There’s a new name and new artwork in your podcast feed: Holyoaks Rise is becoming Well, That Got Medical: A Holyoaks Rise Podcast. Why the change? After talking with medical families and experts—and living on both sides of the bedside as a NICU nurse and medical mom—I’ve gotten clearer about who this show is here to serve.

In this episode, I share what “Well, That Got Medical” means, why a diagnosis or medical event can change life for an entire family, and why Holyoaks Rise remains the heart behind the podcast.

Medical families come in all varieties. You might be navigating the NICU, chronic illness, disability, rare disease, mental health needs, complex care, or caregiving. Whatever brought you here, I want this to be a place where you can bring the questions you’re trying to figure out.

Going forward, you’ll hear stories from people who’ve lived it, answers from people who know it, and conversations that help us figure things out together. There’s still room for resilience, humor, hope, and the many ways families rise through the unexpected.

If you’re new here, welcome. If you’ve been listening since Holyoaks Rise began, I’m glad you’re coming with me. Follow for more rise stories.

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What happens when the crisis is finally over… but you don’t feel okay yet?

We spend so much time talking about how to survive hard things that we rarely talk about what happens afterward.

The hospital stay ends. The baby comes home. Treatment is finished. The divorce is final. The caregiving season changes. You make it through burnout, grief, job loss, financial hardship, a major life transition, or simply a season that took more out of you than you expected.

Everyone else moves on—but sometimes you’re still living in the aftermath.

In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, Amanda explores the emotional and practical aftermath of difficult seasons: delayed emotions, exhaustion, unexpected triggers, changed relationships, lingering responsibilities, and the strange realization that surviving something and recovering from it are two very different things.

We talk about why you can be grateful and still struggle, why emotions sometimes show up after the emergency has passed, why “getting back to normal” isn’t always the goal, and what it can actually look like to rebuild after life doesn’t go according to plan.

This episode also marks a broader chapter for Holyoaks Rise.

While Amanda’s experiences as a NICU nurse, medical mom, adoptive mom, and caregiver will always be part of the show, Holyoaks Rise is about something bigger: resilience in all its forms.

Going forward, we’ll explore inspiring true stories, remarkable people from history, the science and psychology of resilience, medical and caregiving experiences, family and relationships, failure and starting over, unexpected life transitions, and conversations with people who have faced something they never planned for—and found a way forward.

Because the unexpected isn’t only medical.

It can be losing something you thought was permanent. Starting over when you thought you’d have life figured out by now. Facing a fear. Caring for someone you love. Watching a dream change. Failing. Rebuilding. Discovering a strength you didn’t know you had. Or simply waking up one day and realizing:

This is not how I thought my life was going to go.

The circumstances may be different, but the question at the heart of Holyoaks Rise remains the same:

What happened when life didn’t go according to plan—and how did you rise?

If you’re navigating the aftermath of a hard season, recovering from burnout or a crisis, adjusting to a major life change, supporting someone you love, or simply looking for stories of hope and human resilience, this episode is for you.

Because sometimes the rise doesn’t happen during the crisis.

Sometimes the crisis ends, everyone goes home—and that’s where the rise begins.

🎙️ Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected

Hosted by Amanda Holyoak

When Blair’s baby was diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), she entered a world of NICU care, specialists, feeding challenges, and questions she never expected to have to answer.

But when her daughter began struggling with breast milk, Blair noticed something wasn’t adding up—and she kept asking questions.

In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, Blair shares her experience as the mom of a medically complex baby receiving specialized CDH care at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in Florida. She talks about navigating her daughter’s CDH journey, the challenges surrounding feeding and breast milk, and the research that eventually led her to Milkify.

Through Milkify, Blair was able to have her breast milk freeze-dried and receive nutritional information about her milk—giving her and her daughter’s medical team another piece of the puzzle.

What started as one mom searching for a way to help her own baby became something bigger. Blair’s experience helped spark conversations within her daughter’s hospital and ultimately contributed to a policy change.

We talk about:

• ​ What it’s like having a baby diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH)• Navigating the NICU and specialized CDH care• Breast milk and feeding challenges with a medically complex baby• How Blair discovered Milkify• The nutritional information she received about her breast milk• Learning to research, question, and advocate as a medical parent• Partnering with your child’s healthcare team• How one parent’s persistence can help create change for families who come next

And the timing of Blair’s story feels especially meaningful because September is NICU Awareness Month.

Behind every NICU baby is a family learning terminology they never expected to know, sitting through rounds, watching monitors, asking questions, researching late at night, and becoming an advocate for someone they love more than anything.

Blair’s story is a beautiful example of that.

She didn’t start out trying to change a hospital policy. She was simply a mom trying to understand what her daughter needed.

She noticed.

She asked.

She researched.

And she kept going.

This NICU Awareness Month, Blair’s story reminds us that parents aren’t just standing beside the NICU bed—they can be an incredibly important part of the care team.

And sometimes one parent asking, “Could there be another way?” can help make things better for the families who come after them.

Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected shares real stories of resilience, medical motherhood, caregiving, healthcare, and ordinary people navigating circumstances they never expected—and finding a way to rise through them.

