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This Unexpected Life
Welcome to This Unexpected Life, a podcast designed to equip and encourage parents and caregivers of children with disabilities so they can embrace their journey with hope, faith, and resilience.
With over twenty years of parenting experience, Carrie M Holt is a story-telling companion for caregiving mothers, exploring the hope and healing found in Jesus Christ—one story at a time.
This Unexpected Life
When You Face The Worst Case Scenario In The Unexpected with Becky Davidson
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Join Carrie today as she interviews Becky Davidson, from Rising Above Ministries, who shares her “modern-day” Job-like story of being a mother to a child with disability, substantial loss, wrestling with God, the key element of lament, and the importance of community and soul care.
May 6, 2025
Episode 9
Resources:
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Lectio 365 App
Rising Above Podcast with Becky Davidson
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*This podcast features honest conversations with special needs parents and faith-filled guests. While I deeply value the stories and insights shared, the views and opinions expressed may not always reflect my own. Any resources listed are shared for reference, not necessarily a personal recommendation. I invite you to listen with spiritual discernment and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in what you hold onto and set aside.
Today on this Unexpected Life podcast, I interviewed Becky Davidson, who is the co-founder and president of Rising Above Ministries. This is a multidimensional outreach to families who are impacted by disabilities. Becky is passionate about supporting and encouraging special needs families through her podcast, Rising Above, with Becky Davidson. And she also co-authored the book Common Man Extraordinary Call with her late husband, Jeff Davidson. In this interview today, Becky is going to share her modern-day Joe Blick story of incredible loss and facing worst-case scenarios. She's going to talk about wrestling with God, a key element of lament when we're facing grief, and the importance of community and soul care. I know you're going to love this episode.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to This Unexpected Life, a podcast for parents navigating the challenges of raising a child with disabilities or special needs. Here we share stories of hope, resilience, and messy faith to help you embrace your journey, work through grief, and thrive in your role. Whether you're just starting out or seeking encouragement to keep going, this is a space where your story matters. Join Carrie, your storytelling companion, as we explore the hope and healing found in Jesus Christ. One story at a time.
SPEAKER_02Well, hello. My guest today is Becky Davidson from Rising Above Ministries. Hi, Becky. I'm so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00Hey Carrie. Thanks so much for having me today.
SPEAKER_02So will you tell my listeners just a little bit about yourself and your family and your story? You've got some really hard places to your story.
SPEAKER_00You know, my story when I think about my life and I look back over all the years. We won't say how old I am. I just had a birthday. We we won't go there, but I've lived a lot of years. And, you know, I look back over my story and I'm like, wow, I mean, that's it is a lot. And I won't go all the way back to childhood, but I'll start, you know, with with becoming a special needs mom. And um I am the mom to the and I know a little biased, but to the most amazing 27-year-old man who I can't believe he's 27. 27. 27, but he has profound special needs and he is nonverbal, he uses a wheelchair to get around, needs 24-7 care, but has a smile that lights up a room and the most beautiful blue eyes, and is just the joy of my life. And he, you know, was born back, like I said, he's 27 now, almost 28. And, you know, my husband and I had all these dreams of what we thought our life was going to look like. And we had it all mapped out just as we thought it should be. Yeah. But God had different plans. And we, you know, when he was born, had no idea that anything was amiss. Um, 9.9 Apgar had no problems in pregnancy or delivery, but we knew pretty quickly that something was not right. And he wasn't meeting milestones, he wouldn't look at us. Um, and so we started getting diagnoses around, you know, when he was about a year old, and it just kind of grew and grew and grew. So he his official diagnosis, he has cerebral palsy, he has, he's on the spectrum, autism spectrum, and has epilepsy. And it impacts every aspect of his life. He requires caregivers around the clock, but it's a joy. He gets, um, he's still at home with me. And I'm just love that I get to still have this amazing man living down the hall from me. I get still get to be a part of him. And and then eight years ago, eight years ago in just a couple of weeks, we lost his dad. My sweet, amazing husband, um, Jeff, passed away after a lengthy illness, and leaving me a widow and a solo parent, which um it's not anything I ever in a million years could have dreamed would be part of my story, but it is. And um, so it's been quite a journey.
