Send me a message via text or voicemail!

Season 4 begins a little differently.

Before we officially begin Season 4 of Hidden Chapters, I wanted to share a little more of my own story.

If you've been listening for a while, you're used to hearing me ask the questions. This time, the roles were reversed.

I recently had the privilege of joining Tracy "Mrs. JDog" Flanagan on the Tactical Treasures Podcast, where she turned the questions toward me. We talked about my military journey, the experiences that shaped me, the transition into a new chapter of life, and the story behind creating Hidden Chapters.

When I listened back to our conversation, I knew it belonged here. Before I ask my Season 4 guests to open the hidden chapters of their stories, I wanted to invite you into one of mine.

A heartfelt thank you to Tracy and the entire Tactical Treasures team for inviting me onto their show and graciously allowing me to share this conversation with the Hidden Chapters community.

🇺🇸 About Tactical Treasures🇺🇸

Tactical Treasures uncovers the powerful stories of the military community, highlighting service, the transition to civilian life, and the invaluable "tactical treasures" that guide people along the way.

If you enjoyed hearing my story through Tracy's questions, I hope you'll take a moment to explore Tactical Treasures and the stories they're sharing with veterans, military families, and the broader military community.

Listen & Connect with Tactical Treasures

🌐 Website:
https://tacticaltreasurespodcast.com/

📺 YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@tacticaltreasures

👩🏻‍💻 Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tacticaltreasurespodcast

🎙️ Watch the original conversation:
https://youtu.be/JjBQSgdencQ?si=j781smE9dxjVFW4M

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

Welcome to Season 4 of Hidden Chapters!  🎉

This is more than a new season. It's the beginning of a new chapter for the podcast.

In this short episode, I'm sharing the story behind Hidden Chapters' new cover art, why I've made the decision to move to a biweekly release schedule, and what you can expect from the conversations ahead.

"Hidden Chapters exists to honor the stories we don't always see," has become the heartbeat of everything I'm creating.

Thank you for being part of this community. Whether you've listened from the very beginning or you're just joining us, I'm grateful you're here.

🎧  🎙️Season 4 officially begins on August 21, and I can't wait to introduce you to the incredible guests and meaningful conversations ahead.

If you haven't already, be sure to follow the podcast so new episodes automatically appear in your library every other Friday.

Because every person carries a hidden chapter...and every story deserves to be honored.

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

☀️  As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer.  ☀️

Original Shownotes:
What if the cracks in your life could become your most beautiful part? Inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, I share how heartbreak, disappointment, and loss can be transformed into strength, light, and beauty.

In this solo episode, I reflect on my own hidden chapters, stories from past guests, and what it truly means to be “mended with gold.” If you’ve ever felt broken or unfinished, this episode is for you, a reminder that healing is possible and beauty can emerge from the cracks.

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

 ☀️ As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer.  ☀️

Original Shownotes:
🎙️  Episode Summary

In this deeply moving episode, Mick shares his journey of navigating unimaginable grief after the loss of his son, the raw and authentic prayers that sustained him, and how his faith in God has transformed over 14 years. Mick also opens up about building his podcast from the ground up without financial compensation, trusting God every step of the way. From heartbreak to hope, and from uncertainty to purpose, this episode is a testament to how faith, family, and persistence can turn pain into blessing

🎧 What we talk about in this episode:

• Learning to pray authentically and be fully raw with God
• Mick’s faith journey: from early struggles to deep trust and spiritual growth
• Experiencing God’s provision, guidance, and blessings through life’s challenges
• Starting and growing a podcast without pay while trusting God for provision
• Lessons on faith, perseverance, and trusting God even when circumstances make no logical sense

📖  Mick's Hidden Chapter Moment 

Mick's hidden chapter is the long stretch between January 4, 2012 and March 2025 :the years most people never saw. The grief of losing his son. A miscarriage. The quiet rebuilding of a faith that started on his knees in a hospital hallway. It's the savings account meant for a mortgage that became a year of provision, and the job offer that fell through in a way that could only be described as God. The three words, sit, wait, and trust that asked him to trust completely before he had any reason on paper to do so. The hidden chapter is where God was building something Mick couldn't see yet. And everything visible now grew from what happened in that invisible season.

🔗  Resources & Mentions:

•  "The Awe of God" by John Bevere
• Ephesians 2:10, Luke 6:46, Matthew 6:26
• "When You Look Podcast", Episode 33 - Mick's full testimony
• 🔗 🎙️🎧 Mick and I connected with Podmatch.com https://www.joinpodmatch.com/genevievekruger

📩 Connect with Mick: Mick is the host of the When You Look podcast.
Website: whenyoulook.com

🎙️  Podmatch.com


Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

 ☀️ As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer. ☀️

Original Shownotes:
If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, start there, it’s the foundation for everything in this episode.