🎙️ Follow Holyoaks Rise for more stories of people rising through the unexpected.

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What if you love your baby deeply… but you don’t feel like their mom yet?

Bonding with your baby in the NICU can look very different from the picture you had in your head. Instead of immediate skin-to-skin and uninterrupted newborn snuggles, there may be incubators, monitors, respiratory support, procedures, nurses, and days—or even weeks—before parenting begins to feel the way you expected.

In this episode of Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected, Amanda Holyoak talks about NICU bonding, attachment, and the emotional reality of becoming a parent in the NICU—including something many parents are afraid to admit: sometimes the connection isn’t instant.

You’ll hear practical, gentle ways to bond with your premature or medically fragile baby, even when holding, feeding, or caring for them normally isn’t possible. We’ll talk about skin-to-skin care, touch, your voice, scent, participating in cares, pumping and feeding, and the small everyday moments that can help you begin to feel like your baby’s parent—not just a visitor in the NICU.

Most importantly, this episode is a reminder that bonding isn’t one magical moment. It’s a relationship built over time.

Whether your baby is premature, medically complex, or spending unexpected time in the neonatal intensive care unit, there are still ways to know them, comfort them, advocate for them, and build connection—even from beside an isolette.

In this episode:

● How to bond with a baby in the NICU

● Why NICU parents may struggle to feel connected

● Bonding when you can’t hold or feed your baby

● Skin-to-skin and other ways to build attachment

● Finding your role as a NICU mom or dad

● Letting go of guilt when bonding takes time

● Small ways to parent your baby from the very beginning

🎙️ Holyoaks Rise: Stories of Rising Through the Unexpected
Stories, resources, and hope for NICU families, medical parents, caregivers, and anyone learning to rise through something they never expected.

Follow Holyoaks Rise for more NICU support, medical-parenting resources, and stories of resilience and hope.

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I8h8

What are scientists discovering about the infant gut microbiome—and what could it mean for our understanding of lifelong health?

In Episode 28 of Holyoaks Rise, Amanda sits down with Stephanie Culler, PhD, CEO and Co-Founder of Persephone Biosciences, to explore the fascinating world developing inside a baby’s gut during the earliest stages of life.

Dr. Culler breaks down what the gut microbiome actually is, how it develops in babies, and why researchers are studying its possible connections to the immune system, allergies, digestion, autoimmune disease, and other areas of health.

We also talk about the My Baby Biome study, a large-scale research effort designed to better understand the infant microbiome and how factors during early life may shape it.

Most importantly, this isn’t a conversation about getting everything “right” in those first few months. It’s about how much scientists are still learning—and how research like this may help us better understand and support children’s health in the future.

Whether you’re a new parent, NICU parent, medical parent, healthcare professional, or simply fascinated by the science happening inside our bodies, this episode makes the complex world of the microbiome approachable, hopeful, and incredibly interesting.

🎙️ Episode 28: Your Baby’s Gut Microbiome: What We’re Learning About a Healthy Start | Dr. Stephanie Culler

Topics include: infant gut microbiome, baby gut health, newborn microbiome, infant health research, My Baby Biome study, microbiome research, immune health, allergies, autoimmune disease, early childhood health, and medical parenting.

A Special Thank You to Persephone Biosciences

A huge thank you to Dr. Stephanie Culler and Persephone Biosciences for joining Holyoaks Rise and sharing their research with us!

If you’d like to learn more about Persephone Biosciences or explore their infant and toddler synbiotics, visit Persephone.bio.

🎁 Holyoaks Rise listeners can receive 30% off their first subscription with code: HOLYOAKS30

You can also follow Persephone Biosciences on Instagram and TikTok at @persephoneb.bio.

Thank you to Stephanie and the Persephone team for helping families better understand the fascinating science of the infant microbiome—and for sharing that work with the Holyoaks Rise community.

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Who takes care of the person who is always taking care of everyone else?

Caregivers are everywhere—the parents managing medications and appointments, the nurses walking families through their hardest days, the foster parents who keep saying yes, and the spouses, grandparents, siblings, teachers, therapists, friends, and neighbors who quietly step in when someone needs them.

In this episode of Holyoaks Rise, Amanda reflects on what nearly two decades as a NICU nurse—and life on the other side of the hospital bed as a medical mom—has taught her about the people who keep showing up.

We’re talking about the beautiful, exhausting, sometimes hilarious reality of caregiving: the accidental medical expertise, the ability to hear a monitor alarm from another zip code, the emotional weight no one sees, caregiver burnout, and the small acts of kindness families remember forever.

But there’s another question we don’t ask enough: Who takes care of the caregiver?

This episode is a tribute to the ordinary people doing extraordinary things without ever calling themselves heroes—and a reminder that rising doesn’t always mean doing it alone. Sometimes we rise because someone reaches down and helps us up. And sometimes, we’re the one doing the reaching.

If someone came to mind while listening, send the text. Make the call. Tell them: “You probably don’t even remember this…but I do.”

Topics include: caregiving, caregiver burnout, medical parenting, NICU families, nurses, foster parents, medically complex children, compassion, resilience, and finding support through hard seasons.