SPEAKER_02Did you struggle in those moments with God? I've been through enough. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Those those were conversations, yes, absolutely. Yeah. I remember sitting and thinking, and the conversation that I would have would be like, okay, God, you say you're a good God. You say that you're good. Now, this is in the first few months after Jeff's passing. I was like, tell me how it's good that my son, who has profound special needs, does not have his dad. How is it good that Jeff, who was one of the biggest champions for those living with disabilities, that he's no longer here to be a voice for this vulnerable population? Tell me how that is good. How is it good that I'm a widow and a solo parent? And yes, I had some very raw and real conversations with God, wrestling with how in the world could this be good and part of his plan.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And it is just so messy. I I feel like we all struggle, those of us who are maybe a little further in the journey and we're dealing with things yet again. And and you're just sometimes there's this thought of, well, I've already dealt with that. Why do I have to deal with this again?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, did you hear from God in those moments? What conclusion did you come to?
SPEAKER_00You know, it was pretty powerful. There is a moment that I'm standing in my kitchen, and just to kind of go back in the story a little bit, my husband passed away on a Tuesday. John Alex was in the hospital across town, sick at the same time as my husband is in the hospital. I have both of the most important people in my life in the hospital at the same time. So I got to be with Jeff as he passed away. I go back to be with John Alex and to tell him as best as I could. I don't know what he, he was so sick, and I don't know what he, you know, what his comprehension was, but that his dad had died. And so I have to leave him in the hospital to come back to Cookville an hour and a half away to plan my husband's funeral. My sister, thankfully, was there with him. It was crazy. It was crazy. And so go back to be with him. He's released on a Thursday. Jeff died on a Tuesday. So that Thursday, John Alex gets out of the hospital. We come home that night, Thursday night, and Jeff's visitation was Friday the next day, and the funeral that Saturday. It was a whirlwind. I honestly, my sister and I have talked about it and and all the all the moving pieces. I I could, there's so many parts. We cannot, we don't have the space to go into, but there's so many things that happened that I'm like, I don't know how we survived that. It was crazy. But there was a moment um bef after Jeff had passed away, it was about a few days after his funeral. On top of all that, we had this huge storm that came in the night of his funeral. Lost our power for two and a half days. So I'm sitting here with my child who's recovering. My husband has just died. We're in the dark. My sisters are with me. But there's a moment before my sister Susan left. She's she lives in Maine and she was leaving to go back. It was heartbreaking that she was, you know, she had to go back home. But we're sitting there, we're in my kitchen, and things were so bad, and things were falling apart. And JA was so sick. And she said, you know what, her husband was coming up, and she said, We need to, when Mark gets here, we're going to get him to pray. We need him to pray over this. She said, We need to pray and just try to get things under control. And I said, I stopped in that moment and I said, No, I have to do it. I have to step into that now. I am now the leader of my home and I have to do it. And there was this moment in my kitchen where my sisters anointed me. We're in our PJs in the dark, and they anoint me the head of my household within days of my husband's passing. And I'm standing in that exact same spot about a month after Jeff had died, and I'm railing at God. And I'm like, tell me how this is good. Tell me where you are. I don't understand this. And I look up on my wall, and there's a plaque that has a saying from my husband. And it says, When we can't understand God's actions in our life, we must trust his heart.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And in that moment, it was like my husband speaking to me, saying, Becky, you can't understand this right now. You're hurting, you're in pain. But we have to trust that even in this pain, that God's heart for us is good.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Even through that pain. And so for me, that moment, it was a pivotal shift for me to go, okay, okay, we're we're going. Now that's not to say every day going forward was great, but that was the shift for me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I know, listeners, you can't see us, but I'm crying because because it is just so raw and there is just so much heartache. And what I want you to hear is that, and I know you've heard this already before on the podcast, is God can take it. He can take our pain, He can take us asking these hard questions. But He also wants us to choose I will trust you. Yeah. And it doesn't mean that we don't have to choose to trust again and again and again, right? Daily, minute by minute, yeah. Daily, yeah. You know, you've experienced grief on many levels. Yeah. And how and why do we need to grieve those losses throughout our journey?