Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected

There’s a new name and new artwork in your podcast feed: Holyoaks Rise is becoming Well, That Got Medical: A Holyoaks Rise Podcast. Why the change? After talking with medical families and experts—and living on both sides of the bedside as a NICU nurse and medical mom—I’ve gotten clearer about who this show is here to serve. In this episode, I share what “Well, That Got Medical” means, why a diagno...

What happens when the crisis is finally over… but you don’t feel okay yet? We spend so much time talking about how to survive hard things that we rarely talk about what happens afterward. The hospital stay ends. The baby comes home. Treatment is finished. The divorce is final. The caregiving season changes. You make it through burnout, grief, job loss, financial hardship, a major life transition,...

When Blair’s baby was diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), she entered a world of NICU care, specialists, feeding challenges, and questions she never expected to have to answer. But when her daughter began struggling with breast milk, Blair noticed something wasn’t adding up—and she kept asking questions. In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected,...

What if you love your baby deeply… but you don’t feel like their mom yet? Bonding with your baby in the NICU can look very different from the picture you had in your head. Instead of immediate skin-to-skin and uninterrupted newborn snuggles, there may be incubators, monitors, respiratory support, procedures, nurses, and days—or even weeks—before parenting begins to feel the way you expected. In th...

What are scientists discovering about the infant gut microbiome—and what could it mean for our understanding of lifelong health? In Episode 28 of Holyoaks Rise, Amanda sits down with Stephanie Culler, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Persephone Biosciences, to explore the fascinating world developing inside a baby’s gut during the earliest stages of life. Dr. Culler breaks down what the gut microbiome a...

Who takes care of the person who is always taking care of everyone else? Caregivers are everywhere—the parents managing medications and appointments, the nurses walking families through their hardest days, the foster parents who keep saying yes, and the spouses, grandparents, siblings, teachers, therapists, friends, and neighbors who quietly step in when someone needs them. In this episode of Holy...

In the final chapter of Krystina’s incredible story, we continue the journey of a family that never stopped saying “yes.” After sharing the story of her medically complex son, Krystina introduces us to another little girl who came into their family with severe congenital heart disease and complex medical needs, requiring numerous surgeries and specialized care. Through every challenge, Krystina sh...

Can one decision change the course of a child’s life? In Part 2 of my conversation with Krystina, we continue her remarkable journey from the NICU into foster care, where she opens her home to premature twins before receiving a call about a little boy with profound medical needs. Nonverbal. Unable to walk. Dependent on oxygen. Medically fragile. Many would have seen overwhelming challenges. Krysti...

When Krystina’s oldest son needed kidney surgery as a toddler, she had no idea it was only the beginning of her family’s medical journey. In this deeply moving first conversation, Krystina shares the story of welcoming her extremely premature triplets into the NICU and the roller coaster that followed. We talk about the fear, uncertainty, tiny victories, and the resilience that carried her family...

Some survival stories seem too incredible to be true. In this Rise Story Collection, we explore five impossible rescues that united strangers, inspired nations, and proved that hope can survive even the darkest circumstances. From twelve boys trapped deep inside a flooded cave in Thailand… to a man who survived nearly 60 hours inside an overturned ship… to an immigrant who scaled a Paris apartment...

What does it take to keep going when life tells you to quit? In this first Rise Collection, we’re exploring five extraordinary true stories of people who refused to give up in the face of overwhelming obstacles. From a Major League Baseball pitcher born with one hand, to the world’s first licensed pilot born without arms, to a prisoner of war who found freedom through forgiveness, these stories re...

How does someone survive a 10,000-foot fall into the Amazon rainforest? In this immersive episode of Holyoaks Rise, we tell the extraordinary true story of Juliane Koepcke, the only survivor of LANSA Flight 508, which broke apart after being struck by lightning over the Peruvian Amazon on Christmas Eve in 1971. Based primarily on Juliane’s memoir, When I Fell From the Sky, this episode follows her...

