Listen and pray with me as I read the fourth day prayer from Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo's Novena of Surrender to Jesus. I share some of what I've seen God do over this year and some of what God brings to mind as I pray the ending line, Oh Jesus I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.

Listen and pray with me as I read the third day prayer from Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo's Novena of Surrender to Jesus. I share some of what I've seen God do over this year and some of what God brings to mind as I pray the ending line, Oh Jesus I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.

Listen and pray with me as I read the second day prayer from Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo's Novena of Surrender to Jesus. I share some of what I've seen God do over this year and some of what God brings to mind as I pray the ending line, Oh Jesus I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.

Listen and pray with me as I read the first day prayer from Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo's Novena of Surrender to Jesus. I share some of what I've seen God do over this year and some of what God brings to mind as I pray the ending line, Oh Jesus I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything. 

May awesome things happen for you today.

Want to let me know what you think? 

You can find me on Instagram at AdiTilfordWrites, Facebook at AdiTilford-Author and at my website AdiTilford.com. You can now subscribe to my monthly newsletter for the blog, the pod and fun tips for saying Yes to God’s promises for your life.

Rebecca Vahle is my treasured guest on today's episode. My friend and mentor, Rebecca has been my number one go to person for advice in motherhood. She has pointed me to incredible resources and walked with our family during some challenging times. It's wild to think that we met because of a call for hospital education and reform around adoption that God placed on her heart! We dig into that journey for Rebecca from her personal experiences with adoption in the hospital to finding herself as a national leader for changing how hospitals care for unique populations. This episode holds laughter and no surprise to you, my tears too. 

Rebecca Vahle, MA, founded the Family to Family Support Network (FFSN) as a pro-education non-profit organization in 2015. Currently holding the title of Executive Director, Rebecca and her team have been training healthcare professionals in Unique Family Care for 18 years. Her work training healthcare professionals began as Adoption Liaison - a newly created position to better serve unique families- at Parker Adventist Hospital in Colorado. Rebecca created the first hospital -based adoption support program in the country and has defined adoption-sensitive care for infant adoption situations in hospitals across the United States. She currently serves on teh Advisory Council for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute that educates the Adoption Caucus on Capitol Hill. Rebecca is well qualified to speak about the specific needs of unique families. 

Resources and connection: Webinar “Utilizing Shared Decision-Making Tools to Assist Expectant Patients/Clients in the Post-Roe Era, Family to family support network https://familytofamilysupportnetwork.mykajabi.com/, the Coming Together for Families Campaign and all 15 interviews completed so far  at https://familytofamilysupportnetwork.mykajabi.com/ctff-campaign Facebook Rebecca Swan Vahle or Family to Family Support Network at on Instragram at f2fsupport.   Instagram at AdiTilfordWrites, Facebook at AdiTilford-Author and at my website AdiTilford.com. You can now subscribe to my monthly newsletter for the blog, the pod and fun tips for saying Yes to God’s promises for your life. You even get a free downloadable printable that I made for Bryan Post’s 3 up 3 down strategy found in episode 11.

Annie F. Downs with Deborah Liu 

Dave Thomas Foundation

Heather Forbes - Classroom 180

Article - the Abortion Tollroad

Bruce Perry, NME

Christian Alliance for Orphans

Claris Health

Lori Holden

8000 Promises Episodes Referenced: 2,4,5, 9, 10, 11

This gem filled conversation is with parenting guru and adoption expert Bryan Post. I was lucky enough to meet Bryan in person right before the start of the pandemic. Bryan lives out his messages, and his in person presence is calming and kind. It is easy to see how Bryan’s methods and messages so profoundly change the way people parent and live. This episode of 8000 Promises covers large turf - from Bryan’s challenging start in life to three steps leaders can take today to live a more regulated life and create systemic change. We discuss the power of oxytocin in combating stress and a call to action for trauma-informed care as a response to helping prevent tragedies like the shooting in Uvalde. Listen to find out what Bryan names as the most healing force in the universe as his promise to live into!