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know, and I honestly didn't really understand the importance of that up until a couple of years ago when I started, I just call it doing my work, you know, going to counseling, doing the deep dive into trying to bring healing to my heart from from things from my childhood, from things of being a special needs mom, from the loss of my husband. There was so much hurt in my heart that needed to be taken care of. And so, man, when I learned the power of lament and I learned how how to process through that for me, I had a journaling process that I would do at the time that, and I still do when I need to, that helped me be able to process through all those feelings. I would just journal out like a memory would surface or or that deep grief would surface. And I would just journal, I called it journaling it out. You know, I would write it all out. And then I would write how I felt because honestly, I had no idea how I really felt. I just knew I it was awful. You know, I didn't know exactly, but I feel abandoned or I feel unloved or whatever it was. Yes. Then I would write out, but then no, what's the truth?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What is God's truth in that situation? And then I would turn it into a prayer. And so I that was kind of my process through of what helped me be able to process through the grief and the pain and the loss that I'd experienced over all these years. And it was a game changer for me to really sit in that grief before I wanted to just gloss over it. I mean, like I lost my dad five months before I lost my husband. Oh wow. My husband spoke at my dad's funeral and five months before that, and then Jeff was gone. I honestly to this day, I don't know that I've really grieved my dad as I should, because it's just been so much. Sure. But I know the importance of when those when it comes up, because it's going to, yes. When it's when it surfaces, then take the time, sit with God in it and let Him help you process through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that's so important. And it's funny, I I'm sitting here thinking, goodness, Becky, you are a modern-day Job. Just the loss that is there. And also just how what you're saying is the pattern we see in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Crying out to the Lord, the raw emotions, unfiltered, really, truly. If you read the Psalms in Job and Lamentations, there's a lot of unfiltered feelings. But then, and then the truths, like God is this way. God, I will remember you. I will recall to mind the hope that I have in you. And I just think that that is so important. You talked about your sisters, yeah, and your community that you've had around you.
SPEAKER_00Why is community so critical to this journey? There's not enough words. That could be about 10 podcasts. You know, it's true. So for me, what happened? My husband had been so sick for so long that for years, for about 10 years, I was caring for him. I was caring for John Alex. I did not have space for friendships. They're just there, I had friends, but there it was very surfacey because I couldn't, I couldn't do it. People couldn't really come into our home because of all that was going on. My husband was on dialysis. I had all the things with John Alex. It was just pretty much. But when Jeff passed away, within weeks, seriously, about two weeks, God brought me the most amazing community to come alongside me that has still been walking with me all these eight years. This will be eight years, and you know, all these eight years later, they're still part of my story. The group has morphed and changed over the years. But I have had uh people, especially like John Alex was sick back in January. I was so well cared for. They were caring for me, the caregiver, so that I could then care for John Alex. And I can't imagine, you know, I'm so blessed because here at Rising Above, I get to be part of community groups that we lead. I have so many circles of of friends in the disability space. Yeah. But I also have so many, just my church and my friends who are not special needs moms. And just how all those converge to meet so many unique, unique needs in my life. And then I'm able to meet meet unique needs in their life. Yes. And it has been beautiful. And I know that it's hard. I know people, it's like, I don't have time, or how am I going to do this? And but God will make a way if you'll allow him to. And it is a game changer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. I think it is so important for everyone to hear that it it does take effort. It doesn't come easy. And and sometimes there's times and spaces for it too. Like you said, you had that stretch of time where it was just really difficult to have that, but also to take the time and to make it a priority. So you're juggling so much. And as we all do as mamas, that's just yeah, yeah. And so how do you incorporate soul care into your daily life? I know Don Alex just had some major health things happen a few months ago. You mentioned that. What how do you how do you do this?
