All Episodes

After our child dies, we all seem to struggle with the guilt of why we didn’t do more, or do something differently, that would have prevented their death.

How do we get past that? Does that feeling ever go away? In this episode, Laura brings on a guest, Sara Nelson, to discuss this.

Sara Faith Nelson taught elementary and middle school grades for 15 years. Now she enjoys pursuing her love of writing. The primary focus of her writing has always leaned toward themes of hope, faith, and trust in the goodness of God. Since the death of her daughter and only child, she writes about her grief journey and surviving a devastating loss. She continues to write about trusting in God’s goodness and grace while grappling with the hard questions.

Sara and her husband, Dennis, live in Arizona.

 (Note: The views and opinions of our guests outside of this podcast may not be in agreement with GPS Hope.)

Connect with Sara Nelson: [email protected]

Sara’s book on Amazon: Footsteps of Hope

GPS Hope public Facebook page.

GPS Hope private Facebook page.

Join almost 2,000 other pareavors who are receiving a Weekly Word of Hope from Laura.

Listen to the recent podcast episode about following the breadcrumbs: Why Can’t I Hear from God? 

Amy Rebecca Wetmore was born on March 13 and is forever 30.

Andrew Woulard was born on March 15 and is forever 23.

Jeffrey Macedo was born on March 15 and is forever 18.

Rohit Matthew was born on March 16 and is forever 23.

Adam Block was born on March 16 and is forever 34.

Taraoluwa Chizoba was born on March 17 and is forever 7.

Samuel Hines was born on March 19 and is forever 7.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

Would you like to have Laura come and speak to your group? Contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

Laura hears from many pareavors how they struggle with going to church after the death of their child. In today’s episode, she talks about some of the reasons this happens, along with some of her own struggles in this area.

She also spends time talking about the difference between going to church as a Sunday morning  institution and being in fellowship as the church outside the four walls of a building. This is a needed distinction for anyone struggling with “going to church”, but especially those of us who realize what is happening inside a building every week no longer meets the needs of our deeply wounded soul and spirit.

Laura makes it very clear that she is not against congregational services and acknowledges there are some pareavors who are getting strength and encouragement from their attendance at these weekly meetings. If you are being helped in your place of grief by the place of worship you attend, that is wonderful! Unfortunately, that is not the norm in our world of child loss.

GPS Hope & Healing Retreats

Check out Wayne Jacobson’s website and his books.

Ava Jenkins was born on March 6 and is forever 2.

Jonathan Van Verdegem was born on March 6 and is forever 19.

Steven Kowalewski was born on March 11 and is forever 28.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

Would you like to have Laura come and speak to your group? Contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

One thing Laura hears quite often from parents after child loss is their discouragement of not hearing from God or feeling His presence in their place of deep darkness and grief. She also hears from those who have read her book When Tragedy Strikes who are frustrated because God doesn’t speak to them the way He did to her during the darkest part of her grief after her daughter died.

In today’s episode, Laura shares some of her thoughts on this topic, along with praying over the listeners who are struggling in this area.

Note: There is much more that Laura could have shared on this subject than would fit into one episode. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments on the GPS Hope website or let her know if you want her to address this again in the future.

Find out more about When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life with Hope and Healing after the Death of Your Child.

Check out Wayne Jacobson’s podcast The God Journey.

GPS Hope & Healing Retreats.

Ian Rodriguez was born on February 26 and is forever 33.

Yafet Haddish was born on February 27 and is forever 21.

Christian Fafnis was born on March 4 and is forever 20.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

For those of us with other children, it is so difficult to watch them grieve the loss of their brother or sister. While we are relieved to be told that there is no right or wrong way to grieve for ourselves, we are often concerned that our children are not dealing with the loss of their brother or sister.

Last week I shared why the death of our child affects our other children so deeply, because often we are so consumed by our own grief, we can’t see why or how they are also deeply affected. I also gave you some things you can do to help your children process their grief, even within your own place of darkness. If you didn’t get a chance to hear it, I strongly recommend you start with that one before continuing.

This week we will talk about specific signs to know our children are not handling their grief well, more ways on how to help them, and signs to look for to know they need professional help.

Sponsor an In Loving Memory Heart for your child on the Hope Mobile.

Check out our GPS Hope & Healing Retreats.

