Listen up.

Story telling has been the way of teaching and learning since the beginning of time. Raising Grace is about parenting - Raising children with love and grace while also giving ourselves love and grace when between the failures and joys.

“We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.” --Jimmy Neil Smith

Sheila Chester Sheila Chester

Episode 13: Austin Andersen

Austin Andersen is the mother of four children including boy/girl twins. Her second daughter has a anaphylactic peanut allergy as well as an egg allergy. The twins also have food allergies. Austin talks about living her dream as being a stay at home mom of these four amazing kiddos and navigating serious food allergies in her children.

Read More
Sheila Chester Sheila Chester

BONUS EPISODE: Sheila Chester

After my interview with Savanna Simmons, she turned it around on me. This is a short window into my world.

Sheila Chester became the mother of three children through an 11 year journey with infertility. Her children come to her through adoption and fertility treatments. She talks about her openness with her adopted childrens' biological parents and siblings. We also talk a lot about the differences of raising kids in a rural area vs the city. Sheila lives with her husband and three kids in the suburbs of Denver, CO.

Read More

Episode 11: Sarah Spurlock

Sarah Spurlock is a mother of a 10 year old boy through adoption, a family and marriage therapist, the owner of a multi-therapist counseling business, the wife of a pastor, and a long time friend of mine. Sarah is the kind of person I would describe as being a bulldog - she doesn’t take no for an answer and that comes especially with her child. She will teach us how to become advocates for our kids and our loved ones through never accepting no for an answer. We could all benefit from becoming a little more like Sarah.

Read More
Sheila Chester Sheila Chester

Episode 10: Kalyn Wright

Kalyn Wright is my aunt, though she felt much like an older sister since she is only 10 years older than me and spent many of her summers at my home. She had a completely different childhood from the rest of her family which set her on a life trajectory much different than any of her brothers and sisters. She was the youngest of 7 children, with her oldest sibling being 20 years older. She was raised mostly as an only child after her father died when she was just 12. From spending her early childhood raised on a farm in rural South Dakota to graduating High School in a large city in Arizona. She talks about how the fatherless teen years shaped her and made her who she is today. She has and deeply loves four biological children, but only able to know two of them. She lost contact with two of her children due to incarceration in her 20s and was never able to get reconnected with them after being released from prison. I could go on and on, but I want you to hear this interview. This interview is proof that you just can’t predict life on genetics alone and you can’t judge a person on their past. She currently lives with her husband and 2 kids in an RV somewhere in the lower 48 United States as an entrepreneur and home schooler.

Read More

Episode 09: Kate Schwindt

Kate Schwindt is an entrepreneur, a step mother and the shared guardian of her step daughters children. Kate came into a family after their mother had died of cancer - she helped raise teens with a traumatic past. She now helps raise the children of those children. Her journey has not been an easy one, but her love for these kids goes beyond anything you could imagine. Blood doesn’t make a mother, love does.

Read More

Episode 08: Kelly Fullerton

Kelly Fullerton is an entrepreneur, chronic pain warrior and mother. Kelly has dealt with a an invisible and painful auto-immune disease most of her life. In the midst of that she worked to become a mother and has learned to parent through her physical pain. She speaks to us about her journey through chronic pain, infertility, motherhood, and finding peace. She now runs a business helping others on their complicated journeys through life. “When the world feels dark, let your soul shine.”

Read More