SPEAKER_00Well, sometimes I do it well and sometimes I don't. I mean, I'm just being real. Uh, but for so many years, it was not a priority. And then there came a point in time where I was like, okay, I've got to do this. It was the same time I started counseling. It was the same time I started. I'm a big John Eldridge fan, and I started reading his books and and learning all these soul care practices. And once I saw how it was making a difference in me, and then it was making a difference in how I was interacting with everyone around me, then I went for it. You know, it was so funny because I used to say, Well, I can't get up and have quiet time in the morning because I never know when John Alex is going to get up. And that is true. But I started for this for a season, I would get up crazy early, way before him, because I knew I needed to have I could have a chair in my room. It actually is the same spot where my late husband, I would look and see him sitting in that chair in the middle of the night, connecting with God. And I had I now that's my spot. That's beautiful. And I saw the difference that it was making in my life to do that. So I would get up crazy early. Now I'm in a season right now where things look a little different. And I was talking with some friends. My I have a I have a group, it's kind of a confessional community group. We get together once a month and we share what's going on in our lives. And we were together Friday night, and I was sharing with them like things are different now. And I said, I feel kind of bad about that, but but it's like I'm still doing, but it's just not as intense as it was as I needed it to be. And I just would say to those moms or whoever the listeners who are like, I don't have space for this. I would say, you have to make the space for it because you the difference that I saw in my life, and and like we had a big health thing that happened with John Alex just a couple of weeks ago. And I cannot begin to tell you the difference in my reaction this time. Yeah. Because I had been doing my soul care versus all the times before it was incre I mean, I can't even put it into words. Yeah, difference that it was. And so I think it's going to look different for you than it's going to look for me. I'm very much a morning person. I am not a night owl, so for me, it needs to be in the morning.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But creating that space, I loved at this the time though when I had needed it, journaling was such a huge piece of that. I had some devotional books that were so critical and and just being in the word, but just taking time, honestly, making a space for silence and solitude. Yeah. And I know some people are like, how do you do that? Well, I do that by when I'm in the car by myself. Typically I I don't have things on. I will sometimes. Sure. Especially coming in in the mornings. I just make space. I find what works for me. But it's been a game changer for my story and how I how I live life. And it impacts not only me, but everybody around me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So for people who are listening who, you know, we hear the word soul care a lot. How would you define that? And you've mentioned a couple of practices, but could you spell that out?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know, I think so often we as parents are like, I need some respite. I need some, you know, I need some times. Well, that respite is great. I mean, if we can find find moments, that is great. But what are you going to do on the daily? Yeah. Those those respite moments are that may be once a month, that may be once every two months. You can't survive off that. Right. You've got to have daily practices. John Eldridge calls it the dailies. Yes. And so for me, I have some apps that I'll listen to. Um, the Lectio 365 app, which is, I mean, it does it for me. I just listen to that. And it's a devotional. And John Alex and I, my son and I, we do that together. We did that together this morning. Listen to that together. And um, the rising above app, we have a thing on our rising above app called Respite for your mind, which are just short little audio clips that can help you focus on the truth of God's word, of what God says about your story. And so you have to find those things that are going to be life-giving for you. Some things that are life-giving for you are going to be different for me than you know what it is for me. Yeah. Being being in community, I am very much a people person. I, if I go seasons without being in community, I I tank, and my friends know that. And so they make sure that that does not happen. But being out in nature, looking, just simply looking at a flower is a game changer for me. Just seeing the beauty and the the things that God created and taking a minute to take in that beauty, that is so simple. But that's a soul care practice. So it's finding those things that you can do. It's kind of like having having, you know, you've got this basket and it's full of things that you can pull from that when you're in that crisis moment or you're in a moment where you're needing to like focus your mind down, focus your mind into what is truth, then you've got those strategies and those skills, those daily things, but you've got to be doing them on the daily before the crisis hits. Yes. You know, and so a lot of times it's uh it's inviting Jesus into those situations. Like, oh, something will come up. I'm like, okay, God, I'm I'm feeling anxious. I don't know why I'm feeling anxious, but I invite you into this to bring calm and peace.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's so good. It's funny. I was gonna ask you the question, you know, how do you deal with the unexpected? And I think you've answered it because it it is we prepare for the unexpected when we're living in the normal daily things. And it's those daily practices that I feel like is so important. So, what about your story has been hopeful for you?