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In the final chapter of Krystina’s incredible story, we continue the journey of a family that never stopped saying “yes.”

After sharing the story of her medically complex son, Krystina introduces us to another little girl who came into their family with severe congenital heart disease and complex medical needs, requiring numerous surgeries and specialized care. Through every challenge, Krystina shares what it really looks like to love children whose journeys are anything but easy.

But her impact doesn’t stop inside her own home.

In this episode, you’ll also hear how Krystina turned her family’s experiences into service for others by creating A.M.O.R.E. (Assisting Medical Outreach Resources and Equipment), a nonprofit that provides free donated medical supplies and equipment to families when insurance falls short or resources simply aren’t available. She also started free, inclusive monthly birthday parties so medically complex children, children with disabilities, neurodivergent kids, and their siblings all have a place to celebrate together—because every child deserves to feel included.

This conversation is a beautiful reminder that even in the hardest seasons, we can create hope for someone else.

In this episode:

● Fostering and adopting children with complex medical needs

● Congenital heart disease and life after multiple surgeries

● Creating AMORE to support medical families

● Inclusive birthday parties for children of all abilities

● Advocacy, resilience, and building community

● Finding purpose through life’s hardest experiences

If Krystina’s story encouraged you, please share this episode with someone who could use a reminder that compassion can change lives—one family at a time.

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Can one decision change the course of a child’s life?

In Part 2 of my conversation with Krystina, we continue her remarkable journey from the NICU into foster care, where she opens her home to premature twins before receiving a call about a little boy with profound medical needs.

Nonverbal. Unable to walk. Dependent on oxygen. Medically fragile.

Many would have seen overwhelming challenges. Krystina saw a child deserving of love.

She shares the realities of fostering medically complex children, the fears and victories along the way, and the unexpected encouragement from her sister—who worked in the hospital’s formula room—that helped lead her to say yes.

This conversation is filled with honesty, hope, and a beautiful reminder that families are often built in unexpected ways.

In this episode:

● Fostering premature twins after the NICU

● Life as a foster parent of medically complex children

● Caring for a child with significant medical needs

● Oxygen dependence, developmental disabilities, and daily caregiving

● The role healthcare workers can play beyond the hospital

● How one “yes” changed an entire family’s future

Whether you’re a NICU parent, foster or adoptive parent, medical caregiver, healthcare professional, or simply someone who loves stories of resilience and hope, this episode will encourage you.

🎙️ Holyoaks Rise shares inspiring stories of resilience, medically complex parenting, NICU journeys, foster care, adoption, and finding hope through life’s unexpected challenges.

When Krystina’s oldest son needed kidney surgery as a toddler, she had no idea it was only the beginning of her family’s medical journey.

In this deeply moving first conversation, Krystina shares the story of welcoming her extremely premature triplets into the NICU and the roller coaster that followed. We talk about the fear, uncertainty, tiny victories, and the resilience that carried her family through one of the hardest seasons of their lives.

As a NICU nurse and medical mom, these conversations remind me why hope matters so much inside hospital walls.

This episode also marks the beginning of an even bigger story. Before we close, Krystina shares how her family’s experience in the NICU unexpectedly opened the door to foster care, introducing us to the premature twins who would forever change the course of her life.

Whether you’re a NICU parent, medical family, healthcare professional, or someone who simply loves stories of courage and resilience, Krystina’s journey is one you won’t soon forget.

In this episode you’ll hear:

Krystina’s oldest son’s early kidney diagnosis and surgery

The pregnancy and delivery of her extremely premature triplets

Life inside the NICU from a parent’s perspective

Finding hope through uncertainty

The unexpected beginning of a foster care journey that started in the NICU

This is Part 1 of Christina’s incredible story. In Part 2 and 3, we’ll continue her journey into fostering medically complex children, adoption, and the lives forever changed by saying “yes” To multiple children!

She’s a ROCKSTAR!

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Some survival stories seem too incredible to be true.

In this Rise Story Collection, we explore five impossible rescues that united strangers, inspired nations, and proved that hope can survive even the darkest circumstances.

From twelve boys trapped deep inside a flooded cave in Thailand… to a man who survived nearly 60 hours inside an overturned ship… to an immigrant who scaled a Paris apartment building to save a child… these are true stories of courage, resilience, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

In this episode of Holyoaks Rise, you’ll hear the unforgettable stories of:

• The Thai Cave Rescue

• Harrison Okene’s unbelievable survival beneath the ocean

• Mamoudou Gassama’s heroic climb in Paris

• The 33 Chilean miners rescued after 69 days underground

• The Miracle on the Hudson and the leadership that saved 155 lives

As a NICU nurse, I couldn’t help but notice a common thread running through every one of these stories. None of these rescues happened because people gave up. They happened because someone chose courage over fear, hope over despair, and action over helplessness.

Whether you’re facing your own impossible situation or simply need a reminder that goodness still exists, I hope these remarkable survival stories encourage you to keep believing that even in life’s darkest moments, people have an incredible capacity to rise through the unexpected.

🌳 If this episode encouraged you, please follow, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little more hope today.