Amy

Some Q&A About the New Podcast Feathers Launching Tomorrow March 10th

March 9, 2015 by Amy 6 Comments

FeathersiTunes2-500

Sometimes messages get lost in social media and email and so I wanted to reiterate today that yes, I’M STARTING A PODCAST AND IT LAUNCHES TOMORROW, MARCH 10TH!

I thought I’d take a little time to talk about what to expect on Tuesday and going forward.

How about a little Q&A? I’ll try to imagine a question you might have, pose it to myself and answer it. Yes?

Amy, you’re starting a podcast? What is it about?

Great question, friend! The podcast is all about faith and it’s called Feathers. In each episode, I’ll be interviewing a guest and having them share their faith stories. These are the stories where God called them to something, it felt scary or didn’t make sense, and yet they obeyed and we get to see God do what He does–works it out in His way. Or, perhaps God led someone through a season of suffering and asked someone to remain faithful.

Why are you doing this and why should I listen?

As it turns out, this podcast about faith is one of those times God is calling me to something that was never on my radar. It feels scary and is requiring me to step out in faith and obey. As I’ve pondered this the past few months, what I think God wants is simply for His people to believe Him more.

Jesus talked about some people having small faith and some people having great faith. I don’t know about you, but I want great faith. 1 Peter says our faith is worth more than gold. I believe one way our faith grows when we hear others share their stories of God working in their lives. This podcast is simply another platform for people to share their stories to give glory back to God for what He’s done and to encourage others in their own walks. I hope people can take flight in their own faith.

Why is it called Feathers?

I’ll tell the whole story in the first episode that launches on Tuesday, but if you want to read aboout it, here’s a summary post. The short version is God has placed feathers in my path the past few years to confirm His work in my writing and in our family’s adoption. The feather is simply a symbol of a faith-building time in our lives and a nod to God’s word where it says we should soar on wings like eagles.

Who is on your podcast?

Right now, the guests are other bloggers. You’ll hear from Jessie and Kathy tomorrow and I have several interviews completed with more. In the future, it might just be someone you know in real life. I’m open to interviewing anyone who has an amazing story and can share it. Once you hear the podcast and you know of someone that would make a great guest, let me know!

How often will you have the episodes?

Well, for just this Tuesday, 3 episodes will be released together. The first episode is called Episode Zero. Basically, it’s like an intro episode to the podcast that I do by myself. I talk a bit about faith, tell my feather story and why the podcast is called Feathers and then share what to expect in future episodes. Episodes 1 and 2 with Jessie and Kathy will be released at the same time (different blog posts).

From then on, a new episode will be released every Tuesday.

How long are the episodes?

The intro episode is 25 minutes. I don’t have a set length for the interview episodes, but it’s turning out to be 30-40 minutes.

How can I listen to the podcast?

You are going to have several options.

Option #1 – Listen right here on the blog. Each episode will be launched with a corresponding blog post. Within the blog post, there will be a player and you can listen directly from there.
Option #2 – Listen on your mobile. If you have an iPhone, you have a built-in app called Podcasts. In there, you will be able to search for “Feathers”, subscribe to the podcast and listen from the app. If you have a non-Apple smart phone, you should be able to download the Stitcher app and do the same.
Option #3 – Listen from iTunes. If you have the iTunes app on your desktop, you can search in the iTunes store for “Feathers” and you should be able to scroll down to the Podcast section and find it. As of this writing, the iTunes store has not approved the listing so it’s not there yet, but I will let you know as soon as it is.

How can I get notified of a new episode?

So, you’re telling me you’re not going to be anxiously awaiting a new episode every Tuesday? Fine. I highly recommend you joining my email list. You’ ll get an email with every new post from the site. I’m working on one specifically for the podcast episode blog posts and when I get that set up, I’ll let you know.

Alright, that’s all the questions (and answers) I have for now. Let me know if you have more. I’ll be happy to answer them (clearly).

In closing I’ll just request two things from you.

Will you please take some time this week to listen? And when you do, will you give me a heaping dose of grace? I still think God could have gotten a gazillion other people who are more qualified. My intros could be better, the sound could be better, my responses could have been better. But you know what? The whole thing isn’t about me, it’s about you seeing Him. He showed up in these conversations and I’m praying like crazy you meet Him there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for traveling this journey with me. I do believe these wings are ready to take flight.

