Tag: Children with special needs
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When Shame Shapes Your Story: Finding Freedom, Healing, and God’s Love in the Special Needs Parenting Journey with Dr. Zoe Shaw
For many parents raising children with disabilities, shame quietly becomes part of the journey. We question our parenting, compare ourselves to other families, wonder if we’ve somehow failed, and sometimes even believe God is disappointed with us. In this deeply honest conversation, licensed psychotherapist, author, and special needs mom Dr. Zoe Shaw shares her own…
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The Special Needs Parenting Journey: Faith, Marriage & Finding Hope in the Life You Never Expected with Dr. Joe & Cindi Ferrini
What happens when the life you planned is suddenly replaced with one you never expected? In this powerful and deeply practical episode of This Unexpected Life, Carrie sits down with Dr. Joe and Cindi Ferrini, authors of The Special Needs Parent: A Guide to the Life You Never Expected, to talk about what it really…
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The Hidden Story of Special Needs Siblings: Growing Up with Disability and Raising a Child with Autism with Sandra Peoples
What is it really like to grow up as the sibling of a child with disabilities? How does that experience shape the way you parent your own family? In this episode of This Unexpected Life, Carrie Holt talks with Sandra Peoples, a disability ministry consultant, author, professor, and mom of a son with level-three autism.…
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How to Process Grief as a Special Needs Mom: Lament, Sibling Dynamics & Trusting God in Ongoing Medical Trauma with Jen Potter (Part 2)
In Part 2 of Carrie’s conversation with Jen Potter, the focus turns to grief, sibling dynamics, and learning to trust God in the middle of ongoing medical trauma. Jen shares what it has looked like to raise five children while navigating cancer, 37 surgeries, and unexpected neurological setbacks. She speaks candidly about parenting “glass children,”…
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When Caregiving Feels Unseen: Finding God’s Presence in Lifelong Special Needs Parenting
What happens when caregiving lasts far longer than you ever imagined—and no one is applauding? In this deeply honest episode, Carrie sits down with Beth Benson, a mother whose life has been shaped by infertility, trauma, adoption, autism, and decades of full-time caregiving for a son with a rare chromosome disorder. Together, they talk about…
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The Long Wait: Trusting God Through Autism, Infertility, and Unanswered Prayers with Jenna Erlandson
In this episode of This Unexpected Life, Carrie Holt talks with Jenna Erlandson,, a mother of six, about her journey through infertility, postpartum depression, and receiving an autism diagnosis for her son. Jenna shares how seasons of waiting, uncertainty, and loss of control shaped her faith and taught her to trust God’s faithfulness. This honest…
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When Special Needs Parenting Becomes Survival: Faith, Endurance and Autism Parenting with Celeste Shally
What happens when special needs parenting moves beyond exhaustion and into survival? In this deeply honest and faith-filled conversation, Carrie M. Holt sits down with Celeste Shally, author of While We Wait: Clinging to Christ in the Trenches of Special Needs Parenting, to talk about the rarely discussed reality of long-term violence in special needs…
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God With Us in the Unexpected: An Advent Reflection For Disability Mothers
In this Advent reflection, Carrie M. Holt invites weary, overwhelmed, and tender-hearted special needs moms into the ultimate unexpected story—Christmas. Through a first-person narrative inspired by Mary’s journey in Luke and Matthew, Carrie draws parallels between Mary’s unexpected calling and the everyday realities of disability parenting: medical crises that interrupt holidays, the longing for peace,…
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Marriage, Caregiving, and Connection: A Conversation with Bruce Holt (Part 2)
In this final episode of the month, Carrie is joined once again by her husband, Bruce, for a candid conversation about marriage in the midst of caregiving. From survival mode in the early years after their son Toby’s diagnosis, to counseling and intentional connection in later years, Carrie and Bruce share the real struggles, arguments,…
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A Father’s Voice in Special Needs Parenting with Bruce Holt
In this heartfelt episode of This Unexpected Life, Carrie M. Holt sits down with her husband, Bruce, to share the often-unspoken perspective of fathers in the world of special needs parenting. Together, they revisit the day they received their son Toby’s diagnosis, the wave of grief that followed, and the heavy burden of guilt Bruce…