagram, which is @itsamberreynolds listen into my conversation with Amber Reynolds. 

Today we have Amber with us, Amber Reynolds. I'm so excited that you're here. Thank you for being here. 

Amber Reynolds  2:12  
Thank you for having me. 

Amy J. Brown  2:14  
I've been following you for a while. I looked at a couple of your Instagram posts as I was preparing for the interview, and I thought, 'why am I looking at this; she's actually going to be here to speak to what we want to talk about.' Let's start with telling our audience a little bit about yourself, your family, and your story.

Amber Reynolds  2:32  
Yeah, so I'm Amber Reynolds. My husband, Chris and I are "kind of" college sweethearts. We started dating three weeks before he graduated. We have been married for almost 10 years, and we live in a family farmhouse on a family farm in northwest Illinois, close to the Iowa border. We're in the middle of nowhere. It was a huge culture shock for me. I am a born and raised, St. Louis city girl. Now I know a whole new world. I can drive tractors and combines and pluck chickens and all the things. We love our farm life up here. Chris's family is all here, and we have lots of help as far as family goes. In the spring of 2017,  we became licensed foster parents. It's been right at six years. 2021, we were able to adopt a sibling set of three that we'd have for three years. Right now our current kiddos are seven, six, and five. They were two, 14 months, and seven weeks when they came to us. We've been very busy for the last lots of years. We don't have any biological children. We went from having no kids to having like three under three. No one was verbal; everyone was in diapers; no one could sleep through the night...all the things. I don't remember anything from that first year. 

Amy J. Brown  4:02  
Rightly so. 

Amber Reynolds  4:05  
I rely on photos a lot. People being like, "remember when you were super crazy; you took all the kids Chuck E. Cheese by yourself?" No, absolutely, do not remember that. All of our kiddos have some amount of special needs:  physical and mental illness and a lot of trauma-based needs, some of which we know going into it and most of which we just try to figure out as they go. We're kind of in the middle of that.

Amy J. Brown  4:39  
I appreciate how honest you are on Instagram about the struggle of special needs mental health and trauma because I think it's something a lot of people do not understand. You had a post a while back that really resonated with me. You said something like, "People don't understand; they think you're controlling because you want to keep the schedule. You don't want to change the schedule." There are so many things people don't understand. That's what I hear a lot from moms that go through this. How have you handled that isolation and people misunderstanding?

Amber Reynolds  5:20  
I think being open and honest about it on Instagram has been a true outlet for me, because it is very isolating, especially because our kids came to us so young. They were two, one, and seven weeks. Whenever I say something to the effect of, "We can't do that birthday party because that will throw off our entire schedule, and we've already planned on this." People say, "Well, he was seven weeks when he came to you; there isn't trauma there." There's not great education or knowledge on how our body handles trauma, even from a really young age. With Instagram, I started posting frequently about our true struggles, and not the pretty Instagram family posts about two years ago, because I was feeling so lonely, so isolated. I remember feeling  'surely I am not the only person; surely I'm not the only mom out of hundreds of thousands of foster moms and adoptive moms and special needs moms around the world. There is no way that I'm the only one. At that point, especially, I did not know of anybody that was talking about it as openly as I started to. Through that, I have met some of my best friends who actually understand what we're going through and actually understand the dynamics of our family through social media. Whenever people want to throw social media under the bus, I say "I wouldn't have my friends if it wasn't for Instagram. I know that being open about it to people who understand makes it feel less isolating. That doesn't mean that I don't feel like that sometimes, anyway, because that's how the devil comes in and tries to make us feel as if we don't know what we're doing. How dare us? Everyone else is able to do this. Every other family has worked through this battle, or this struggle, but it's just not true. I push back on that with having a community of people that understand what's going on, even if it's only virtual, and I haven't ever met them in person before.

Amy J. Brown  7:34  
Right. I think one of the things about that is a mom who is in the situation you're in, you don't have time to read a bunch of long books and articles in that. Social media is so good for that; you can connect very quickly with people all over the world. Because so few people understand this road, I think it makes quick friendships. I think that's so important. I want to go back to the trauma piece a little bit. I don't think we have a good understanding of trauma. Our daughter we had three days old. If you would have told me that a child at three days old could have reactive attachment disorder, and nobody understands that. Still to this day, even though she's 18 hears, "But you've had her since a newborn?" I find that educating people about trauma is a really important piece of this. I'm sure you agree with that. There's pushback, definitely. Do you get pushback?