To get an eBook copy of what was shared these last two episodes on helping our children with the loss of their sibling click here.

Jason Zimdars was born on February 20 and is forever 35.

William Burke was born on February 20 and is forever 29.

Sean Kelly was born on February 22 and is forever 44.

Dennis Santos was born on February 23 and is forever 31.

Shannon Johnson was born on February 23 and is forever 47.

Nolan Sanders was born on February 24 and is forever 28.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

Siblings play a big role and are meant to be the longest relationship in our lives. When a sibling dies, the ones left behind lose one of the only people who share a complete history with them, who are also supposed to be in most of their future. If they just had the one sibling, they lost the only person who shares the same history and future, having even more layers of grief to work through.

As parents who are grieving the death of our child, it is easy to overlook how deep the loss is for our other children with the loss of their brother or sister. In today’s episode, we discuss some of the complications of sibling death, as well as some things you can do to help bring your children comfort while being in your own place of grief.

Sponsor an In Loving Memory Heart for your child on the Hope Mobile.

Don’t forget to check out our GPS Hope & Healing Retreats.

Information about the January 2023 Grief Cruise.

Jeffrey Allison was born on February 14 and is forever 30.

Hailey Eastridge was born on February 14 and is forever 9.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

After the death of our child, many of us question God in ways we never thought we would, which puts us in a vulnerable place for attacks from the enemy.

Satan does not use new tactics. He uses the same ones he used in the garden of Eden on Eve. In this episode, Laura calls attention to those tactics, reminding us how sly and dangerous the enemy can be, shares how to recognize the enemy’s ways of trying to keep us in our place of darkness, and how to come against him to move toward God’s light.

We all find ourselves thrown into a suffocating pit of darkness for a long time when our child dies. That is where this journey starts. If that’s where you find yourself right now, it does not mean you are giving the enemy a place in your grief. However, without realizing it, sometimes we can give the enemy a way to keep us there, so it is important to make sure you know how to recognize the difference, and to know what to do about it when he comes to you the way he comes to all of us, since the very beginning of creation.

Sponsor an In Loving Memory Heart for your child on the Hope Mobile.

Find out about our GPS Hope & Healing Retreats.

Information about the January 2023 Grief Cruise.

Check out the book Conquering the Game of Control by Craig Green. (This is an affiliate link.)

Eric Weiss was born on February 9 and is forever 27.

Brenton Smith was born on February 10 and is forever 24.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

In this episode, Laura brings on a guest to talk about a deeply serious and needed topic after the death of our child. How important is your child to you, and how important is God to you?

Often, we don’t realize the love for our child can overshadow our love for God, causing us to get stuck in our suffocating darkness when our child leaves this earth before we do.  Laura and her guest, Shirley Thiessen, discuss this because they want you to be set free from anything that can keep you from being able to move forward in a way that brings a measure of hope and healing, which opens the door for you to learn how to live a life of meaning and purpose again.

Twelve days after her son’s wedding, Shirley Thiessen was thrown into the unimaginable task of planning his funeral. Grief threatened to extinguish her purpose. Hope and resiliency gradually emerged as she chose to participate with God to recycle her pain for His good purpose. Because most people are uncertain how to support those who grieve, Shirley founded the grief ministry, CornerBend Ministries, along with creating a playbook of best practices to build confidence and effectiveness.  

Shirley and her husband Carey live in Calgary, AB, Canada. Their newly married daughter, Chantel, is also active in the grief ministry.  

 (Note: The views and opinions of our guests outside of this podcast may not be in agreement with GPS Hope.)

Shirley’s websites: Corner Bend Ministries and  shirleythiessen.com

To email Shirley: [email protected]

Click here to find out more about the In Loving Memory Hearts to put on the Hope Mobile.

Find out more about the GPS Hope retreats.

Zachary Kidd was born on January 27 and is forever 26.

Bryce D. Thurman was born on January 30 and is forever 22.

Kayla Adkins was born on January 31 and is forever 25.

Robert Schafer DeVries was born on February 4 and is forever 35.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

Many pareavors (bereaved parents) struggle with feeling guilty for laughing or doing special things like taking vacations after the death of their child, believing it isn’t right to enjoy life again.

We will always have an undercurrent of sadness and grief that can surface at any time. Sometimes there are known triggers and sometimes it seems to be for no apparent reason. But we can learn to build our life around the grief, allowing the life of our child to continue to influence us to live life to the fullest.

