119. Blue To Breath: A Miracle Birth with Nicole Voake

Today we sit with Nicole, a mom who once doubted modern miracles, as she walks us through a delivery room where time stalled, medicine strained, and prayer broke through. Her daughter’s shoulder locked, her head delivered but body stuck, and for three minutes there was no breath and no heartbeat. Two zero Apgar scores, a room full of experts, and the sound of bagging and compressions—then, finally, life. What happened next is just as gripping: Nicole’s catastrophic birth injury required immediate repair, and the rare specialist needed for that surgery was, inexplicably, already at the hospital. Even then, the true danger hid until a sharp-eyed nurse refused to look away, caught a silent hemorrhage, and moved fast enough to save a mother who was herself dying.

We don’t rush past the aftermath. Nicole’s husband held the line at home while carrying his own fear, a perspective men too often swallow in crises like birth trauma and miscarriage. If this conversation moved you, share it with someone who needs hope today, hit follow, and leave a review with the moment that stayed with you most. We’d love to hear your story too.

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Transcript

Quiet Days And Legacy Keepsakes

Nancy Bruscher 0:00

I'm Nancy Bruscher, and you found Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. Stories of faith and hope from ordinary people just like you. On the last episode with Michele, we talked about being high capacity doers. Interestingly enough, the past few weeks in our house have been a little quieter, which meant it was the perfect time for spring cleaning. As a mom with young kids, the pantry stays well rotated. But we've gone through closets, drawers, and storage spaces, giving things away, throwing things out, and organizing. And of course, when you do that, you find things that carry stories. During our spring cleaning, I came across a pair of red dice that belonged to my grandpa's brother. He never had kids, so a few of his belongings were passed down to family members when he passed away. Finding them reminded me why they were special, and I took a moment to write those stories down in the Legacy Heirloom Journal. I hope you've picked one up. If you haven't, it's my newest book and it's on Amazon. And I'm so glad I wrote down why these dice are important. So the next time we spring clean, we won't accidentally toss them, and the story of a man who's gone won't be forgotten. Today's guest, Nicole, shares an incredible miracle story that I can't wait for you to hear. And at the end of our conversation, we talk about the beauty and importance of those quiet days. Let's get started. Here we go. Here we go. Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things. I'm here with Nicole. Nicole, thanks for being on. Oh my goodness, thank you so much, Nancy. This is crazy. I'm so glad you said yes. I know this is out of your comfort zone.

Nicole Voake 1:40

Surprisingly, nobody believes me. I used to be very shy. So this is very outside of my realm.

Nancy Bruscher 1:48

Well, yeah, you're I mean you're great at talking with people, but I think being on a podcast is always a little bit more, oh, well, how do I do that? What am I gonna say? Yeah. So thanks for doing it. If people don't know who you are, can you give three words or phrases to describe yourself?

Nicole Voake 2:05

Yes, and I thought about this because I know you ask this to all your people, and everybody answers so differently.

Speaker 4 2:12

Yes.

Nicole Voake 2:12

So I'm a mom, and I have three great girls. I am curious. I love learning about people and things and all of that. And then the other thing is I'm very optimistic. Through all situations, I try to see the lesson or the purpose behind it.

Nancy Bruscher 2:33

That's great. That's a good way to look at life for sure. Have you always been curious?

Nicole Voake 2:39

I think so, but I think when I was younger, I associated learning and curiosity with traditional school setting. And school was not my favorite thing. I did well after about seventh grade. I did really well. And I knew I liked people, but again, I was kind of shy. Now I realize, oh, I just am curious about all things. I want to learn always.

Speaker 4 3:04

Yeah.

Homeschooling And Neurodiverse Learning

Nicole Voake 3:05

Are you in school right now? Uh yeah. Yeah. Ironically, yes, I am in school right now. I'm going to GCU and I'm getting a degree in education studies.

Nancy Bruscher 3:17

That kind of like all fits together, doesn't it?

Nicole Voake 3:20

It does. The irony is, is when I was in school previously, I was pre-law. I wanted to help nonprofits. I've always had a heart for like serving and stuff like that. But it didn't quite fit now through all the all my life and all the things. I now know I'm like, oh, education, kids. This is my this is my purpose.