Amber Reynolds  8:30  
 Yeah, especially the pushback from people who believe they are specialists or are well-educated in the field. I had our oldest's IEP meeting. He has significant (the whole alphabet soup of diagnoses), a significant amount of specialists. He's in an inclusion classroom, but it's mostly pullout services and all that. There's me and fourteen other people in the room, and every other person has some sort of title besides me. My title is mom, which in a room like that is not an important title. There's all these people that are very educated in their field, but if you ask them, they've had less than 20 hours of trauma training, less than 20 hours of trauma-informed continuing education. When I say things like Reactive Attachment Disorder or that's a trauma trigger. They say, "A trauma trigger. He's been with you for five years." And I'm like, okay, let's dig into that. They say, "Maybe we should get him re-evaluated. I don't think he has reactive attachment disorder. He's doing so good in our classroom, and he wants to see me."  I thought, well, he's known you for two months, of course, you're his favorite person." I can't be sarcastic and say, "Duh, of course, he likes you; he doesn't know you or trust you." They don't understand that because there's just is not enough information about that. That's true for the medical field, and it's true for the education field, and it's true for churches too. 

Amy J. Brown  10:16  
It's intimidating to go into those rooms initially, I remember the first time I went in. They have all these acronyms and initials. I didn't know what I was allowed to say, and I didn't know what I was allowed to ask for, because I just didn't. I ended up working with a special needs teacher in the area who I sat down with and said, "Tell me what I'm allowed to go in and ask. I don't understand this whole system." One question I have for you is you're a busy mom, you have all these things going on, and then you have to be the expert in a room of 15 other experts. I can imagine a listener thinking, I'm so tired, I don't even know how to start. What would you say to that mom? Also when you have all these diagnoses where they never really land the plane on any of them, in my opinion. What do you say to that mom, right now that's listening, that says, "It's too much! What steps would you give her? 

Amber Reynolds  11:12  
I would first say you do not have to leave that room having signed anything. That is the first thing that I always say to people when they're going into IEP meetings, or med-change meetings, or anything like that. You are allowed to say I need time. This IEP meeting that we were in was over two and a half hours. That's a long time of talking about goals, behaviors, where we're at, and new diagnoses. Everything was a whole thing. Even being in it for so long, I have had a lawyer come with me, and I have had a child advocate come with us and all of those things. Even in my "experience", I still said, "I'm gonna need a few days to read over this, and I'll get back to you." I say that to parents all the time. When you go into these meetings, you will feel bullied because even if that is not their intent, it is intimidating, but you don't have to sign anything. Get a second opinion, get another set of eyes, have your spouse look over it, have a trusted friend look over it, and ask is this really what is best for my child? Each person in the room is looking at their specific area, whether it's medicine or education. I am focused on speech, I am focused on OT, I have PT, all of the things. As a parent, as mom, it's my job to look at my whole child and say, my goal is for him to be safe and healthy, and if we aren't meeting that goal, then I can't agree to these things.

Amy J. Brown  12:57  
I think that's all great advice. I often say, "Who do I follow up with?" I always would make tons of notes. I'd write down names for sure. You get to the end of it; you're just exhausted. You end up thinking, 'who said what?' I think those are really great points. Now, I want to switch a little bit to the trauma we feel as moms because teachers don't understand behavior. The phone would ring with the school, and my anxiety would go out the roof because I didn't know what was going to be happening, or what behavior was happening. I know they have to let the parent know, but I feel like they would dump it back in my lap. I'm sure you've had that experience. How do you deal with some of your own triggers regarding either behavior or maybe the way people treat you negatively? How do you deal with those kinds of things? 