SPEAKER_00What hope filled? Yeah, you know, I think honestly, when I hear, I got a phone call yesterday out of the blue from someone they called the office and they were sharing about how my husband's story had impacted them. Oh, and about what a difference and how they were then taking the book that he wrote and using it with other dads. And just hearing that, when when I get to see how, you know, my son's 27, I've never heard him speak a word. He's never, you know, he's not gonna hold a job. People would look at his life and they would say, What does he have to offer? You know, people outside of the disability space, we go, What in the world does he have to offer? But because of his life, thousands upon thousands. Of people are now hearing the truth about how God loves them and cares for them and sees them. And so when I think about how God can take this wordless boy, man now, and use his life to impact so many others, oh my goodness. That there's nothing better. I mean, that's just amazing to see the impact.
SPEAKER_02I'm getting ready to talk about this for a women's event in a few weeks. It takes us surrendering to the plan that we didn't want.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And instead of fighting it and raging against it, not that we still don't have times that we're questioning and wrestling, but there is the surrender, that verse in the scripture that talks about Jesus was talking, you know, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, then it produces a hundredfold, a thousandfold in our lives. And I think that's it, it's just very hopeful. So when you have really challenging days, how do you hold the mess and the hope together? I mean, because that there's the paradox of, you know, life is not simple. And I I have often told people what you don't understand about having a child disability is that the difficulties don't end. They might ebb and flow, but you've got hospitals. Yeah, it's gonna come back again, and you think you're past it and you think you're through it, and then here it comes again, the tidal wave of grief and trial. How do you hold that?
SPEAKER_00Well, for me, honestly, it's my hope of heaven. Yeah. It is knowing, it is knowing that because of Jesus, that all of the the momentary hardships here, that it's just gonna be a moment. Like what when I think about knowing that there's a time coming where everything's going to be made new, everything is going to be set right. God's gonna make everything right. And when I get to see that moment of my late husband and my son seeing each other and running into each other's arms and playing basketball together, and for for me to see my husband again and for just to be with Jesus, I mean, goodness gracious, to to be in the light, you know, the truth, and where it's peace. And that's what I hold on to. On the days that are really, really, really hard. I go, it's just we just gotta hold on. Just hold on. There's a day coming when things are going to be set right. And one of the ways I do that is honestly through through gratitude. I my I don't know how I'm just grateful that God gave me that that that wisdom to say, no, you've got to choose gratitude even in the hard because that's how I shift things. I can learn to see the flip side, I can shift those really hard situations and find joy in the midst of that crazy of the crazy of our story when I can find those things to be grateful for in that moment. But honestly, it's just looking ahead and going, nope, this is not our home. These momentary trials are going to be over before we know it's a hold on, hold on, because a beautiful new life is coming. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I think about the mom who might be listening and she hears your story, and immediately she's going, Dear Lord, please don't give me that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, I bargaining, I I'll do anything. I I can't go through that. What advice would you give her? What advice would you give yourself if you could go back?
