Hey there! I am Sheila Chester, the founder of Raising Grace Podcast. I am a mother of 3 children. I spent over a decade dealing with infertility and struggling to build my family in any way possible. Our marriage struggled, my mental health struggled, but we got through it. We adopted two children through domestic infant adoption and have one biological child through invitro fertilization (fertility treatments). I’ve written extensively about my experiences in the adoption process and going through infertility of which I will share on this site at the right time. As for now, I am tired of writing about myself, I have built my family and now work every day to say and do the right things as a mother. I fail regularly. I apologize often. And I worry that I’m screwing my kids up every single day. I reach out to close friends with kids of all ages to try to find new techniques and check in to see that I am doing the “right” things to help my kids grow into amazing human beings who love themselves and love others.
So you ask, What is this podcast about? Well, simply put, it’s about raising kids right now. Raising kids through a pandemic, through school shooting scares, through technology difficulties, through political and social chaos, through it all right here and now.
I’ll be talking mostly to people I know. I’ve contacted several people I know who have stories worth telling - some are extraordinary and others are ordinary. The main theme is parenting kids right now in our current struggles and our current joys. So many of the people I have been interviewing are people I have personally asked for advice on - or folks I have been following on social media. This first set of podcasts include mothers.
The people I interview are married… they are divorced… they live in cities… they live in the middle of nowhere…. they own their own businesses… they stay at home with the kids… they have traumatic pasts… they are living through traumatic presents… they are liberal… they conservative… they are faithless.. .they are faithful… but they all have one thing in common. They love their kids and they are doing the best they can to make it all work.
My hope is that parents who listen to this podcast find pieces of themselves in the people I interview. I also hope they find inspiration for a new way of parenting - an idea they hadn’t thought of.
Listen, I’m not a professional podcaster and I don’t have the best gear….yet. I’m still learning. Some of the interviews have less than desirable audio… but I promise I’m getting better so stick with me. Raising Grace for me means to give yourself and your kids grace in the great commotion of life. Raising kids gracefully is the goal, but it doesn’t always work that way. My journey through these interviews is to find how other parents raise their kids with grace? What grace are they giving themselves through the process of parenting? How can I learn from them?
Being a parent is hard. How can we raise our children in the hardest of times with grace? How can we as parents of young children come together and encourage each other to see their child with grace and understanding? I am an amateur parent like the rest of us. Lets support one another with love and grace.