Amber Reynolds  13:57  
The first thing is I think every special needs parent should be in therapy. The very first thing is your child gets a diagnosis, and the parent goes into therapy. It does not matter how strong of a person you are, it doesn't matter what your background is, what your past looks like, going forward, having somebody who's removed enough from the situation. You can't just say, "I'm gonna drink with my friends. Every Tuesday, we have girls' night out, and I vent, and that's my therapy." No, I do not agree with that. I think that's great, and that's fine. We have date nights and girls' nights, but I have a very good therapist. That's my first thing. It's an important investment to your health. That's the first thing. The other thing is it's not personal.  had to really early on accept my child's behaviors is not a personal reflection of my parenting. It doesn't matter what the principal thinks or the teachers think; the way that my child is acting is not a direct response to how I am parenting them. I know it's easy to say, but it's hard to put into practice. We need to remember that so that we don't feel like every time we get a call from the school, it's not a personal attack on us. I think that we have to hold fast to that.

Amy J. Brown  15:24  
I think that's so true. The problem is we have had personal attacks. It took me a long time to kind of toughen my skin for it. I remember going into a meeting, and the first thing was: What is going on at home, in your marriage, with your other kids? I'll tell you what's going on at home.

Amber Reynolds  15:43  
We've had hotline calls from school, and they've had to come and check our home. Kids make false claims, so they must check her home. Oftentimes feels like a personal attack because it is a personal attack, even if it's unintentional.

Amy J. Brown  16:04  
Right. First of all, I absolutely agree with you about therapy; I think there's this idea that we don't need it, and sometimes in the Christian world, people look down upon it. I have been in therapy for years because of having three children with special needs, which has been so helpful. One of the things my therapist said is, "You don't often understand what's going on in your house, so how can someone else?" That kind of helped me go, "You're right? I don't even know what's going on." You can't always explain it. Just knowing that has been helpful to me. I know that a lot of times, when moms come to talk to me, I think they want a quick solution. I always say, "This is a marathon. We're going to start first of all with how you're going to take care of yourself because this is not going to be a situation that's going to be resolved quickly, if ever." How do you take care of yourself? That's always the big question for a special needs mom. I know, therapy, but...

Amber Reynolds  17:09  
I am also medicated for anxiety and depression. I think that that is way taboo in the Christian field. I have several reels about that because I get nasty comments on Instagram, "You talk about Jesus, and yet you're on Lexapro." I say, "Yep." I'm not going to be ashamed of that because part of my job as a mom is to be the best mom I can be for my kids. For me, that's having fewer days of depression where I can't get out of bed. Therefore, I'm the best mom that I am when I'm medicated and when I'm in therapy. Having a good relationship with my husband is more important than putting out fires with my kids. I think that that took a while to learn about the balance of that. When you have special needs kids, I'm not sure about you, Amy, but for my kids, it's really hard to find a sitter that we trust, that my kids aren't going to manipulate or harm in some way. Oftentimes we'll have a sitter for one time, and then they're saying, "I can't." When our kids were little (not that they're not still little), but littler, we had to have multiple sitters. Our oldest would go to somebody's house, and then our younger two could stay with a sitter. For a few years, my relationship with my husband got put on the back burner because who wants even to make plans? As special needs moms, we have the worst decision fatigue ever. I would tell my husband, "I'll find a sitter, but you have to plan everything else because I can't, I can't do it." We use respite services every six to eight weeks. We do one night at a hotel, really close to our town; just for one night, we don't have to worry about getting up in the middle of the night, monitoring safety procedures, medications, and all the things that go along with being part of our family.

Amy J. Brown  19:16  
I love that. When you said,"My relationship with my husband is more important than putting out the fires with the kids." My first thought was yes, but people are gonna go say, " Wait a minute." You've probably gotten some pushback on that. As you said, you being the best mom you can be, and also, you guys being in the best marriage you can be is so important. I think sometimes it's hard when there are all kinds of fires going on. Can I really take this respite? Sometimes, I think about when people are at war, they don't wait till the war stops to rest. That is such a good point. I'm so glad you brought that up. 