SPEAKER_00Well, here's the thing. I had the worst case scenario. I I experienced the worst case scenario. Exactly. And so back when I was pregnant with John Alex, a very dear friend of mine. Now, I didn't even know her at the time, but I I just met her and I thought I was having a miscarriage. I had had a traumatic miscarriage before John Alex. I thought I was having one with him. So I actually went to our crisis pregnancy center and met them, met with them because I was so afraid. We I'd met the director before, and she she looked at me and she said, All right, let's look at this fear head on. She said, if you do lose this baby too, she said, Are you ultimately going to be okay? And I sat with it for a minute and I said, Yeah, it will be so hard. But yes, I will ultimately be okay. And so I can tell you, eight years out, I faced my worst case scenario with the loss of my husband, and ultimately I'm okay. It hasn't been easy. Um, there's been so much hard, but I've gotten to see the goodness of God show up in crazy big, huge ways that I never could have imagined. If you had told me when I was starting, you know, getting married to my husband, oh, at the age of 49, you're going to become a widow and you're going to become a solo parent, and you'll be living your life raising John Alex by yourself. I couldn't, you know, I can't even imagine that. But the worst case happened and ultimately I'm okay. And so when you've got that thing that you're looking at, whatever that fear is that that that worst case scenario, to be able to sit in that and go, okay, if this does happen, I think sometimes we just have to go there. We have to go there in my mind. I even have to look at that with my son. Worst case, if I were to lose John Alex, or if something were to happen to me, do I trust God enough that ultimately everything's going to be okay? And I have to get to that place of going, yeah, if something happens to me, John Alex is going to be taken care of. People are not, he's not going to, you know, there are there are people who have who are going to step in and help with him. If something happens to him, ultimately we'll not be okay. It would be so hard. But yes, and knowing that someday we're all we're all going to be together for eternity, it's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I love how you just you said that we have to look our fear in the face and choose to trust God that He will be with us. He promises He will be with us. So is there anything else that's on your heart that you would want to share today? And then I want you to tell our listeners about rising above and by the brook and all these new things that Rising Above has coming.
SPEAKER_00You know, I think if I could look back to to younger me and you know, just starting out on this journey, I think I would want to know, like, yeah, it's going to be hard. There's there's no way around it. It's going to be hard. But if you can learn to see Father God as a good and loving father, and that his plans for you are good, that he's not trying to hurt you. He's not trying to put things in your path to mess you up or to to try to catch you being bad. Yeah. That's not his heart for you. I will I just recently have learned that, quite honestly. And I wish that I'd known that early on. And to learned that no, his he's he's a good father. And I know to people some people they're like, that makes no sense to me because my dad was a jerk and I can't even process through that. And I had to come to that place. God opened up some places in my heart that have been so sealed off from things from my childhood. And to for him to reveal himself to me that he's not like our earthly parents. Don't even put there's there's no way to even compare those two. Yeah. But his heart for us is only love and it's only good. And coming to that place, I think if I had learned that earlier in my journey, then when all the hards happened, then I could I would have been able to handle them so much better.
SPEAKER_02I know you and I have talked about this. I've been on my own journey too with that. And just it is so important because the past does come into the future. It does come into these existing trials and difficulties. Terry Wardle says that Satan likes to make nests in our wounds. And by those nests, it's the false beliefs, especially about God. He's out to get us, he's out to trip us up, that he's not good, that he has no control, you know, all of those things. And I do think that's just so important. So there is a conference coming up in June called By the Brook. So would you please tell the listeners a little bit about that and this amazing new dad podcast that you are you just launched.