Bryan Post, an adopted and former foster child, is one of America’s Foremost Child Behavior and Adoption Experts and founder of the Post Institute. A renowned clinician, lecturer, and best-selling author of From Fear to Love, The Great Behavior Breakdown and ten other books, and more than 100 video and audio programs, Bryan has traveled throughout the world providing expert treatment and consultation to a variety of groups. An internationally recognized specialist in the treatment of emotional and behavioral disturbance, Bryan specializes in a love-based treatment approach that focuses on developing a deeper understanding of trauma, stress and fear and how they rule our lives. He counters this by offering an enlightening perspective on the all-encompassing power of love to bring us peace and healing.

The love-based, family-centered principles and concepts offered by Bryan have been taught to more than one million parents and professionals around the world. You can receive a free copy of his best-selling adoption parenting book From Fear to Love by going to https:///www.feartolovebook.com

You can find more about Bryan Post at his website Bryan Post Companies, https://postinstitute.com, on Facebook at Bryan Post or at The Post Institute, on Instragram at bryanpostofficial and bryanpostparenting.  Find those links in the show notes! I also want to say thank you to my family for supporting my dreams and letting me spend time in this work instead of folding laundry. 8000 Promises is an original podcast produced and published by me, Adi Tilford. You’ll find the resources mentioned during the interview in the show notes.

If you feel so led please give the podcast a rating and recommend it to a friend, maybe even hit the subscribe button! You can find me on Instagram at AdiTilfordWrites, Facebook at AdiTilford-Author and at my website AdiTilford.com. You can now subscribe to my monthly newsletter for the blog, the pod and fun tips for saying Yes to God’s promises for your life.

May great things happen for you today.

My guest today is my friend and fellow podcaster, Heather O’Brien. Heather is a wife and mother, biker and poet, educator and strong believer in the American ideal.  Her current passion is bringing people of different beliefs and philosophies together to engage in discourse and dialogue.  Heather’s podcast is called US or Bust and can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Earlier this year, Heather and I found ourselves reveling in the newness of trying podcasting. At some point we agreed - wouldn’t it be fun to sit down for one conversation to be used for two podcasts. You can listen to her Episode Unboxable here - with some added segments I love like her segment on literature that emboldens the conversation.

I knew going into this interview that Heather is not a Christian. In fact, one of our most interesting conversations before the podcast,  gets revisited in more depth here - in which she told me that though she is not a Christian she credits Christianity with saving her life. We also talk about feminism and judgement and the Christian call to love. And by they way - all of this conversation happened just after an early summer mountain bike ride in which Heather schooled me both up and down a mountain! What a fun day.

If you're ready to think about how to have authentic conversations with people who might not think exactly like you do, this episode is for you. Whether you’re a mom, an educator, a pastor, a person wrestling with faith or the  person ready to hear a Christian and non-Christian talk about Jesus with no agenda but love and developing understanding of one another’s perspective, get ready to think! Dare to be okay with the possibility of discomfort - while you embrace a different perspective during this episode of 8000 Promises.

You can find Heather at her podcast U.S. or Bust 

You can find me on Instagram at AdiTilfordWrites, Facebook at AdiTilford-Author and at my website AdiTilford.com. You can now subscribe on my website for monthly updates for the blog, the pod and fun tips for saying Yes to God’s promises for your life.

My beautiful and caring guest is Ondi Mejia. She is a pastor in the Foursquare Church and the writer of a blog and an almost finished book! Ondi’s passionate about passion - longing and callings and working hard all for the glory of God. In this Episode of 8000 Promises, Ondi and I chat about writing a book and saying yes to the small things and watching how they add up to make much bigger yeses for God. We also chat about how the church and the people that make up God’s church have a distinct call to love others and point them to Jesus. Ondi’s prepandemic blog post, ”Caring for those with Mental Illness: Just Love,” and her experience walking through crisis with the survivors of the Campfire in Paradise California, led us to a discussion of how the church can become a more trauma informed church. Listen in as we wrestle with how to love others well. Then put to use Ondi's practical tips for how to look for and act on the little yeses in both your passionate pursuits and in loving others well. Thanks for being here.