Adoption: 7 Month Update

March 7, 2015 by Amy 3 Comments

Today marks 7 months with Jac0b. I’ve been trying all week to write an update. I don’t want to miss marking it, but I couldn’t find the right words. As it turns out, I didn’t have the words at all. Jac0b had just 8 words that sums up how things are going.

Last night the girls had friends over. I knew they would stay up late and I knew if I let Jac0b do the same, we’d have a rough day today. So I insisted he went to bed early. He wasn’t happy. I had to get my Mom-voice on.

After teeth brushing and more pleas to stay up, we eventually fell into bed. He’s usually pretty talkative at bed-time, but he was quiet. He’s fiddling with a few toys he keeps around his bed and for the first time and out of the blue he says, “Now it feels like you’re my real mom.”

That.

That is how it’s going. It’s all happening. It’s not easy and parts are messy, but we’re bonding. We’re becoming family.

My desire is not to replace anyone as a real anything, but I do want this relationship with him. I do want to be his mom and not just a caretaker. He’ll always have his birth mom and he’ll always have his foster mom, but for our 7 month anniversary, he gave me the gift of being his real, adoptive mom.

Feathers: 5 Days!

March 5, 2015 by Amy 1 Comment

Feathers release is 5 days away. I probably should be scared, but I’m not. I take that back, I shouldn’t be scared because the Lord is with me, but a version of Amy would have been scared. But, let me tell you, I have seen the Lord. I feel truly like I am standing on holy ground. God is so faithful, guys. Just so faithful.

Every single step of this I have been so clueless and so inept and yet, every time I brought my weakness to Him, He has guided me. I’m not saying this podcast is perfect and I don’t look like an idiot sometimes and the sound is perfect, but God is in it.

Let me give you a glimpse into just a few things that really feel like God-things to me right now.

First, the release date. It took me forever to even get a release date. I was waiting for it to be perfect and I think I said it in my last post, but I just got to the point where I just needed to be obedient and release it. I felt peace about March 10th, but I didn’t pick it strategically. I just felt like I could get it done by then. It just happens that it’s the month we are celebrating 7 months with Jacob home. If you need to know that significance, you need to read this post. Also, the date is on 3/10. 10-3=7. Yeah, I don’t consider those accidents.

Second, the choice of the first two episodes. I interviewed several guests and then really struggled on what order to release them. Some of them have similar tones or topics and I wanted to stretech it out. God kept leading me to two interviews and just today I began to see the significance. Their stories are tied together, not literally, but in their topics. Both stories include foreclosures of homes and between the two stories, God’s people are led and taken care of by His hand. You’ll see more of what I mean next week, but suffice it to say God is being clear that He can handle it all. We can trust Him with whatever he is leading us through.

Third, the Lord led me back to my journal to see when I began to think about podcasting. On December 10th I wrote, “So drawn to pdocasting, but about what and with whom? What could I talk about forever?” Y’all, I was so clueless what this would look like and He was so faithful to lead me through. And yes, I could talk about these God stories forever.

Fourth, it’s exactly 3 months from December 10th to March 10th. The 3 isn’t particularly significant that I can think of right now, but I love that it’s the same date.

And finally, the December 10th date is signifciant for me. I have felt for a long time that our adoption and in extension of that, our feather story and this podcast, is a redemption story in response to my emotional affair. December 10th just happens to be the date many years ago when things began to go all wrong. This is personal for me because back then I would say, “I feel like I could talk to you forever.” It’s hard to admit and I don’t like it, but God is so faithful and He’s redeeming those words. He has put a new story in my mouth and I will talk about HIM, the one true lover of my soul, forever.

He’s so good. He’s so good.

I don’t know what else to do, but just invite you into the stories. To invite you to know our God better. He just wants to be with you and love you and these stories will help you know him better.

My prayer right now is simply that He increases our faith. Whatever point we are in our journey with Him that He would just scoot us one step closer to Him and that we would trust Him and say yes no matter how he’s leading us.