Amber Reynolds  19:44  
It's really good for me to see get for me to see it reflected in my daughter. My daughter is six, and for the last three years, no joke, since she was three, she is obsessed with marriage. Every day she comes home, "I'm going to marry Bennett; I'm going to marry River." She makes cards and hearts. I talked to my therapist about this, because we don't push that. I'm not big on, "Who's your boyfriend kind of thing." That's just not me or my personality. My therapist said, "She wants so bad; she sees the way that your husband treats you and the way that you make this relationship with your spouse work." Chris and I are in the middle of a conversation; our kids have to raise their hand instead of interrupting us because our connection is important. My therapist made a really good point. She sees that, and she wants that, and she loves that. You're actually by saying, "We need to take a break; we need to take a date night; we need to take a respite." It's modeling a good relationship for your daughter's future. I loved hanging on to that. It's important for them to know that this is important because someday hopefully, they will be good spouses that want to make time for their spouses. 

Amy J. Brown  21:18  
I think that's especially important in children with attachment issues because you would think all my energy needs to go to make helping this child attached to me, but they do need to see it modeled elsewhere. I would think if all attention on them as attachment kids, they would think that's too much. Having it modeled is really important. I was chuckling about the whole babysitter thing. I used to think, 'do I just tell them everything right off the bat? What's the right thing to do? I remember we'd get invited to a wedding. It would be a huge decision; do we both go, do one of us go? It would be months in advance it would take. Good for you that you're finding babysitters, but also that you're taking respite? I think there's some guilt around that with moms. I think that's just a lie. We can have mom guilt about so many things. You are so right that it's not just you getting good sleep or exercising; it's therapy, it's relationships with other people. You really have to fill your cup in every way you can because this is a very demanding role.

Amber Reynolds  22:19  
I also want to say for moms that are in the real thick of it, like the real hard, devastating, daily survival, unsure of how they're going to make it another day. When you are unable to fill your cup and when you are unable to take care of yourself, the Lord provides. I remember I felt weeks of despair, where I could barely keep my child alive. I can barely keep my child alive, and people are telling me to get my nails done. People are telling me to take a respite. I think, 'if I take respite, I will come back, and my kid will not be alive.' I know that deep, desperate, dark feeling of please do not tell me. If you say the word self-care one more time, I'm gonna chuck my phone across the wall; I have been there. I know that the Lord will still sustain you until you are at a point where you're not in the very middle of the inferno anymore and you can take a breath. I promise that there is an end to the deep despair, and through it all, when we cannot fill our own cup, the Lord will keep our cup full.

Amy J. Brown 23:38
That is such a good point. Thank you for pointing that out because it's easy to look around at what other moms are doing. I've been there too. I don't even know how...My kids are older now, but when they were younger. There were days I thought: I can't do this literally one more minute. I don't know, let alone think about Christmas break, summer vacation, or whatever. That would send me into a tailspin months out because I couldn't do the next minute. How in the world am I gonna do six months from now? That is a really good point. You know, many of the women I talked to are so disillusioned by a lot of things, but the support that they thought they would get from church, the support they thought they would get from families. My heart goes out to them because they don't have the people around them. Part of that is advocating but also, as you know, you're tired of saying all the words all the time. You talked a bit about this a second ago, but how do we stay close? I had a mom say to me, "I cannot stop. I'm afraid if I stop. I've been treading water for so long. And if I stop, I'm gonna sink. I don't know where God is in any of this, and I'm tired of people saying to me, have you tried this or that, or you know, have you tried reading scripture or praying to them? Of course, I have." What do you say to that mom who wants to give up on God? Well, none of life is what we think it is. I think, especially, there's a message in the church about you're just gonna love them. If we adopt as scripture calls us to and foster, we're just gonna love them, and it's all going to be good. When things aren't all good, there's not the support. What would you say to that mom who just is really disillusioned by God? 