SPEAKER_00Just launched. So, so many exciting things um going on. So if you're not familiar, Rising Above Ministries, we are an outreach ministry to special needs families. And we've been going 20 years. This is our 20th year, which is unreal. 20 years uh out of the life. We my late husband and I started it out of the life of John Alex. And so we what we do is we support the family, we support the moms, we support the dads, we support the marriages and the siblings. And so we have this amazing app that's totally free that you can download that houses all of our resources, all of our con all of our content. And you can find it Google Play and App Store. So check that out because you can find so much our respite for your mind, our the podcast that I host, Rising Above with Becky Davidson, and so many videos, just so much encouragement. So check that out. But for the past goodness, I think this is our 16th, 17th year of doing by the brook, believe it or not. It's crazy. But we host a conference for moms every summer. Um, this year it's coming up on June 20th and 21st. And we last year were able to go back live and in person, and it was amazing. Carrie, you were there with other Take Art moms, and it was so fun getting to meet you all. But we host it live here in Cookville, Tennessee, and it's that Friday and Saturday, and it's just filled with encouragement and inspiration and times to be with other moms who get it. I mean, you get pampered and yummy meals, you don't have to cook or clean up. And just the whole weekend we think of ways to bless the moms as they come in. And it's so beautiful because we'll see moms come in so weary and so worn out and so exhausted and just kind of their faces down. And then by the end of the weekend, when they leave, it's like they're recharged to be able to go back in to take care of their children. It's called by the brook. My late husband actually named that because it's taken from a time when David and his men, um, it's either first or second Samuel. I can't remember off the top of my head, but they are, they've been in battle, they've been in war, they're weary, they're exhausted. And some of the men were too weary to go on and they needed a break. So they took a weekend by the brook of Asor to be refreshed and restored. And so that's what we want to do. We know moms are in the middle of the battle of raising their children with special needs, and we want to give them a space to come to be refreshed and restored and renewed. And so if you can't come to the live part being here in Cookville, no worries because you can join in virtually. We will be live streaming it out throughout the weekend. So even if you can't come here, you can get what we what I love every year is you we have moms who get with a group of moms, five, ten moms, and they'll do it, they'll watch the content together and make their own retreat, you know, in Oregon or in California or wherever around the world. And so we will have that out for you. So wherever you are, it'll be live streamed out. We have churches can be a host site. There's all different ways. You can find all that information on our website.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's so good. And so tell us too about the dad podcast.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Okay, so I've been hosting a podcast here at Rising Above for I don't know how many of our years. And when my husband died, he was such an advocate for the dads and such a he wanted to help the dads know how to love and serve their families. And so when he died, there was such a void in the ministry when he passed away. And three years ago, we brought in actually one of his very, very good friends, Steve Chapman, to come into that role as VP here for us. And he has taken over that leadership and with the dads. And so part of what he's done, he has just launched a new podcast for dads called Rising Above Dads. And let me just tell you, it is amazing. I've gotten to listen to some of the episodes already, and the first one came in, just recently came out. Every week there'll be episodes coming out for the first season, and then they'll take a little break and then come back. But it's Steve along with two other dads, and they get so raw and real about what the dads are thinking. And what I love, I told them, I said, guys, what's going to be so great about this? It's like it's not only going to encourage dads, but it's going to give moms an insight into what the dads are thinking. You know, women, we can get together and we can talk and we can share and we share what's deep down in our hearts. Well, the dads are like, I'm not sharing anything. But this will be just a glimpse into what the dads are thinking and how they're really feeling. And I just believe that this podcast is going to be such a game changer and so life-giving for the entire special needs family. So check it out. It's um Rising Above Dads and so, so good. I'm so proud of them.
SPEAKER_02That's so exciting. And just so you know, we'll have all the links to everything Becky's mentioned in the episode today in the show notes. So thank you, Becky, for being here and for being a guest on the podcast. I just I love hearing your story again. And there's pieces even to it that I did not know that I think are really gonna encourage those who are listening because our stories are hard, but we can find real hope in Jesus, and I'm so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. And I can't wait to see you at By the Brook in just a couple of months. Yes, I'm gonna be there. I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_01If you have enjoyed this podcast, would you do Carrie a favor and hit the subscribe button to where you listen to podcasts? Also, leave a review. This helps the podcast to become more visible to others. If you would like to share your story on the podcast, visit Carrie's website, carriemholt.com backslash podcast, and fill out the form. You can find Carrie online on Facebook and Instagram, and on her Substack page at CM Holt. Thank you for joining us today on this unexpected life podcast. Real stories, real hope in this unexpected journey.