I hope you’ll meet Him there.

5 days.

The Working Motherhood Podcast #266

March 2, 2015 by Amy Leave a Comment

In the midst of launching my new podcast Feathers, I came in contact with Dr. Portia Jackson who hosts the Working Motherhood podcast. This podcast is a daily (!) podcast about working moms. I’m so excited to share an episode we recorded together about my journey as a working mother.

In this episode, we chat about adoption, going back to work after maternity leave, people pleasing and letting go of mommy guilt.

You can listen on iTunes or Stitcher or hop over and listen directly on WorkingMotherhood.com.

If you’re here from WorkingMotherhood.com, I’d also love to connect with you on our Facebook page.

Feathers: Coming March 10th!

February 24, 2015 by Amy 2 Comments

Guys. Let me tell you what is happening with this podcast. As it turns out, I L.O.V.E. podcasting. Like, I wish I had an interview every single day with someone.

God has totally shown up (surprise!) and given me words to say and given the guests words to say and so far it’s been nothing but a blast to talk to these ladies.

I was trying to compare it with writing to someone and said I felt like writing can be a very draining exercise. I love it, but you have to be filled up to be poured out into the words. With podcasting, it’s been so life-giving. Of course, the main focus is the guest’s story so I mostly get to sit back and listen to just how awesome our God is. I get to chat with some amazing friends and I leave feeling so lifted up (maybe like soaring on wings?). Who knew??

Now, it hasn’t come without its frustration. And surprisingly, all of it has been on the technical side. My recording software failed ONCE AGAIN and a second interview was lost. There might have been tears after that one. No worries, though, I have switched software and hope that I fixed that issue. There’s lots of technical and logistical issues to work through and I just really wasn’t expecting the amount of behind the scenes work as this requires.

Isn’t that funny? The thing I thought was going to be hard is downright fun and yet the part I thought would be a breeze is driving me crazy!

I was listening to another podcast about podcasting (follow that?) and they made such a good point. Every single thing about this podcast can be changed after it launches. I don’t have to wait until it’s perfect (which of course I’ve been doing). If you end up hating the intro, I can change it. If you end up hating the format, I can change it. If the artwork doesn’t make sense anymore, I can change it. I can change anything at any time I want. And for some reason, that gave me the freedom to let these things go.

All that to say, I’ve decided to lock down a release date. Whatever I have, even if it’s not perfect is going out the door on MARCH 10th.

On that date, you’ll be able to listen right here on the site or it should be available on iTunes, if not shortly after.

Two weeks. You’re going to hear some awesome stories of women who love the Lord and have trusted Him with so many parts of their lives. Our God is so faithful and I just know you are going to be so encouraged.

Two weeks. TWO WEEKS!

A Call to See and Pray: My Response to ISIS

February 23, 2015 by Amy 1 Comment

Last week while life plunged forward–the podcast, work, sports, ice and late-starts to school. All the while, my heart lay heavy with Christians around the world over the 21. I have to confess, though, that I only read the headlines and stepped into a few related posts like Ann Voskamp’s. And then I read Michele’s post. In it, she shares what the Lord said to her after asking Him what He thought of the beheadings and other blatant sin.

Where have you been? I looked for ones who would stand in the gap. While I searched, you slept. While you slept, I wept as they cried.

My people, why have you slept so soundly, and remained deaf to the cries?

I know my Shepherd’s voice and it was there in those words. I was convicted for my slumbered state.

I printed out the post and I committed to begin this awakening process. I read the post over and over and began to pray to see what it would look like.

See

The first call I felt was to see.

I had purposely avoided the details. Never looked past the headlines, unwilling to step into that world. I wanted safe and clean and not dirty and evil.

The words from Seth Godin I heard all those years ago from Catalyst still echo in my mind. We need more people that aren’t afraid of emotional labor. Galatians says it’s like this: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” I was unwilling to bear the burden of their pain.

And so, I began clicking through and searching out. What was really going on? And then, of course, the emotions began.

What atrocities. What evil. How could this be happening?

And the thing was, it wasn’t just to them, it was personal. As someone who identifies as part of the People of the Cross, it was really personal.

