Hey , hey , mamas , welcome back to Conquering Chaos . A mom's guide to self-care and sanity . I'm your host , sydney Crowe , and today we have Kylie Schneider from Wisconsin . Kylie is a mom first and foremost , but she is also an entrepreneur and has created the ministry called YANA , which stands for you Are Never Alone . She has faced numerous hardships throughout her life and believes that every experience shapes her into the person that she is today and that they haven't been in vain . Her faith is incredibly important and it guides her every single day . Her heart's on a mission besides being a mother is to ensure that nobody ever feels hopeless or alone and that everyone discovers a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father . Welcome , kylie . Hi , I am so grateful that you're here today . You know you guys , you and I , have been connecting a little bit over the last couple months when just I love your service , servant heart first and foremost . So thank you for being here and being able to share with our listeners . Why don't you just tell everybody kind of who you are and what you're all about ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so , as you said , I am a mom first and foremost . So I just apologize ahead of time . I have my daughter next to me . She's teething , I think , in those two-year-old molars , so she's , she's glued to mom . But , yes , I'm a mom first and foremost . You know .
Speaker 2I , god , really put it on my heart about a year ago to start . You know I'm calling it a ministry because it truly is that to me , yana , and so it stands , for you are never alone . It is really a calling to ensure that people that are stuck in bondage , any people that are going through things and really feel hopeless , find hope . And so you know I am trusting God fully with where he's leading me with this . I believe , like you had said , that we go through hard things in life to really find our purpose . You know , in our pain we find our purpose . So I'm , step by step , walking daily through this and figuring out you know where he's exactly leading me . But he's really bringing me people from all over that really need just that the hope and really a direction to go in , and so I'm so excited to see what is to come of that .
Speaker 1That's really lovely . I mean the way that you described it to me , and I'm going to try to pry a little bit more out of you , because we were chatting before we launched this episode , but you said that you know you really went through a lot of stuff in the beginning . Do you want to open up a little bit about that ?
Speaker 2Sure , you know I came from very humble beginnings . I was born into a family where I was with a single mom and I didn't know my biological father . You know , I really had maybe a handful of memories of him . One of them that really stuck with me throughout my life was him leaving . And so , you know , I really , from a young age , believed the lie , that I wasn't worthy and I was alone . And you know , I , looking back now at the mature , healthy , whole place that I'm in now , can look at it for what it was , and I really think that my biological mom was in a plane , a brokenness , you know , and she chose a bad relationship and so I grew up in that environment , in abuse , you know . And you know , I believe that we repeat cycles until we know and we learn and we get out of them , and I truly believe that I am that chain breaker . So you so , if you want to call it , and so the majority of my life , you know I , I grew up in really really hard times . When I was 13 , I ran away from home . Um , you know , the best I can explain it is I just really trusted this inner voice , which now I know to be Holy Spirit . But I I listened to this voice inside of me saying you know , just just get out and walk . And so the day that I left I just got out and I really started walking and you know years and lots of trials and going through , you know , I ended up getting arrested by the state technically , and they placed me with some of my adopted relatives who ended up adopting me and taking me in and at that point , whenever I really got secured into that home , I was already 15 . And I had a few years of normalcy , if so you'd call it and I really found my relationship with Christ in those core years that I had as a teenager . One of my best friends invited me to church and so I went to church with her and you know I really craved that Wednesday and Sunday . You know my relationship with God and I couldn't really explain it at the time , what , what it really was , but I became a worship leader and I was really connected to the church in that , in that environment .
Speaker 2And when I was 17 years old , my friend , on a way to snowball dance we were all going to the dance Her and my other friend got hit by a conversion van and when the van hit them , my friend Sarah passed away and it broke up my whole friend group . It was very devastating , one of the hardest things to go through . And I think I found that place with God where I was like why would you allow something else bad to happen in my life , you know , why would you know ? And so I went into this place where , you know , I just kind of started going deeper and deeper into the sadness of life and things . And I graduated and I went to college and I think I did what the world tends to view as just , you know , getting into the college atmosphere and partying and drinking . And you know , for me I really I got lost , we'll just say .