In this episode, Laura talks about some of the reasons we may feel guilty, how to move past that guilt, and why it is important to live a life that has happiness, joy, peace and fulfillment after child loss.

Find out about our GPS Hope & Healing Retreats

Information about the January 2023 Grief Cruise.

Richie Rudkin was born on January 27 and is forever 27.

Robert Lelle was born on January 28 and is forever 26.

Robert Silva was born on January 28 and is forever 29.

Celeste France was born on January 29 and is forever 17.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

Many pareavors (bereaved parents) struggle with feeling guilty for laughing or doing special things like taking vacations after the death of their child, believing it isn’t right to enjoy life again.

In this episode, Laura brings on Lin Findlay to share about her own journey in this area after the death of her daughter, Aubrie, and why Lin now hosts The Grief Cruise for those who have lost loved ones.

Lin Findlay has worked with grieving families for over 30 years. After losing her daughter in 1989, she started a resource and referral service for grieving families. Soon after she began providing personalized aftercare solutions for hundreds of funeral homes across the nation. Lin is now an aftercare specialist who has created, facilitated, and coordinated hundreds of workshops, services, and support groups. As a Christian lay counselor, Lin’s highest honor is to enter people’s lives and help make a difference. To date, Lin has supported over 158,000 people on behalf of funeral homes across North America.

(Note: The views and opinions of our guests outside of this podcast may not be in agreement with GPS Hope.)

Lin Findlay’s websites: The International Grief Institute and Mourning Discoveries (aftercare for funeral homes)

Information about the January 2023 Grief Cruise.

Find out about our GPS Hope & Healing Retreats

Joshua Caldwell was born on January 16 and is forever 28.

Tate Kwiatkowski was born on January 16 and is forever 69 days.

Hugh Brown was born on January 19 and is forever 18.

Jeanette Marie was born on January 19 and is forever 36.

Erin Gisby was born on January 19 and is forever 3.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.

In today’s episode, Laura is sharing what a gift it is to be with others who have lost a child because they get it. They understand the darkness and the struggles.

It took her almost three years after her daughter, Becca, died to meet with a group who had lost a child because Laura didn’t think it would help to be around a bunch of others who were a mess like she was. When she finally made herself go to a conference for bereaved moms, Laura discovered it was just the opposite; it was wonderful and healing to be with others who understood and were a mess like her, plus Laura got to talk about Becca with others who wanted to hear about her daughter!

In this episode, you will hear from several women as they sit around the microphone and talk together about how important it was to each of them to become connected with each other while at a weekend retreat. You may be surprised at how much laughter there is, and the bond they seemed to share so quickly, having just met each other two days previously.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Teck Min and Yvonne from Singapore. Their 11 yr old daughter, Emma, was diagnosed with DIPG (a fast growing tumor in part of the brain stem) in July this year and passed away on 22nd Aug.

They share about their daughter:

One of her favorite songs was “Goodness of God”. The only comfort for us is that she is running with Jesus on His Heavenly green fields, enjoying His goodness. Emma – daddy, mummy and Isaac love you so much. Till we meet again, and we will all run together on the green fields.

Thank you Teck Min and Yvonne for sponsoring today’s episode in loving memory of your precious Emma.

Find out more about GPS Hope get-away weekend retreats.

Find out more about Umbrella Ministries

How to sponsor a podcast episode in loving memory of your child.

Joseph Youhana was born on January 6 and is forever 23.

Daniel Norwood ll was born on January 10 and is forever 10.

Adrienne was born on January 11 and is forever 19.

Jake Kalicki was born on January 12 and is forever 17.

Matthew Cole was stillborn on January 15.

Fill out the short form with the needed information to have your child’s birthday shared with our listeners.

The special song “I Remember Well“, which was written by Laura for our children’s birthdays, can be heard on your favorite music app. To hear samples of Laura’s other songs, click here.

www.gpshope.org

To have Laura come and minister at your event, contact us at [email protected].

Grieving Parents Sharing Hope (GPS Hope) is here to walk with parents through the darkness of child-loss, guiding them to a place of hope, light and purpose.

It is a safe place for anyone who has lost a child from this earth. There is no shame or judgment in where you are in this journey, including if you are struggling in your relationship with God or your faith has been completely shattered.