In Part 2 of this conversation, Amanda continues her discussion with Jasmine, a homeschooling mother raising a daughter with Smith-Kingsmore syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that has brought significant medical challenges, developmental delays, feeding difficulties, and a severe seizure disorder. This episode moves beyond the diagnosis and into the heart of family life. Jasmine shares who her dau...

In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, Amanda sits down with Jasmine, a homeschooling mom and medical mother whose oldest daughter lives with Smith-Kingsmore syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that has brought significant medical challenges, developmental delays, feeding difficulties, and a severe seizure disorder. Jasmine shares the story of her family, the jou...

After a two-week break from the podcast, I’m back with unexpected lessons from Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. What started as a trip to support my children quickly became a powerful reminder of what it means to grow through challenges, face fears, embrace teamwork, and keep moving forward when things don’t go as planned. In this episode, I’m sharing the behind-the-scenes reality of World Finals...

When we got married 16 years ago, we had plans. What we didn’t plan for were five kids, a NICU journey, foster care, adoption, complex medical diagnoses, countless appointments, sleepless nights, unexpected detours, and all the ways life would rewrite our story. In this special anniversary bonus episode, my husband and I sit down together to look back on sixteen years of marriage and the plot twis...

For years, survival mode was necessary. Medical motherhood, NICU life, caregiving, night shifts, trauma, responsibility, and simply trying to hold everything together can slowly become an identity. But what happens when you finally begin asking yourself who you are outside of survival? In this deeply personal episode, I talk honestly about ambition, fear, vulnerability, healing, motherhood, identi...

Rise Story In 1987, the world held its breath as 18-month-old Jessica McClure fell 22 feet into a narrow well in Midland, Texas. For 58 hours, rescue crews dug through rock by hand while millions watched and prayed. But this story isn’t only about a rescue. It’s about exhaustion. Fear. Human determination. Parents waiting helplessly. Rescue workers refusing to quit. And what happens when ordinary...

Rise Story Series. In this episode, we’re talking about the life of Christopher Reeve—a man most people knew as Superman… until everything changed in a single moment. After a devastating accident left him paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe, his life didn’t just shift—it completely reset. This is the part of the story we don’t always know what to do with. The part...

Rise Series What does Rising actually look like in medical motherhood? Not the dramatic moments—but the everyday ones. In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, I’m sharing what that season really looked like for me—the routines, the appointments, the court dates, and the quiet decisions I made without even realizing it. This is a raw look at: ● The daily weight o...

You think rising comes after survival mode. After the crisis. After the fear. After everything finally settles down. But what if you are already rising? In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected , we’re redefining what “rising” actually means— because it’s not something that started when life gets easier. It’s happening right in the middle of the hard. Rising looks...

Medical Motherhood series. You make it through the emergency… and everyone expects life to go back to normal. But what happens when it doesn’t? In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, we’re talking about the part no one prepares you for—the emotional crash that comes after the crisis is over. When the adrenaline fades, the appointments slow down, and things are...

Next up in my Medical Motherhood series.. If you feel like you’re constantly on edge… exhausted but unable to rest… forgetting everything and just trying to make it through the day—you might be living in survival mode. In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, we’re talking about what survival mode actually is—especially in medical motherhood—and why it’s not some...

Medical Motherhood series: There’s a part of medical motherhood no one really prepares you for… Not the appointments. Not the diagnoses. Not even the relationships. But you. Because somewhere along the way, while you’re caring for everyone else… you start to feel like you’ve lost yourself. In this episode, we’re talking about the identity shift that happens in medical motherhood—the quiet, in-betw...

Medical Motherhood Series Medical trauma affects more than just the child— it reshapes the entire family system. In this episode, we discuss how chronic illness, NICU experiences, and prolonged medical stress impact marriages, siblings, grandparents, friendships, and caregiver mental health. Learn how trauma can influence family dynamics, and emotional regulation for parents raising medically comp...