Growing Home Together Podcast

As parents, we do all that we can to love and care for our kids. Our days are often filled with driving them to and from school, packing lunchboxes, helping with homework, doing laundry, and keeping up with everything they need to flourish. But in spite of all the time we spend doing things with and for our kids, have you found that it can still be a struggle to connect with them in a meaningful w...

As parents, we do everything we can to keep our kids safe, happy, and thriving. We make sure they eat their vegetables, buckle their seatbelts, and do their homework. We are committed to taking them to Sunday School each week, teaching them right from wrong, and nurturing them with love every day to help them grow into the best versions of themselves. So when we discover that our child has fallen...

Welcome to a special episode of the Growing Home Together Podcast—coming to you from the producers! Hi, my name is Mitch. I support Rob and Joanna in their various creative endeavors by lending a hand with the production of their podcast, social media, blogs, and more. I also have my good friend, Kelsie, with me to help spread some Christmas joy as we bring you a little bit of a different version...

If you’re like us, your weekly routine is filled with events, chores, doctor’s appointments, and more. Depending on the size of your family and how many obligations each person has to juggle, it can be quite challenging to coordinate all the details of who needs to be where and when. At our house, we have a big calendar hung on the wall of our kitchen that keeps everyone on track and (hopefully) o...

When Joanna was in fifth grade, her teacher passed out a pamphlet to everyone in the class. On that pamphlet were all kinds of topics about puberty and sex, and it had a phone number that you could call to listen to pre-recorded information on every subject. In all honesty, there were lots of terms and phrases on that pamphlet that she had never heard of before! This led to Joanna's mom givin...

As our children grow up, they may start to handle some things themselves. This could be chores, getting up on time, or saving up their allowance or earned money whenever they want a new toy. This is a natural part of getting older, but as a parent, it can be difficult to navigate when to step in and when is it healthy to let your child fail. There are going to be times when “helping” is actually p...

A number of years ago during one of our Michigan winters, our kids had a snow day off of school. What should have been a fun memory for our daughter became really scary since she suffered a sledding accident that put her in the hospital. She went through surgery and weeks at home in a wheelchair. To make matters worse, when she finally returned to school she was pushed out of her friend group by a...

This is an exciting podcast for us since it’s our 100th episode! Wow! We are so grateful for every one of our guests who have joined us to encourage us in our faith and in loving our family well. We are also truly grateful for all of you who have tuned in, listened, and supported the ministry of the Growing Home Together podcast.  We have the honor of welcoming some of our favorite people to the s...

In this stage of life with our middle schooler, it is pretty clear what our job description is as his parents. He needs us to provide clean clothes, food in the fridge, some help with his homework, drive him everywhere, and pay for his schooling and extracurriculars. We are his biggest cheerleaders and guides as he is doing this work of growing up. But things aren’t so clear when it comes to our a...

If we could use one word to describe Christian parents right now it would probably be “overwhelmed.” Parents feel overwhelmed by their busy schedules, concern of how culture will influence their kids, insecurity in their own ability to teach their kids about Jesus, or even the pressure to get everything right. Our guest is bringing a word of encouragement and hope to us as moms and dads. Christie...

We got married when we were pretty young after we met at Bible college. Needless to say, we had a lot of lofty ideas about what our Christian marriage would look like. We thought we would never argue, never lose our temper, keep the romance alive all the time, and always put each other first. While we meant every word of our vows and we have stayed committed for over 30 years, we did not anticipat...

When I (Joanna) was in middle school, I can remember having a love of learning, I enjoyed being outdoors and moving through childhood content with who I was. It wasn’t until I moved to a new school and got my hands on my first Seventeen Magazine that it seemed like I was overwhelmed with feelings of not being enough. I felt like I wasn’t pretty enough, popular enough, or good enough to be wanted a...

“A mom is only as happy as her unhappiest child.” Have you seen this quote floating around social media? It’s caught our eyes more than a few times. I think for a lot of us as parents, this phrase can feel accurate because when our child is hurting or struggling, it becomes the main focus of our lives. Our emotions can get all tangled up in their anxiety, pain, or their failures, and those feeling...

Does your calendar have nearly every square filled to the brim? For most families, May is a particularly busy time of year with graduation parties, school concerts, sports, final exams, and all the things that go along with wrapping up the school year. Even with such a busy schedule, we can get to the end of a packed-out day and still feel like we don’t have much to show for it. We can be in the s...

When we got married over 30 years ago, we learned right away that growing a strong relationship would be a never-ending process. In our years together, we keep blending our personalities, habits, and the good and bad in our backgrounds so that we can love each other well and accomplish the oneness that God designed for marriage. For couples who marry after divorce or the loss of a spouse, they fac...

This week on the podcast, we're revisiting an excellent conversation originally shared in 2021. Anxiety remains a challenge for many children and families (including ours). While you’ll hear references to COVID-19 in this episode (as this was recorded in the height of shutdowns), the practical tips for anxiety are well worth revisiting so we can better support our kids in their challenges. Sh...

Adopting our youngest son through the foster care system ten years ago was truly one of life’s greatest gifts. But one thing we didn’t fully understand as we looked forward to a bright future with our beloved little boy was just how much trauma a child suffers when they’re separated from their birth parents.  Like many foster and adoptive parents, we are on a constant learning journey and are alwa...

There’s a common misconception that it's always the big things—like dishonesty or infidelity—that cause marriages to fall apart. But the truth is, many marriages experience death by a thousand cuts as small areas of misalignment add up over time. Every marriage has its squabbles, clashes, and little flare-ups of friction. Over our more than 30 years together, we’ve certainly had our fair shar...

We all have wish lists in life—wishes for bigger houses, more quality time with our spouses, or even just a simple wish for better weather. While there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, we find our spirits dragging when we grow too preoccupied with the parts of life we wish would change. When this mindset takes over, it can prevent us from finding joy in the present. So what’s the solution? Our inspi...

Raising our two sons has been one of the most rewarding journeys of our lives. If you have boys of your own, you know that parenting sons comes with its own unique set of blessings and challenges. One skill we strive to help our sons build is the ability to overcome the lies they encounter in life. We want to help them better understand what’s true and false about who they are, what’s really impor...

Our son entered middle school this year and he is growing in all sorts of new and fun ways! He outgrew his shoe size, his appetite is bigger, he’s grown a wider circle of friends, and he’s definitely sleeping longer and longer hours. Along with that growth, his desire and appetite for screen time is growing bigger too! Honestly, navigating our son’s screen time isn’t a new challenge to us. We’ve w...

The goal of our ministry has always been to help you care for the soul of your family and help you nourish relationships that keep God at the center of your home. We know that many couples desire the closeness and encouragement of sharing their faith with their husband or wife. Instead, they feel a painful sense of disappointment when their spouse isn’t stepping into the role of spiritual leader a...

Before you got married and into the first year of marriage, you probably spent hours dreaming about what your life would look like together. But today those dreams may feel far out of reach. Your marriage may have settled into a predictable routine that seems impossible to get out of. You may even feel like you're stuck in a rut and have lost your sense of excitement for what the future could...

I take you to be my wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. Whether it’s been one year, ten years, or 25 years since you uttered those vows, we can all agree that they have and will be tested! We all experience some kind of disappointment, loss, or pain....

Words are powerful! They have the potential to tear down our relationships or build them up. Ever since I (Joanna) was a young girl, I loved words. I would spend hours writing stories and poems. When I went to college, it just made sense to pursue a major in communications. Even though I took numerous writing and even a public speaking class, I was never taught was how to talk to people with kindn...