Speaker 2And I got into a relationship and I ended up having my son , jackson , who's who is the love of my life . You know , I really I thank God for him so much . But I had him so , so young , right , and when he was born he was born with anomaly of his coronary arteries and the doctor said that , you know , he wouldn't live past eight and it was terrifying . For the first five years of his life the doctor said that they didn't really think he was going to make it and they didn't know how to fix them . And so , you know , I think that I always was feeling this pressure of the world and really , really alone .
Speaker 2And then I I did what I learned , right , I tried getting into relationships or filling this void with inside of me whether it would have been with with men or , you know , drinking or whatever , whatever it was in the moment . You know that I could try to fill this gap inside of me and nothing really worked . And so you know , there's there's a whole lot of this story that that's not . You know I'm not able to really like describe all in a podcast session , but you know , god really was faithful to me . He really stayed after me . And you know , god really was faithful to me . He really stayed after me .
Speaker 2And you know , me and Jackson's dad never stayed together . We were able to co-parent , you know , as best we could . We didn't always get along the best , but when Jackson was about five years old , I had gotten to another relationship and you know , at first I thought it was the best thing in the whole world and that fast went
south . And so , you know , I was in this really abusive place , this really abusive relationship for majority of my 20s and really looking for answers and help . Honestly , I didn't know how to talk about it . You know I was in in a lot of despair and leaving a lot of it out .
Speaker 2Long story short , I ended up getting out of that abusive relationship . There were some divine interventions that happened in my life and God really put his hands in the situation that I was in and you know it took me fully surrendering my life to start really finding the way out of that . That wasn't the easiest , it wasn't always pretty . You know I've made a lot of mistakes but you know I truly believe that everything that I went through and I learned was to equip me to be the best version of myself and to use those tools and things to to turn around and be a better mom , to be a better . You know , friend , daughter , whatever you want to , you know call me and whatever it has during that time .
Speaker 2But you know , a few years ago I really was at this place with God like where are you really taking what ? What is all this for ? And that's really whenever he started to put Yana on my heart . And you know , my mission in life , honestly , is to save people from the hardships that I went through . If I can and I shouldn't say say , but you know really guide and direct and really if I can give them a fast track to the answers that took me so long to find , yeah , and really tell them about my relationship with Christ and what that means to me and really restore hope , that is that is what Yana is , that's what my heart is .
Speaker 1So that was kind of a long answer , not the best , but to give you a brief overview yeah , I mean , well , I I think it's really important that you highlight you know where you started and and how you got to yana today , because it hasn't been an easy journey for you . And , like you said , I mean if you can take your hardships and your journey and empower other women , other moms , to maybe fast track their journey a little bit so that they're not in that for as long as you were , it is a really powerful way to pay things forward and I love that you have been able to lean in and trust him and his guidance and he's been able to deliver in and trust him and his guidance and and he's been able to deliver this for you . So , when you hear Yana and when you picture this moving forward , what can listeners expect from that ? And you yeah .
Speaker 2So you know I have a podcast that's coming . I really feel that it's really important to share testimonies . I think it's really important that everybody , especially in the day and age that we live , where it seems like social media and things are always like everyone has it so together and so perfect or , you know , their lives are so glamorized I guess you would call it but I feel like it's so important God's really put it on my heart to share the truth . You know , like sometimes things aren't always pretty . You know , sometimes you know I am so grateful if I did a load of laundry and , you know , got the dishes done that day on . You know the hardships that people go through and what they actually experienced . And my heart , you know , I know this isn't for everyone , maybe , but my heart is to really share my experience with the Lord and really get that out . Because I think it's weird for some , you know I've gotten a lot of persecution , like people calling me , like , oh , you're just a Jesus freak . Like you're such a Jesus freak , like you think you're better now because you like and it's like no , but I am a Jesus freak in a way . To me it's like , you know , once I really read the Bible and I really started my relationship with God and letting him work on my life and learned who , about who he was . Yeah , like now I'm like , oh my gosh , I wish I would have known this like my whole life , you know , and why wouldn't you ? And I want everyone to experience that . So that's really my heart , like sharing testimonies and and allowing other people to share theirs . And you know , there's so much judgment going on in the world , you know . I think there's a lot of confusion and fear and I really want to be a catalyst to stop that . Like . I think I think that we really get to start being in a place where we're really hearing each other right and we're really like stepping out of fear . And so that leads me to the other part of what I'm doing with Yana . So I started this six week journey right now where I'm leading people through the of God Bible study . John Bevere and his wife are two people that I like just really look up to honestly as spiritual mentors , if you call it that . You know , there's not very many people I follow in this world , but I really I really appreciate what they teach and and just their walk , and so we're going through this Bible study where really it's an experience , you know , it's really learning what a healthy fear of the Lord is and what that does for your life , and so for that , for right now , is really what we're deep , deep diving into In the future .