Amber Reynolds 25:31
I would say  first, one of the best things that I've ever done is written a list of things that are helpful for our family. It's not very long; it's four or five things that are always helpful, no matter what the season is, it's something that anybody could do. All right. So, when somebody says, "I've been praying for you? Is there something...let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help?" Then I say, "It would be awesome if you could bring dinner on Tuesday." Because I have it written down, I don't have to think about it. I can say, "If you're free on Tuesday, my family could really use dinner. Most of the time, honestly, I would say, 90% of the time, people say, "Yes, I would love to bring you dinner on Tuesday, or yes, I would love to mow your lawn for you so that you know your family can have time together." It's little things that people don't often think about because they don't want to be a burden, or you don't know what is helpful and what is not helpful. I felt like that too. When people have babies, and you think I don't want to be in your way. I want to help out. Having a list of things that are always helpful. For us, it's always going to be Tuesdays. I never want to cook Tuesday because I have long, long days. I come home from practice, and it's late, and my kids eat, normally, pizza rolls. There's that. That's a good way to get people involved quickly and easily. If somebody says, I'm gonna pray for you...Do not hear that I'm saying prayers aren't important because prayer is important, but faith without works is dead, and we know that through Scripture. If we allow other people, the ability to serve our family, it's going to be a blessing for both parties. Don't be afraid to ask. I know for some personalities, that's easier than others. Having something written down where it's right in front of you, I think, is good. Remember how far God has brought you. Remember how far God has brought you. Think of situations in your life and always go back. I always think about the Old Testament, where God would have them build an altar or build a monument to this time in life where we are at the end of it. When you walk by this monument, you always see God's faithfulness because you remember we were brought through this. I have a history of childhood trauma myself, and I just think about the fact that I'm 30. There were many days in my life when I did not know if I would make it to 30. Here I am with a family and a husband who loves me. Even though we have been through some of the hardest days of our life this year, I can still look back and say, "God has not forsaken me. I was able to see redemption." Some of is, we see redemption, this side of heaven. But God doesn't promise redemption, the side of heaven. He promises us heaven. I hate that phrase, and I'm probably gonna mix it up. "God promises good. And if it's not good, then it's not over." Well, that's not really true because heaven is an eternity, and that's what God promises. He does promise to work all things for his good, but we have forever and forever and forever to glorify Him and to worship Him. I am not great at journaling. I'm not great at writing things down or having a very consistent quiet time or a process or any of those kinds of things. I know a gratitude journal is helpful for some people because if you can just say three things a day that you're thankful for, it helps attune your heart toward thankfulness. If you can journal your prayers through those times and look back at that and say, "Hey, God did deliver me from this," it's easy to forget. I use Instagram as that. You can look through my Instagram posts and see times when we were in a valley and times when God delivered us throughout the years and. He has never ceased to be faithful, even when I don't feel it. I know I have the knowledge, so that knowledge carries me through until I feel it again.

Amy J. Brown  30:00  
That is really helpful, especially encouraging moms who aren't journalers. You don't have to be a journal , or you can snap a picture. I happen to be a journaler, but I remember. I have three biological kids that are older, and with the three kids that come from trauma, I just felt like, did I ever see them? Was I ever doing anything with them? I would write one thing down in my journal: I went and got ice cream with Davis or whatever, or I did this thing with Evan. I would look back and think life was happening this whole time when I felt as if everything was awful and hard. It was hard, but life was happening. It's like the stones and the altars they built in the Old Testament. Remember, remember what God has done? I think, even in the hardest days, going back to look at that is kind of the breath we need to step forward into the next moment. I think that's important to remember. One thing I think is a struggle for moms, as special needs moms; we have a scarcity mindset. We're always looking for the next disaster, which is understandable. For me, as my kids are older, and I'm not in this stage you're in, that is still something that I have battled against. Going back and looking at those ways...I hate when people say God showed up because he's always here. It's not like he's way far away. I don't really like that phraseology. I've had to go back and keep reminding myself that he provides what we need, and he walks with us. I think, especially in light of always scanning the horizon for the next disaster, that is something that we need to remember. Do you have other practices that help you stay present or that help you be pressed into God?