Nancy Bruscher 3:42

Nice. Do you know where God's gonna have you go with that?

Nicole Voake 3:46

No, it sounds really crazy, but it kind of all fell into my lap being able to go back to school. I got some scholarships and some grants. It all perfectly fell in place. It sounds absolutely insane, but my husband and I have the most overwhelming feeling that it's for a purpose. I work for a school and I work in children's ministry. I think God has some kind of plan for me. I don't know what it is.

Nancy Bruscher 4:15

Yeah. And along with curious, you homeschool your kids.

Nicole Voake 4:20

I do. Yeah. I'm a crazy homeschooler.

Nancy Bruscher 4:23

Yeah, me too. I know, I love it. So you get to help your kids be curious and learn in a different way than you just said, as far as I didn't really like the regular school. And so you've been able to do something different for your own kids.

Nicole Voake 4:40

Yeah, we have a lot of neurospicy things in our family, and that was the catalyst for homeschooling, and so I've had to learn to teach to maybe kids who can't stay focused or kids who have some learning differences and struggles. And so it's been really interesting and purposeful for me, and then within our family, it's completely changed our family dynamic, as you know, homeschool does, and I just love it. And I've gotten to learn how to not be that traditional teacher, which I thought I thought that that's what education looked like.

From Skepticism To Openness About Miracles

Nancy Bruscher 5:16

Right, yeah. Very cool. Well, we get to talk a miracle story, and I have known you for a long time, and I just heard this story, and I was blown away. I was like, Wow, have I not heard this story before? It's amazing. So I'm so excited you're gonna share it with us.

Nicole Voake 5:35

I know. I'm so surprised because we have known each other, but I hadn't told you because I kind of overshare sometimes, and I sometimes overshare this story because it's just been so impactful. But then sometimes I'm like, oh, nobody wants to hear that.

Nancy Bruscher 5:53

Oh, I do.

unknown 5:54

Okay.

Nicole Voake 5:55

Oh, miracles. I was always skeptical of miracles until it happened. Were you? I was. I mean, it's a fun story, right? Or like you hear about it in the Bible, or it happened a long time ago. So I I think I kind of believed, but I didn't trust that all the that miracles really did happen to everyday people now. Does that make sense?

Nancy Bruscher 6:18

No, it does. And actually, the kids and I were doing our Bible study this morning, and it was on X5, I think, where they're talking about the young church and how people who are sick would just get laid on the street and hoping like Peter would walk by and his shadow would heal them, and it said everyone was healed. Yeah, I'm like, what? How and so the kids and I just had this conversation of okay, so why don't we see that now? Is it because we don't believe? Is it because we don't even try for a miracle like that? Is it because we know so much about medicine and science that we explain things away, or we don't even have the the gumption to give that to God and say, God, can you heal this person? Will you heal this person? So we just had some great conversations about that.

The Delivery Turns Critical

Nicole Voake 7:13

I love that because I think in our in our world right now, right, is oftentimes we think of maybe the um, what are they called, like the faith healers who go on stage and they have this big production. That's kind of my vision, or was my vision of what maybe miracles were now, and then there's a lot of skepticism with that, and are they always being upfront and honest? And it's not my place, I don't know. And then, like you're saying in the Bible, or it's like just a shadow, just touching the the cloak to heal, and I'm like, but that doesn't happen now. But I think to your point, too, is it does, and we give it to science, we we logic it away, we logic the miracle away, we don't give it to God. Yes, yes, 100%. Okay, my story. Your story. So I have three girls. Um, I have a 13-year-old, a nine-year-old, and a seven-year-old. Each of my children, I had some kind of complication during pregnancy or birth. It became kind of a thing in my head where I was like, I guess I'm not made to have kids, but I love kids, and something's causing me struggles to deliver. But my youngest daughter, she's my miracle. And I think I can see a miracle in each of them now, right? In every little struggle or medical emergency I've had with them when they um were being born or whatever, I can see that. And so I don't want to take away that each of my kids and everybody's baby is a miracle, right? Of course. And so I don't want to put that, I never want to put that pressure on my child, but she is. So I was pregnant with her, and I had had really strong mom intuition that something was gonna go wrong. I had hemorrhage with my other two, and I just I was really nervous. I had spoken to the specialists, and they're like, it's fine, it will not happen again.

