While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss
This is a podcast FOR bereaved parents BY bereaved parents. Join your host, Jill Sullivan, as she talks with parents who have lost children of all ages to all types of circumstances. This is a podcast of stories ... stories of devastating loss and grief and heartbreak and struggle ... and stories of hope and healing and faith, and yes, even joy. Underlying every conversation will be the hope we have in Jesus Christ, which makes it possible to not just survive the loss of a child, but to live well while we're waiting to see them again in Heaven one day. Visit our website at www.WhileWereWaiting.org for more information about our nonprofit ministry to bereaved parents.
Episodes
379 episodes
Bonus 146 | Rising Concerns
After our appointment on Monday, we expected that Hannah would continue with school since she was still not able to start chemo. Instead, the ongoing side effects from the radiation began to unexpectedly intensify. The morning nause...
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4:57
233 | Hope After Only Child Loss with John and Carrie Guenther
I am so excited today to introduce you to my friends John and Carrie Guenther. We met the Guenthers when they attended our very first While We’re Waiting Weekend in Ohio back in September of 2023. As they shared the story of their s...
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Episode 233
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44:16
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Bonus 145 | More Delays ...
As much as we were enjoying the relative normalcy of both girls being back in school leading up to Christmas break, we were really beginning to feel the urgency of starting chemotherapy before too much time elapsed following radiation. Th...
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3:11
Bonus 144 | Empty Me
Hannah's brain cancer diagnosis did not legally preclude her from driving, but we all agreed it was best that she not drive during her treatments. So I ended up driving her around a lot during that year, including those days she returned ...
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2:32
Bonus 143 | A Hero in My Eyes
In a previous episode, I described the moment Hannah first became my hero. They day she returned to school for the first time since her cancer recurrence in September was the second.Thank you for joining me for another bonus episo...
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4:25
232 | Heartache and Hope with Melanie DeSimone
Melanie DeSimone is well-known in the bereaved parent community as the author of the blog “The Life I Didn’t Choose”, which has had over 4,000,000 hits since its inception in 2014. She writes daily … pithy, practical posts … that speak di...
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49:27
Bonus 142 | Ready for Battle
Even as we enjoyed our family time over the Thanksgiving holiday, we found ourselves looking ahead to Monday when Hannah would finally get to start her new chemotherapy treatments. The reprieve from treatments had been wonderful, and we ...
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3:19
Bonus 141 | Christmas Crooners
As we stepped through our holiday traditions, Brad and I were fully cognizant that this could be the last time we did these things together as a family of four. My emails gave no indication of what an excruciatingly difficult time this wa...
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4:03
231 | Waiting Well With Jesus (Part Two) with Lynda Wake
Welcome to episode #231, which is a continuation of my conversation with Lynda Wake, who is a wife, mom (or “mum” as she would say it), and grandmother. She is also the author of two amazing devotional books, “Heartbreakingly Beautiful” a...
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Episode 231
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37:19
Bonus 140 | Good Medicine
We returned to the Hem/Onc clinic at Arkansas Children's Hospital on Monday morning, fully prepared for Hannah to be admitted so she could finally start her new chemotherapy treatments. But when her bloodwork showed a platelet level of 3,...
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3:50
Bonus 139 | Secret Service
Though Hannah's ANC was rising, she was technically still in isolation due to her low blood counts. In spite of this, we made the decision to attend one of Bethany's basketball games together as a family. We sat by ourselves in an e...
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4:17
230 | Waiting Well with Jesus (Part One) with Lynda Wake
Lynda Wake and her husband have served with Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1998, and currently reside in Melbourne, Australia. She is a grandmother of two and a mom of four, including her daughter Bethany Joy who lived her brief life to...
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Episode 230
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36:23
Bonus 138 | No Other Explanation
Hannah's Facebook status from sixteen years ago today was this ... "Hannah is back from the hospital for the second time in 2 weeks but feeling great!"And an excerpt my email ... I wanted to spend a few minutes talking abou...
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4:17
Bonus 137 | An Upward Trend
So after being told we would be in the hospital a few more days ... Boom, just like that, they were telling us we would be heading home tomorrow. A welcome disruption to our schedule for once! As long as Hannah's counts continued th...
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1:48
Bonus 136 | Freedom from the Calendar
My name is Jill Sullivan ... and I have a calendar problem. I like calendars. A lot. I love filling in all the little boxes with appointments and special dates and activities. (Not that I want to do all t...
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5:07
Bonus 135 | Middle of the Night Weigh-Ins
Hospital life is strange. You would think that the doctors and nurses want the sick person to rest ... but no ... you would think wrongly. All through the day -- and all through the night -- there are blood pressure checks, antibiot...
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3:13
229 | The Moon is Round (Part Two) with Molly Huffman
Molly Huffman is my guest on the podcast again today. She is a wife, a mom, a stepmom, and the author of a wonderful book titled “The Moon Is Round: A True Story of Extraordinary Loss, Grief, and the Fight for Faith.” Last week, Mol...
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Episode 229
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28:11
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Bonus 134 | Learning to Wait Patiently
We had all thought, rather naively, I suppose, that once this second round of radiation treatments was completed, Hannah would have some time to enjoy just being a typical teenager for awhile before starting chemotherapy treatments. She w...
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4:05
Bonus 133 | The Magic Number
Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes knows that I am a "control enthusiast." I like my plans to be made in advance, my schedule to fall neatly into place, and my calendar to be without eraser marks.A cancer diagnosis...
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3:14
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Bonus 132 | "Eww ... My Mom Has a Facebook"
Sixteen years ago today, Hannah and I sat down together at our big desktop computer and she helped me set up my Facebook page. And she also wrote the very first post on my page ... "Eww ... My Mom has a Facebook! jk jk" It still mak...
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3:01
Bonus 131 | "Greatly Improved"
"Greatly improved." The two most beautiful words in the English language ten years ago today. There were still a lot of questions ... Would Hannah need additional radiation? How would this new chemotherapy affect her? Di...
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3:06
Bonus 130 | There's No Place Like Home
One thing about a week-long stay in the hospital ... It sure makes you appreciate a good night's sleep in your own bed! The folks at Children's Hospital do their best to accommodate parents who stay in the rooms with their children, and p...
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2:25
Bonus 129 | Encouraging News
We were greatly encouraged by the news that the radiation had been effective in shrinking and even eliminating some of the tumors on Hannah's spine and brainstem. It made all the trips back and forth to Little Rock, the painful thro...
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2:17
228 | The Moon is Round (Part One) with Molly Huffman
I am excited today to introduce you to my friend Molly Huffman, who is a wife, a mom, a stepmom, and the author of a wonderful book titled “The Moon Is Round”. She joins me today to share her experience with both the loss of her mother ...
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Episode 228
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32:32