From her Blog:

As a stay-at-home Mom, recently licensed Foursquare pastor, former high school teacher, and former collegiate runner, Ondi is real about her struggle to connect her secular life with her spiritual one. The more she abides in Christ, the more she realizes she only has one life.

Ondi hopes that her writing reminds you of this fact, and helps you to knit together your spiritual life with every single thing you do each day, and everything you strive to achieve with your life.

Ondi is a wife of 12 years to an amazing, godly husband, a mother of three lovely children, and a pastor’s kid! She loves to run, drink coffee, and eat all the French fries and desserts.

You can find Ondi at her website abideandwrite.com, on Instagram at Abideandwrite or on Facebook at @abideandwrite

You can find me at aditilford.com, on Instagram at aditilfordwrites, and on Facebook at aditilford-Author

My incredible guest today is Rachael Hunt Elmore. She is a licensed Christian counselor in North Carolina and she specializes in helping moms in the throes of postpartum depression as well as helping all moms find ways to develop and maintain emotional health. In addition to being a fulltime mom, wife and practicing counselor, she is finishing up her manuscript for her first book, A Mom is Born and speaking in a variety of places to share her wisdom around motherhood. For this pod, she showed up to talk about the power and promise for change in our lives, the shift that happens when we accept the promise of our worth, key tips for how to find the right fit when you are ready to meet with a counselor, and my favorite bit of all - three minute and low cost self-care. This episode is for everybody - moms and non-moms alike. Everybody deserves a counselor and we can all benefit from the wisdom of Racheal. It’s the middle of summer and I’m stoked to try the swanky mid-day tip she shares with us during this episode of 8000 Promises.

Rachael is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor (LCMHC-S) in North Carolina with 17 years of experience in the counseling field. She is also a National Certified Counselor by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).  She is a clinically-trained Christian counselor. Rachael holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a concentration in Family and Child Counseling from North Carolina State University. Prior to working in private practice, she has worked in the church, school, hospital, and community mental health settings.  Rachael is passionate about repairing relationships, restoring healthy identity, and helping individuals in finding purpose in Christ. She utilizes creative therapy in counseling and desires to aid others in navigating through struggles to reach restoration, meaning, and hope.

You can find Rachael and more about the upcoming book  at her website Elmorechristiancounseling.org . 

Connect with Rachael on instagram at Rachaelhuntelmore . That’s R-A-C-H-A-E-L-H-U-N-T-E-L-M-O-R-E

Find Rachael on Facebook at Rachael Elmore, Author and Counselor. 

Self-care Wheel  - this is the one our TBRI coach shared with us, but there are many versions available on-line.

May great things happen to you today!

Erin Nestico is a former elementary teacher who uses her education background to speak on dating, domestic violence and the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships.  God saved her physically from an abusive relationship, and she is passionate about helping teens and young adults enter into safe, loving partnerships.  She and her husband, Chris live in Adams, New York with their four children and a menagerie of pets.

After 12 years in an abusive relationship, Erin was able to find her way out. In this episode of 8000 Promises, Erin and I talk about how Erin was able to leave the relationship in which she was trapped for so long, how online resources helped end the isolation created by abuse and how she is still learning to trust God’s timing in all stages of life. Erin shares how learning about certain terminology helped her realize that what was happening was not an okay way to live.  We hope this discussion helps shine light into the darkness of domestic violence, a common problem that affects an estimated 10 million people every year.

Erin says that, "Love Doesn't’ Destroy, was born out of the mess of my abusive relationship and the burning desire for teens and young women to know what I did not know at their age."

This includes:

Additional resources mentioned in the episode to help when in need or to learn more:

8000 Promises with Michelle McManus of BabybeBrave episode 3 includes some discussion on the topic of gaslighting. 

Love is Respect: https://www.loveisrespect.org/

One Love Foundation: https://www.joinonelove.org/

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: https://ncadv.org/

Bicycle Health Blog Post:

Understand the Link Between Domestic Violence and Addiction

Find Erin at:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/LoveDoesntDestroy

IG: https://www.instagram.com/love_doesnt_destroy/?hl=en

Website: https://www.lovedoesntdestroy.org/