Nancy Bruscher 9:13

It's like so hemorrhage means you're bleeding, I assume.

Three Minutes Without Breath

Nicole Voake 9:15

You bleed, and it can't, it's very difficult to stop. My second daughter, I had a cord prolapse, that means the umbilical cord started to come out before she did, and I ended up having emergency C-section with her. And I was nervous about that again. And they're like, no. Cord prolapse is so rare. You have had all the bad luck you're gonna have with your kids. It will be fine. I was like, okay, are you sure? So my youngest is Allie. She went a little past due. I've never gone into labor naturally. So we did a scan. They were like, she's measuring a little big, high eight pounds. I'm like, great, fine. I ended up going in and being induced on my birthday, and I was like, that would kind of be a cool birthday gift. Yeah. Did not have her on my birthday. I had her um a couple days later. What ended up happening is I had a really long labor. I was put on photocin, ended up pushing, trying to push for um over three hours. And what happened was that she ended up having shoulder dystocia, and that means that as she was coming out and being delivered, her shoulder, her left shoulder got stuck and could not be delivered. She was without oxygen for three minutes, her head was out, and she wasn't. We tried everything. They didn't know what to do. So she was her head was out. Her head was out, but her body wasn't. So she doesn't breathe at that point? Correct. Because as soon as they're delivered is when they start breathing. Oh, it's not when the head hits. Because she wasn't all the way delivered, she wasn't getting oxygen either from the umbilical cord or from out in the woods.

Nancy Bruscher 10:58

It was like this in-between.

Mom’s Emergency Surgery And Hidden Hemorrhage

Nicole Voake 10:59

It's this in-between time where normally it's really quick and it happens, and they just that's when they come out. And she didn't. They had started to suspect that there was gonna be problems right before her head came out, so they called all the emergency people. I think we had probably 20 people in our room. They knew something was wrong, obviously. They couldn't we couldn't we didn't know she was gonna be stuck in that way, but something was off. When she was in that kind of half-in-half-health state, it's the most excruciating pain you'll ever feel. And then also the terror of what happens if you can't get this child out. Like, what do you I we don't know what to do. I remember the desperation and the desperation of the doctors and the nurses and my legs being put in weird places and people pushing my stomach trying to push her out. And I remember almost being like disassociating a little bit and just going so deep, and I asked my I asked my husband after if I was saying things out loud because I was like I just felt so strongly that the only way I could get her out was with the help of God. There was nothing else was working. I remember just crying out. I think some of it was audible and some of it wasn't, but I felt so strongly like please help me and my mom is in heaven, and I remember being like, Mom, don't let me like go through this. Please help me, please God, don't let anything happen to my baby. And after a couple minutes of this, I felt the indescribable. I felt something come over me. I can't I cannot describe it. It was the strongest feeling of like God's hand taking Allie and bringing her out. And she was delivered. She was blue, she was not a she was not with us. She had an Agar score, and Agar is the first score they take when a baby is born. It tests breathing and heart rate and all that, and her first Agar was zero. Zero? Her second Agar was zero. Normally, if you have two Agar's of zero, there's no hope. Really? Uh-huh. And they're working on her, and I could see them. So she was not breathing. She was not alive at all. She was oh my god. They had zero breathing, zero heart rate. Oh wow. Zero, um, she was completely limp and she was completely blue.

Nancy Bruscher 13:36

So you didn't hear that cry or anything.

Nicole Voake 13:39

I heard nothing. I got to see her pulled out. I got to see them working on her. I could see when I turned my head, I could see them doing CPR and doing bagging. Oh my gosh. And trying to bring her to life. And she is, and they did. They resuscitated her. They don't know why, they don't know how. And so I got to I didn't get to see her really, but I knew that she came back, and I the relief I felt was enormous. And then I was taken back for emergency surgery.

Nancy Bruscher 14:18

Oh, you were taken.