🎙️  Episode Summary PART 2

In Part 1, Laura Engel shared what happened in 1967: the pregnancy, the unwed mothers’ home in New Orleans, the forced goodbye, and the fifty years of silence that followed. 

In Part 2, everything changes.

 In 2016, Laura submitted her DNA to Ancestry.com. A few months later, her firstborn son,  the one she’d been told to forget, actually found her. What followed was five years of reunion: of learning who he had become, of introducing him to family, of filling in the gaps on both sides. And then, in 2021, she lost him again in a way she never saw coming.

 She almost didn’t publish the book. In this episode, Laura talks about what changed her mind, what her story has meant to the thousands of adoptees and birth mothers who found themselves in its pages, and why she’s still speaking for all the women who can’t yet.

🎧  What We Talk About in This Episode

• The DNA test that changed everything and the moment Laura realized her son had found her
• What the reunion with Richard was like after 49 years apart
• The grief of losing Richard in 2021 and what she calls “the most complicated grief I’ve ever lived through”
• Why she almost pulled the book from publication after he died and what made her say yes

📖  Laura's Hidden Chapter Moment

After Richard died, Laura’s husband Gene said something to her that she couldn’t shake.

She told him she wished Richard had never found her. And he said: "don’t ever say that again. Because look what you learned. Look what you got. You loved him. He loved you. And we have three grandchildren we never would have known existed."

That’s the hidden chapter in all of this. Not just the shame, not just the grief, but the love that was there the whole time, even in the parts that hurt the most. 

 🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Laura’s memoir: You’ll Forget This Ever Happened by Laura L. Engel: available on Amazon and through She Writes Press
• Laura’s website and the Family Secrets podcast episode where she first shared her story: lauralengel.com
• Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: adoptionknowledge.org — education and support across the adoption triad
• CUB – Concerned United Birthparents: cubirthparents.org — support for birth parents
• Adoptee Rights Law Center: adopteerightslaw.com — check your state’s current law on original birth certificate access
• ISRR – International Soundex Reunion Registry: isrr.org — mutual consent reunion registry
• DNA Detectives on Facebook — volunteer search angels to help adoptees and birth parents connect
• Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors: allianceofhope.org
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

☀️ As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer. ☀️

🎙️  Episode Summary PART 1: 

Laura Engel was seventeen when she got pregnant, unmarried, in Mississippi in 1967.  Her family sent her to an unwed mothers' home in New Orleans for five months.  She signed papers she didn't want to sign. She then came back home to her parents house and was expected to just keep going on with her life.  

 She did that...for fifty years.

🎧  In Part 1 of our conversation,  Laura shares what her experience of being pregnant, the months living at the home, and what the next fifty years looked like carrying a child she never forgot.  We end on a cliffhanger: the son she had to give away, Jamie, now named Richard, finally found her! 

 📖 Laura's Hidden Chapter Moment: 

The pregnancy, the unwed mother home, and giving up her baby, are all parts people can only imagine.  The hidden chapter is what came after.  Laura walked back into her life and nobody every spoke of it again. Not because she'd healed, but because that was how it was supposed to be.


 🔗 Resources & Links

Include these in your episode show notes so listeners who connect with Laura’s story can find support and community:

Laura’s Links

• Website: lauralengel.com (includes a Starter Guide for finding a lost loved one)

• Book: You’ll Forget This Ever Happened available on Amazon and through She Writes Press

• First podcast appearance: Dani Shapiro’s Family Secrets — available on Laura’s website

Adoption & Birth Parent Resources

• CUB (Concerned United Birthparents): cubirthparents.org — support for birth parents

• Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: adoptionknowledge.org — education and advocacy across the adoption triad

• ISRR (International Soundex Reunion Registry): isrr.org — mutual consent reunion registry

• DNA Detectives (Facebook group) — volunteer search angels to help adoptees and birth parents connect

• Adoptee Rights Law Center: adopteerightslaw.com — advocacy for open original birth certificates

For Adoptees Seeking Records

• Many states are gradually opening access — check your state’s current law at adopteerightslaw.com/map

• Ancestry.com and 23andMe DNA testing remain powerful tools for connection

Grief & Suicide Loss Resources

• Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors: allianceofhope.org

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: afsp.org  |  Crisis line: 988

Podmatch.com


Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

☀️ As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer. ☀️

This week's episode is a tender conversation.  It explores grief and joy existing side by side and what it looks like to carry both at the same time.  It's a reminder that healing is not linear.  Melissa's joy resonates through her interview!