Amber Reynolds  32:05  
Another thing that I don't love is when people say, "The best part of my morning is when I wake up before my kids to spend time with God." If you follow my Instagram at all, you know that my five-year-old sleeps between two and three hours a night, so there's not a lot of time when I don't have my child with me. What I say to moms is, I don't want to do something unless I'm going to be the best at it. I don't like to do something unless I know I will get an A+; I am a firstborn, and everything needs to be exactly correct, or I would refuse to do it. I'm just not gonna do it. I went through a time when my kids were young when I didn't read the Bible because I thought, 'well, if I can't get up before my two infants, then I'm never gonna be able to spend time with God.'  I just did it. Honestly, the Holy Spirit, I think, hit me on the head with a stick. If you do this, I'll meet you where you're at. I use my phone for my Bible app, and I use the "She Reads Truth app. I don't love long devotionals because I think that the Spirit can speak directly through scripture. You don't need a ton of companion books to really dig into Scripture. Part of my practice is every day I'm in the word, whether that's with a five-year-old hanging on me or while Wheel of Fortune is happening in the background so that my kids will quiet down. It doesn't matter where you're at. I think that I was so against using technology as scripture for a long time. I wanted to do it the right way, or what I assumed to be the right way. I want to encourage moms that are in hard seasons with young kids. or I spend a lot of time in hospitals with their kids. We've had many, many, many hospitalizations. When we're at the hospital, we watch Paw Patrol, 24/7. I want to encourage moms that the Spirit can meet you, while Paw Patrol is on. The Lord can be very, very present, teaching you, growing you, and being faithful. Even when you're holding a kid who doesn't like to have an IV, and so you have to hold him for four days straight, Those things don't negate you from being a learner of the word. God isn't saying, "Oh, well, you aren't in a quiet place at 5:30 in the morning with your coffee; therefore, you can't read Scripture.

Amy J. Brown  34:36  
And your candle!

Amber Reynolds  34:38  
I want to encourage moms that are in that space; it's okay. It's all right. No matter where you are, the Lord is going to meet you. Our feelings are very deceptive even if you don't feel like it. Even if you do not feel like it, I promise if you just read a Psalm every day, the Lord will start to soften that part of your heart that is unaware of his faithfulness, or unable to look back, or you're in a hard place. This spring, I was in the hospital with my oldest for 34 straight days in an adult ER, with a mental illness, a complete meltdown. It was the darkest time of my life. Still, the Lord showed up, and not because I felt like it. I absolutely didn't. I had friends that were sending me Scripture because I was so angry I wasn't even going to open my scripture app. My encouragement is when you don't feel like it, still do it. Because eventually, you will feel it, and it will be so so so welcomed. Right? 

Amy J. Brown  35:43  
Those are good words. I think of us as advocating for our kids to have an IEP to adapt to their life needs. But we don't do that for ourselves. We have this idea that unless we can do it at this time. I had a whole period of time where I would listen to Scripture, and because my body was so sore and tired, I would do a bunch of stretching while I was listening, just because I needed to move my body. I really found the Lord in those moments instead of me sitting with a book. I also think, because of our lives, we're "answer" people; we get a plan, figure out where the meds go, and often bring that into your body a little bit more has been a very helpful practice. I'm in my head a lot, I want to figure things out. I really appreciate you sharing that. It has been a delight to talk to you. I told you earlier that I feel in my bones when I read your stuff. I'm past that a little bit, but I know what a blessing you have to be to other moms, with your honesty, love for your kids and God, but just how honest you are about this life. I appreciate you doing that. Thank you for that. Tell our listeners where they can find you.

Amber Reynolds  37:02  
Yeah, I am @itsamberreynolds on Instagram. That is really where I stay in my lane. I know what I can handle. I cannot handle multiple social media platforms, blogs, or podcasts; that's not where I'm at right now. I recommend that people follow me on Instagram. Connect. I try to stay really up to date with talking in the "direct messages." Like, I said, I've met a lot of friends there. It's just a good place; even if I am not the person to connect with you, I have been able to connect people in the same timezone or with the same ideas or whatever. I really think it's a blessing for me, and I hope it's a blessing for others.

Amy J. Brown  37:46  
Thank you. We will definitely link to that in our show notes, so people can find you because people need to find you. I'm telling you now, Listeners, you need to find her. I wish I had somebody like you back in the olden days when we didn't have Instagram. I had to read books, and there were no books. I'm really grateful for that. So thank you so much for being with us today.

Amber Reynolds  38:12  
Thanks for having me.

Amy J. Brown  38:18  
Thanks for listening today. I hope this conversation with Amber Reynolds was an encouragement to you. Don't forget to check out her Instagram @itsamberreynolds. We will also have that link in the show notes. Have a good day.