While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

Dec 11 2024 378 ep. 23 mins 51
While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss Podcast artwork

This is a podcast FOR bereaved parents BY bereaved parents. Join your host, Jill Sullivan, as she talks with parents who have lost children of all ages to all types of circumstances. This is a podcast of stories ... stories of devastating loss and grief and heartbreak and struggle ... and stories of hope and healing and faith, and yes, even joy. Underlying every conversation will be the hope we have in Jesus Christ, which makes it possible to not just survive the loss of a child, but to live well while we're waiting to see them again in Heaven one day. Visit our website at www.WhileWereWaiting.org for more information about our nonprofit ministry to bereaved parents. 

  Religion & Spirituality  Kids & Family
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233 | Hope After Only Child Loss with John and Carrie Guenther

Dec 11 2024 44 mins  
I am so excited today to introduce you to my friends John and Carrie Guenther. We met the Guenthers when they attended our very first While We’re Waiting Weekend in Ohio back in September of 2023. As they shared the story of their son Gideon at that retreat, I was struck not just by the grace with which they expressed it, but by the profound loss parents who lose their only child

Bonus 145 | More Delays ...

Dec 09 2024 3 mins  
As much as we were enjoying the relative normalcy of both girls being back in school leading up to Christmas break, we were really beginning to feel the urgency of starting chemotherapy before too much time elapsed following radiation. The initial plan had been to start her new chemo treatments at the beginning of November, and here we were approaching the middle of December and sh

Bonus 144 | Empty Me

Dec 07 2024 2 mins  
Hannah's brain cancer diagnosis did not legally preclude her from driving, but we all agreed it was best that she not drive during her treatments. So I ended up driving her around a lot during that year, including those days she returned to school in early December of 2008. One day as I drove her home from school, one of her favorite songs came on K-LOVE radio -- "Empty Me" by Amer

Bonus 143 | A Hero in My Eyes

Dec 05 2024 4 mins  
In a previous episode, I described the moment Hannah first became my hero. They day she returned to school for the first time since her cancer recurrence in September was the second.Thank you for joining me for another bonus episode of the While We're Waiting podcast in this year-long series in which I share our family’s experiences as our teenage daughter Hannah battled glioblas

232 | Heartache and Hope with Melanie DeSimone

Dec 04 2024 49 mins  
Melanie DeSimone is well-known in the bereaved parent community as the author of the blog “The Life I Didn’t Choose”, which has had over 4,000,000 hits since its inception in 2014. She writes daily … pithy, practical posts … that speak directly to the hearts of grieving parents. Over the last several months, the Lord has led her to expand her ministry beyond just writing.

Bonus 142 | Ready for Battle

Dec 01 2024 3 mins  
Even as we enjoyed our family time over the Thanksgiving holiday, we found ourselves looking ahead to Monday when Hannah would finally get to start her new chemotherapy treatments. The reprieve from treatments had been wonderful, and we were so glad Hannah was finally feeling more like herself, but we were really beginning to feel the urgency to get back to fighting this cancer. Ev

Bonus 141 | Christmas Crooners

Nov 30 2024 4 mins  
As we stepped through our holiday traditions, Brad and I were fully cognizant that this could be the last time we did these things together as a family of four. My emails gave no indication of what an excruciatingly difficult time this was for us as Hannah's parents. We were beginning to see daily indications that she was already leaving us, little by little. They were small things

231 | Waiting Well With Jesus (Part Two) with Lynda Wake

Nov 27 2024 37 mins  
Welcome to episode #231, which is a continuation of my conversation with Lynda Wake, who is a wife, mom (or “mum” as she would say it), and grandmother. She is also the author of two amazing devotional books, “Heartbreakingly Beautiful” and “Waiting Well With Jesus”, and the founder of the BE Blessings ministry, which you’ll hear more about today. Last week, Lyn share

Bonus 140 | Good Medicine

Nov 24 2024 3 mins  
We returned to the Hem/Onc clinic at Arkansas Children's Hospital on Monday morning, fully prepared for Hannah to be admitted so she could finally start her new chemotherapy treatments. But when her bloodwork showed a platelet level of 3,000 (normal is over 150,000), we knew we would not be starting that day. With a platelet count that low, she was at risk for excessive bleeding ..

Bonus 139 | Secret Service

Nov 21 2024 4 mins  
Though Hannah's ANC was rising, she was technically still in isolation due to her low blood counts. In spite of this, we made the decision to attend one of Bethany's basketball games together as a family. We sat by ourselves in an empty area of the bleachers. Several well-wishers came by to speak to Hannah, and that was great, but we didn't allow them to come within more than a few