Speaker 2I do see programs you you know , coming from abuse and being in an abusive situation myself . I would really like to do something catered around women specifically and single moms . You know , like um , just being through the judicial system and you know how much the hard times molded and affected my life . Like I was really in this place of desperation where I didn't know where to get help and I saw the hand of God work on my life and put the right people in my life . But I know that's not the story for everyone and that doesn't take away from how hard it was . But I do believe that God knew I , I've just I've been made to . I guess whenever I go through something in life , the first thing I automatically think is how do I teach this to someone else ? Like that's just who God's created me to be , and so I think that he allowed me to experience this extreme amount of hardship and pain in this from choices that I made , of course you know . But to be able to turn around and help someone else that I made , of course you know , but to be able to turn around and help someone else and so so , yeah , I'd really like to , you know help other women .
Speaker 2And you know I have these visions and dreams , if you call it , where you know , I would like one day to be able to open up orphanage , orphanages , orphanages even . You know , I had this , this dream , since I was really little . I used to watch the Oprah Winfrey show you know , I had three channels growing up and I remember this story where she was able to go in and buy all these kids these Christmas presents . And these kids hadn't got presents . You know some , maybe never , but the best part about the story is when she said that she put each one of their names on it and gave it to them , and then just the looks on their faces . I don't know . There's something about that story that has stuck with me my whole life , because to me it's like it's not even about the gift , it's about the acknowledgement , it's about that little child , like knowing that , oh my gosh , like somebody sees me .
Speaker 2You know , and I remember like that my whole life and holding on to that and then experiences that I've been through , that my heart is really for children and to really give them a better start , give them more hope and direction and just even that guidance and love . So I hope that answers your question . There's a lot of different things you know on my heart really to do , but first and foremost it's just really trusting God every single day to open that door and guide . And you know , as we said from the beginning , be a mom . You know I'm so grateful to God that he has allowed me to be in this season where I've come out on the other side and I'm able to love my kids . It's almost like I went through this transformation not almost like I went through this transformation and now I'm this like different mom that's able to pour into my kids in the way that they need to .
Speaker 1Kylie , you have such a beautiful heart and I know that we've got really big things in store , so we'll make sure that we have your contact information below so that people can start to follow you and get involved
Moving forward . I guess is there one last piece of advice that you would like for the moms to know out there , given your journey and where your heart stands and these big things that you have in store , what's the one piece of advice that you want everyone listening to know ?
Speaker 2To reach out . You know , really to know and maybe this sounds cliche , but like you truly really are never alone . You know that our heavenly father loves us so much but also like to use your voice and ask for help , because that door will be opened . You know , and I realized because I went through it , there was a time in my life that I didn't know exactly where , but when I literally like surrendered my life to God and was like God , please show me a way he really did .
Speaker 2He you know , and it was , it was me trusting , and it wasn't always easy , it was really really hard , but it was so worth it . And so , yeah , it would be to to to not listen to that lie from the enemy that you're stuck and that you're alone and there's no way out , because there's always a way out , there's always a door , there's always someone that is there that can help . You know , and really it starts with and this is my my experience it starts with and this is my my experience it starts with the relationship with Jesus .
Speaker 1I love that so much . Well , thank you so much for being here , kylie , and thank you guys for tuning into today's episode , where we help you conquer the chaos , one day at a time .