Original Shownotes:
In this heartfelt episode of Hidden Chapters, Melissa shares her journey through grief after losing her twin brother, Grant, and the unexpected way his loss transformed her life.

Grant was the bubbly one, the encourager, the light in every room. Melissa often called herself “the mean one,” the twin who got them into trouble. But when Grant passed, something shifted. His joy became her legacy.

Melissa opens up about their unbreakable twin bond, the devastation of sudden loss, and how faith, grief, and love have shaped the way she now lives with intention, joy, and an open heart to serve others.

This isn’t just a story about loss. It’s a story about choosing joy alongside grief, honoring the people we love, and learning how to carry their light forward in our own lives.

Contact Melissa: 

📧 Email:  [email protected] 

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

☀️As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer.

Original Shownotes:
What happens when the life you built starts to slowly unravel, not with a crash, but with quiet, unseen shifts?

In this episode of Hidden Chapters, Liz Davis shares her journey as a military spouse navigating identity loss, the emotional weight of constant change, and the courageous decision to choose herself and begin again.

Liz shares the hidden realities of military family life, the sacrifices, silent struggles, and honest conversations with her kids about what was really happening at home. Beyond the challenges, she invites us into her story of rediscovering self-worth, creating a peaceful home, and launching a new career in financial planning.

This isn’t just a story about divorce, it’s about growth, clarity, and hope. Whether or not you’re connected to military life, Liz’s honesty about reinvention, parenting, and reclaiming identity will resonate with anyone facing a season of deep change.

A Personal Note from Genevieve:
This episode feels a little different, more of a real conversation about struggles Liz and I have both walked through. Having traveled a similar path in my own military marriage, I found myself adding more to this conversation not just as a host, but as someone who truly understands the quiet struggles and hidden chapters many military spouses face. Liz’s story reminded me why it’s so important to speak these truths out loud and choose ourselves, even when it’s hard.

This episode is for anyone facing a season of reinvention, questioning who they are outside the roles they’ve carried, and learning that choosing yourself can be the beginning of a more peaceful life.

💻 Connect with Liz:
📧 Email: [email protected]
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/liz-davis-finance

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

☀️  As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer.

This week's episode is a deeply relatable conversation about motherhood, expectations, and the emotional weight so many women carry quietly. 
It's honest, raw, and unfiltered in a way that makes you feel less alone.  For anyone navigating motherhood and everything it brings with it, this one is for you. 


Original Shownotes:
In this powerful episode of Hidden Chapters, Meg opens up about the unexpected journey of early motherhood. From birth trauma and postpartum depression to parenting a neurodivergent child, she shares the chapters she never saw coming.

Meg reflects on how her own childhood shaped the way she parents today and the healing that’s come through therapy, honesty, and doing the hard inner work. We talk openly about unmet expectations, isolation, resentment, and the emotional weight many mothers carry in silence.

This conversation is full of truth, hope, and Meg’s deep belief that healing is possible. Even when motherhood looks nothing like you imagined.

If you’ve ever felt alone in motherhood, struggled with postpartum mental health, or found yourself grieving the version of parenting you expected, this episode is for you.

Connect with Megan:  

Want to stay in touch with Meg or learn more about her work and her greeting card company? Check out all of her links and socials. 

Portia and Pete Greeting Card Company:   www.portiaandpete.etsy.com

Megan’s LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/meganmcglynn

Email:  [email protected]

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Send me a message via text or voicemail!

☀️ As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast,  stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer.☀️

This week's Summer Replay conversation explores identity, transition, and what happens when one chapter of life closes and another one begins.  If these topics are something that resonates with your life, this episode with my husband is worth the listen. 

Original shownotes:
In this episode, my husband, Chris joins me to share his journey from Army life to author. We explore the highs and lows of deployments, the challenges of reintegrating into civilian life, and the emotional impact of the Afghanistan withdrawal on veterans.

We explore the hidden struggles that service members face: deployments, mental health challenges, and the transition to civilian life.  Chris opens up about the lessons he’s learned, the power of sharing personal stories, and how storytelling can build connection and understanding for both veterans and their families

All the links to connect with Chris: 

📚 Purchase "Walking Away From the Ledge" on Amazon:  https://a.co/d/aIIhZxm

🔗 FB: Chris Kruger 

Support the show

🌐  Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected! 

🎙️  Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters.

Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
or visit the website to apply to be a guest. 

 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay