This summer I'm going to try something new by re-releasing a few of my older Fighting for Joy Podcast episodes. While I'm taking a break from creating new content I wanted to pull out a few conversations that may have gotten buried in your feed in hopes that they will provide you with fresh encouragement. Our podcast community has also grown quite a bit over the years so if you're a new listener, these may be episodes you haven't had a chance to listen to yet.

The first one I will be highlighting is "Episode 1 - Our Story", originally released on November 19, 2018. Here's what I wrote then:

Today my husband, Eric Blick, joins me on the podcast as we share a little bit about why this fight for joy is personal for us. As I mentioned in the preview episode, this podcast will be full of stories, and I thought it was appropriate to “go first” with our story. Eric and I met at Wheaton College and have been married for 24 years. We have four children and live in Nebraska. Our firstborn son, Jackson, died at the age of 16 in 2013.

Our goal in this first episode is not to fully or perfectly tell our story. In fact, there are a few details that we almost edited out because we remembered them differently. But, that is part of trauma...and part of going through grief together, but separately. So we didn't make any edits. With this podcast, I've decided that "done is better than perfect". Grief is messy...and this podcast will be messy at times as well.

I'm thankful that Eric agreed to be my first guest. He has believed in this project from the start and I seriously couldn't have gotten it started without him. So I'm excited for you to get to know him a little bit as we share our hearts and help you better understand the “why” behind this podcast.