Reflections From The Fire

Andrea had wanted to be a mom for as long as she could remember. After her marriage to Braden she was anxious to start growing their family. But life has a way of not always going exactly the way we imagine. Anxiety, postpartum depression, mania, suicidal ideation, birthing complications, diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and more, all became a part of Andrea's reality. Listen closely as she shares the challenges she faced and how she was able to draw closer to Christ and find peace in the journey.

Braden accidentally discovers his father's drug addiction as a young boy. His perfect world comes crashing down abruptly. His parents divorce and his father introduces him to pornography. In this story, Braden shares how he struggled with feelings of abandonment while simultaneously battling with the demons of addiction. Along the way, he also discovers the true depth of the Savior's redeeming love and finds forgiveness in his wounded heart. 

Reflections from the Fire has hit 3 years of podcasting! Here's a quick update and a little background into how we prepare for the interviews. Thank you for all of the support!

Warrior, Husband, Father, Man of Faith, Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, friends lost, friends wounded, suicide, and more. This story has it all. Joe Policarpo shares his story of enlisting in the military, serving multiple tours oversees, pushing through the unknown of improvised explosive devices and overhead bombs, being injured and helping friends in a time of need. These experiences take a heavy toll and even the strongest warriors experience lasting impacts. Joe shares how he worked through them all with his beautiful family enduring the struggle and providing support all along the way. 

In 2015, Troy accidentally runs over his 9 year old son Austen, killing him. The grief and loss are overwhelming for the family. For years they struggle to carry-on living. In 2021, just as life was starting to resume for the family, Deedra, Austen's mom, suffers life threatening injuries by an impaired driver traveling in the wrong direction. She spends 136 days in the hospital and undergoes countless surgeries. To this day she continues to struggle with the permanent damage of many of her injuries. This is a story of enduring to the end. This is a story filled with pain, sorrow, grief, and most of all, this is a story of a family buoyed up and led by faith, hope, love, and courage. 

Greg and Cammy share the heartbreaking story of losing their daughter Brooke. At 19 years old, she was abducted, assaulted and murdered. Their story is what any parent fears, but their message is filled with hope, faith, forgiveness, love and kindness. 

While serving a mission in Mongolia, Ashley begins having health troubles. Chronic pain develops and nobody seems to be able to figure out what's wrong. Her story travels the road of self doubt, faith in crisis, college, marriage, depression, eventual diagnosis, surgery, miscarriages, miracles, a new perspective, and so much more.

In our previous episode we heard from Bryce about his struggles with abuse, addiction and infidelity. Today we hear from Ashley, Bryce's wife. Ashley shares her side of the story and how Bryce's actions impacted her. But Ashley's story is so much more than just "the other side" of someone else's story. She has a powerful, hard-earned story of her own. Ashley struggled with feelings of worthlessness, doubts in her faith, battling cancer, and more. Her strength today comes from a lifetime of experiences. 

Raised in a household of faith and good values, Bryce was taught to be kind and to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. But what happens when the hero becomes the victim? In an act of outreach and kindness to an outcast in the group, Bryce found himself powerless to protect himself from a predator. In this episode, Bryce opens up about sexual abuse, addiction to porn, the chains of bad decisions that followed him into his church mission and even his eventual marriage to his sweet wife. Bryce shares how love, faith, boundaries, persistence and a lot of patience truly saved his life.

Allison & Ryan have a beautiful family with 7 children. In this episode, they share the love and joy of the life of their oldest son Jefferson as well as the heartache of his untimely death at the young age of 17. Come to understand why Allison can say; "Death is not the worst thing".