Nicole Voake 14:19

I was taken. We have multiple layers of miracle in this story. So I was taken back for surgery. And basically, at the time, so seven years ago, the doctor who was an expert in the kind of repair that I needed, like in the area, like Colorado, California, the whole area, was in the hospital at that moment. Oh my gosh. So I had like the expert who knew how to do all the things do my surgery.

Nancy Bruscher 14:52

Because I assume you got torn pretty much.

The Nurse Who Saved A Life

Nicole Voake 14:55

Uh the worst you can. And I also, my hip labrum got torn when they tried to move my hip leg behind me. Oh, yeah. And then So that's still torn, that's not repaired. Oh. And then the birth injury was catastrophic. They wouldn't tell me how many stitches I needed. Because it was a complete, it was a fourth-degree tear. It's the worst you can have. It was awful. So I had my repair go into recovery, and then they put me in the rec in the room with the baby, and um Allie, for they have nothing, they have no idea why. She was able to be with us. She was okay. She was paralyzed on the left side. She was a huge baby. Is that the side that was stuck? It was the side that was stuck. So her left shoulder was stuck, and so then she was paralyzed on the left side. She was huge, she was 11 pounds one ounce. 11, not eight. Not eight. And she was my first V back. I had had two C-sections, and she was my first not C-section. The doctors got really nervous of me. There's speculation that it was scared they were scared I was gonna sue something. They really avoided me. As in the days that followed, I ended up having a nurse, another God placement, was a nurse who normally works in a cancer on the floor of cancer patients. I don't remember what that's called. I wasn't doing well, but everybody was avoiding me and they wouldn't come into my room really. Um they would do the stuff for the baby, and then they kind of ran away. And I had two other kids, and this had never happened, and I was like, this is weird. This nurse starts to suspect that I'm hemorrhaging. And she goes to the doctors, and the doctors tell her that it's not her place, and I'm I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. While she's trying to deal with this, I didn't know that. I start to feel like I'm gonna die. And it's the weirdest feeling. I I knew I wasn't gonna be there. So I told my husband, I said, I think we're gonna have to write notes to my kids. I don't know what's wrong that something's wrong. I'm just I'm not gonna be here anymore. Right as I'm having that, the nurse had called the emergency vein placement people, I don't know what they're called, and they brought in an ultrasigned machine, hooked me up to an IV, she checks my numbers, all my organs are shutting down. I had like I was hemorrhaging horribly.

Nancy Bruscher 17:17

And but just it was staying inside, obviously.

Nicole Voake 17:20

It was like staying inside, some of it was coming out, but I wasn't having as much care as I probably should have.

Nancy Bruscher 17:25

But also maybe they expected something.

Recovery, Therapy, And Surprising Milestones

Nicole Voake 17:28

Yes, exactly, and it's soup and fourth degree tears aren't very common. We say that she saved my life. Oh my gosh. Because she had the vein put the the IV put in, and then they found out all the numbers, and I was given transfusions, and it was amazing. And so now I'm here, and I I credit that nurse, and I knew somebody, we had a family friend who worked at that hospital, and she actually found out about my birth. Apparently the person who delivered Allie almost quit. I later learned that all of those people in that room during delivery when I was taken back to surgery, all were in the hallway crying. Nobody knew how they were able to get her out. Nobody knew why she was all of a sudden breathing. They didn't they could not answer it. The doctor who delivered Allie almost quit. She told me that at my sixth week. She was like, I've never had such a traumatic experience, and she was like, I almost walked away. Please, I'm glad you didn't, because you hoped get her out. Like so I had all these perfect things. And then when we went home with Allie, she ended up needing therapies and stuff like that because of her injuries, and then I was on bread dress for six weeks. You know my daughter, and now she uh is who she is, and nobody can tell.

Nancy Bruscher 18:48

Not at all.

Nicole Voake 18:49

Not at all.

Nancy Bruscher 18:50

And it was Did they give you some things when she was born as far as like she's not gonna be able to walk, she's not gonna be able like what what did they think she was at first?

Nicole Voake 19:00

So she was paralyzed, they didn't know if it was gonna come back. They at the very, very beginning, um, right after delivery, her being brought back, they were like she might have cerebral palsy. That was ruled out fairly quickly. And then there was she's probably gonna be severely mentally handicapped because of the amount of time she had no oxygen.

Speaker 3 19:22

Yeah.

Nicole Voake 19:22

And then we don't know what her motor skills are gonna be. So you need to kind of wait and see. She did struggle with movement and we did uh physical therapy, and then it was okay, now she can she they helped her learn to walk and left helped her learn to crawl and did all of that, and then it was okay, we don't know if she's gonna learn to talk. She learned to talk. Then it was we don't know if you just have to wait and see. We don't know if there's going to be handicaps with learning and all these things. She might not learn to read, she might not be able to be in school. She is just slowly, she slowly came overcame everything that they put down.

Nancy Bruscher 20:05

Wow.

Nicole Voake 20:05

She might not talk, she might not walk, she might not. She's probably gonna be super uh severely mentally handicapped. She's not. The day she graduated our homeschool kindergarten, I didn't cry. I was like, wow, I didn't cry. Kent, why didn't I cry? This is crazy. I'm such an emotional mom.

Speaker 3 20:23

Yeah.

Nicole Voake 20:24

That night I went home and I could not stop crying. And I was like, she overcame everything. Wow.

Validating Trauma And The Spouse’s Burden

Nancy Bruscher 20:32

So cool. When when I heard your story the first time, I think I shared with you that I was in the hospital and had an ectopic pregnancy that they did not see. And again, there was a nurse or a doctor change. I really don't know who she was, a woman, that saw me. Like you were seen. Like seen. Not just like, oh, I see there's a person there. Like, I see you. And she saved my life and got an actual diagnosis, got like that CAT scan or whatever it is, and saw that, oh, you're bleeding internally. Yes. Kind of the same thing, a little bit different, but same problem. Yeah. And I actually said to my husband, bring David in. I need to say goodbye.

Speaker 3 21:26

Yeah.

Nancy Bruscher 21:27

And I've shared that because part of me wondered if that was real. Does that make sense? Like I know I said it because like it really impacted my husband. Yeah. Uh so I know I said it, but also why would I say that? Because it's I don't know. But I Because I knew I knew in the depths of me I I had no more time.

Speaker 4 21:56

Yeah.

Nancy Bruscher 21:56

And so to have you in somewhat of a similar predicament and feeling the same way of God's God's saying it's I'm done. I don't have any I don't have any more time. If no one sees me, I I'm not here. I'm not here anymore. And so that just actually and this is kind of why we tell stories is sometimes we think we're all alone.

Speaker 3 22:21

Yeah.

Nancy Bruscher 22:21

Or sometimes like did that did I did I make that up? Am I trying to be too emotional emotional or I don't know if I say it like that, it's like, oh are you trying to get some kind of a yeah thank you so much.

Nicole Voake 22:37

Yeah I tend to say I gaslight myself. I try to and I don't do it intentionally right but it's like oh it wasn't that big of a deal.

Nancy Bruscher 22:44

Right.

Strength, Silence, And Healing For Fathers

Nicole Voake 22:45

The feeling and they say a lot of times people know when it's the end for them, right? Yeah. And you don't know what that means. And then you experience it like you and it's indescribable and it wasn't I wouldn't say it was peaceful at all but it was not it was just very there's some kind of calm with it. It was still panic like I I have so much to live for. This isn't fair. I don't have my mom anymore. I don't want my kids to not have a mom. So there was a panic but also this calm of oh I'm not gonna be here anymore. Right. And these are the most important people in my life and I need to say goodbye. And I need to yeah and I don't want them to think that I abandoned them or that I left them of my you know because like I just want them to know that I love them and I want them to be able to have that memory or that whatever and it's it was a very calm I don't know it wasn't peaceful. It wasn't like oh I'm at peace it was very like just like oh this is factual maybe I don't right because I don't remember thinking of it and thinking okay I think I'm going to die okay what do my next steps I don't think I thought anything like that.

Nancy Bruscher 23:59

It was just bring David in.

Nicole Voake 24:01

This is what is gonna happen. Yeah yeah I a hundred percent and it's I don't want to I don't want to feel that ever again and for a very long time please God and I gaslip myself and one thing that helped and I it might have helped you too is I would talk to Kent and I'd be like wait I did that did happen. He goes Yeah and it was terrifying and Kent will he doesn't tell it often but he'll say the whole experience he had a really hard time saying Allie's name for like I mean it was over six months because he was so fearful he was so scared during delivery he was like I'm gonna have to tell my wife that our baby's gone and then he was scared after I'm gonna have to tell my kids that their mom is gone. And he got really just he really struggled with that for a little while but it was reassuring when I'm trying to gaslight myself or downplay the trauma that this caused. It's nice to be like I did that did happen. And he goes yeah and you looked like you were gonna die. Yeah and it it helps and it helps to hear from you too because it is lonely when you've gone through some of these things. And then also I think that societally we're a little surface sometimes.

Nancy Bruscher 25:21

Oh of course and it's of course yeah like how are you fine? I'm fine fine everything's good.

Nicole Voake 25:27

Yep yeah good I'm fine everything's great oh my my child who you know I wanted more than anything almost wasn't here but I'm fine. Yeah oh I can't walk that's fine. Yeah it's fine.

Faith Made Real And Lasting

Nancy Bruscher 25:39

I like how you brought up Kenton because I feel like as women we're getting a little bit better on sharing our stories specifically mine was a miscarriage and so I went through a lot obviously emotionally physically but I'm afraid that we don't talk about the men in this this part either and that's why Chris actually did a a podcast with uh my brother and my brother-in-law who have all all three of us have miscarried and just the idea that men are going through this too and so yours isn't a miscarriage I don't have you had a miscarriage yeah Maya was a twin oh but it was early so I'm sorry I'm sorry having babies man oh but I think we forget sometimes that our husbands are going through something too because they're okay I'm lost a baby I'm losing a baby I'm going through that trauma but I'm watching my wife literally die and that's a lot yeah and I'm afraid that a lot of times they're forgotten maybe even more I actually a hundred percent agree with that because I remember even Kent telling me he's like and he told me after it wasn't that long after where he's like I've been having a really hard time saying Allie's name because I'm so scared I'm gonna have to say goodbye.

Mary, Martha, And Being Still

Nicole Voake 27:14

Because we didn't know for a while if we were out of the woods. Oh of course right yeah and then of course you know as a newborn she ended up getting RSV and ended up in the hospital so we had a couple things I was so grateful that Kent and I have had that relationship and that we've we've gone through some other things that have brought us really close and we have that safety um within each other for him to tell me that because I don't think every man would they don't want to sit there and take away I think they don't want to take away from their wife experiencing whatever they're experiencing and they don't want to take any kind of like empathy or sympathy from the wife or from the family but like you said they just witness something terrifying. The person that they have chosen to spend their whole life with is going through either a horrible tragedy right losing a baby whether it's a miscarriage or whatever it is what a tragedy. You want you know I know you wanted that baby. Yeah and so they see that tragedy and they have that internal drive to protect us and to be strong. They have to be strong and protective and hold the family together while we are dealing with it. But they are really going through it. Yeah and we do ignore them and then they have like we don't want to be over looking for attention the husbands don't want to be oh you're weak or you're too emotional you're not being strong enough.

Nancy Bruscher 28:44

Right.

Nicole Voake 28:45

Or like you said both of us were healing physically so do you even have the bandwidth to be hey I'm over here struggling to right um I need help my situation I could not walk I literally I couldn't sit I had to basically lay down for uh a number of weeks the first time I walked it took me 30 minutes to walk three houses down I live in a suburban neighborhood they're close together it's not like you in the middle of nowhere. Kent had to be so strong and he had to take care of everybody to see that right yeah that's hard.

Nancy Bruscher 29:26

It's a great reminder for us thank you for sharing your miracle with us and also thank you for giving God the glory and there was a lot of miracles in there.

Finding Meaning In The Mundane

Nicole Voake 29:35

That's amazing it is my from belief to faith story. Ooh I like it that's good where it came real it was very real and there was not a question or a doubt and I've carried that it's not a pretend it's not a momentary it is a forever this has changed my life I have experienced God putting people in my life the doctors the nurses he allowed my baby to be okay he's allowed me to be okay forever.

Nancy Bruscher 30:16

That's good Nicole what's your favorite Bible verse or story?

Nicole Voake 30:20

Okay so I have I kind of have two and they kinda go together. So my one of my favorite stories the last handful of years has been the Martha and Mary and like many of us mothers I tend to not sit at the foot of Jesus and just listen and have peace and take that time I tend to try to do my checklist and get my things done and so I've really it's an uncomfortable story for me but that's a story that's really uh been something I've kind of been digging digging into myself the last couple years. And then my like verse and this is again it's been a couple years I don't know if it's gonna be for a couple more until I take it in it's um Psalm 4610 it's be in be still and know that I am God. And they go together. Yeah. And although I have complete faith and trust it's still hard in the moment we get in our day-to-day lives and to take a breath and stop and be like no God has this I don't need to be stressing so much.

Nancy Bruscher 31:30

And I don't know about for you but I was just talking to my mom last night on the phone and she's like what'd you do today? I was like not a whole lot I mean I made supper cleaned the house did laundry homeschooled the kids but I didn't feel like a set of accomplishment and the one thing I did get done which I was super excited about was I went to the DMV you know hey I got it done not with like a checklist you know I thought gosh that's not very exciting and then I thought it's okay life isn't always exciting exciting. Sometimes it's just the mundane and it's okay.

Gratitude, Everyday Kindness, And Closing

Nicole Voake 32:09

For some reason we've gotten as a society I think the very well what's something fun you're doing what are you doing what what exciting thing is going on in your life and I know sometimes there's nothing like a hundred percent and I am so I relate to you so much just because of the like I homeschooled my kids I cleaned the house I you know cleaned the refrigerator whatever it is did some work for one of my jobs or did school work but that doesn't feel sometimes we get caught up in well that doesn't seem good enough sometimes my exciting weekend plans are to not have plans and that sometimes people look at you like look you at you sideways and they're like what but what are you doing fun? And that's a common question right what are you doing fun this weekend?

Nancy Bruscher 32:58

I don't know.

Nicole Voake 32:59

Nothing nothing I I don't want to maybe going on a walk right going outside I might go to coffee with Kent you know like which is super exciting to me but I agree we're very into everything has to be and this isn't true I don't believe this at all but like what are your career goals are you reaching your goal or what are you what are you changing the world with today? Sometimes it's DMV. It's sometimes it's the DMV. It's teaching a child to read for the third time oh goodness gracious yes yeah what are you grateful for I am grateful for my kids and my husband of course and then this is gonna sound silly but I am so grateful for the life that God gives allows me to have like I get to homeschool my kids I get to work at a school that I love part-time I get to work at a church and work with kids and people that I love and I get to do all of it part-time and I like I get to be with my kids and I have a really good relationship with my husband he's my best friend how lucky am I that this is the life God gave me I love it I love it Nicole what kindness have you received or what kindness have you shown in the last week? The kindness I think that it's when you look for it you'll see it everywhere but specifically today I had a friend who helped shuttle my kids around a little bit for a homeschool it wasn't a field trip it was like a fun outing and then I have another I have a friend another friend who is going through some difficulties right now and I was going to make her dinner and emergency came up for her where she's not gonna be home to have that dinner. So I'm gonna I'm sending her a gift card for dinner to feed her family and then I'll I told her I will make you something to put in the freezer as well.

Nancy Bruscher 35:12

Yeah we're praying for a miracle for that family too yes well thank you for being on I just love the story and just all the connections and I'm just praying people who are listening will start to see those things that you could do as coincidence or try to explain it and just really see God in that.

Nicole Voake 35:31

I love that. Thank you.

Nancy Bruscher 35:33

On ordinary people extraordinary things your story is his glory. The thing that keeps resonating with me is how important it is to share our stories. When we do it doesn't just help someone who's listening but reminds all of us that we're not alone in our struggles, our questions and our feelings. I'd love to know what part of this episode resonated most with you. So reach out and let me know. And if this episode meant something to you please share it. That's the best way others discover ordinary people extraordinary things. Because the truth is ordinary stories matter. And I'll see you in two weeks for a brand new episode. Thanks so much for listening