And so, of course, my next question after I began to see is what do I do? What can I, a suburban mom in South Carolina who identifies as a person of the cross, do?

Pray

And then the words from a marriage conference of all things came to mind–when someone wrongs you, you must not just forgive, but bless that person. That is the way to true freedom.

Luke 6 says it like this:

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

And I wondered what it looked like to bless someone who beheaded your brothers in Christ. What could I possibly bless them with? Was I blessing the evil acts they were clearly a part of?

Then I thought the only thing they could possibly be blessed by was Jesus. Jesus is the only thing that would have the power to transform an evil like that. You can’t self-care your way out of that lifestyle. You have to be transformed. 2 Corinthians tells us it’s not just possible, it’s what Jesus is all about:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

And so, that’s what I want them blessed with. Jesus.

And then I clicked through another headline and listened to the response of a mother of one of the beheaded. And she already knows the truth. She says

I will ask God to open their eyes and ask him in our house because he helped us enter the Kingdom of God! Dear, with this good spirit, I ask you to pray for the ISIS members. Dear God, please open their eyes to be saved and to quit their ignorance. and the wrong teachings they were taught.

My flesh wants justice. My flesh wants them punished. And yet, the Spirit in me wants them redeemed. The mother of one of these wants them redeemed. This is the true way to stop this violence. They need an encounter with the Savior.

And then I ran into an article from John Piper, and he addresses this very thing and not only does he agree with a blessing, he gave me words to do so. Words and prayers I didn’t really know how to form. They are in the form of the Lords’ prayer:

Father, grant that my enemy — my colleague who snubs me, my wife who belittles me, my child who disrespects me, the ISIS member who wants to kill me — grant that they would come to hallow your name. Grant that they would treasure you above all, and reverence you, and admire you more than anything.
Father, grant that my enemy would come under the saving, purifying sway of your kingly rule and that you would exert your kingly power to make my enemy your own loyal subject.
Grant, Father, that my enemy would love to do your will the way the angels do it in heaven with all their might, and without reservation, and with the purest motives, and with great joy.
Grant, Father, that my enemy would have all the physical resources of food and clothing and shelter and education and health-care and transportation that he needs to fulfill your calling on his life.
And forgive my enemy his sins, as you bring him to repentance, and make him a forgiving person, and protect him from overpowering temptations, and from the destructive power of the devil.

Salvation, forgiveness, love, resources, protection from temptations. It is the blessing I was looking for.

I heard someone say it and I agree–I’m also praying for a Saul to be raised up. A man that is persecuting the church who encounters a great light and is transformed into a Paul. A man who can help transform his people for the sake of the gospel.

And so, I am seeing and I am praying. And I want you alongside me doing the same.

Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:19-20

Feathers, Fear, IF:Gathering and Where I’ve Been

February 16, 2015 by Amy 1 Comment

Well, hello there, friends. Begging grace for announcing I’m moving forward with a podcast and then falling off the face of the blogosphere. If you missed me, you might have guessed that I’ve been busy plugging away at the podcast and if so, you’d be a little right.

But I have a confession to make.

After I posted the last post with the name, artwork and intro, I became paralyzed with fear. In fact, I think the Lord prompted me to write about it then just so I couldn’t back out since I told you about it. I became overwhelmed with doubt and questions. Who was going to listen anyway? Who would sign up to do it? Lord, you do know I’m terrible at conversation, right? Why me, Lord, I’m very sure you have the wrong person! I even doubted the original call. The Serpent’s words from the garden echoed in my mind, “Did God really say….” In fact, I told several people that had I not announced it, I would have talked myself right out of it.

I spent the week after my last post in St. Louis, Missouri on a business trip. I had had lots of thoughts of being able to work on the podcast in the evenings at the hotel after work before all this fear hit me. While I was there, I couldn’t even open my laptop to work on it. I needed to get my schedule in order and send some emails out at the very least, but I just couldn’t. And worse, I felt like God kept me from writing too. It was like everything was suspended so we could see whether I was going to be obedient or not.

That Thursday after I got back, I sat in tears in front of our small group and asked for prayer. It felt so silly to be so emotional and fearful of a podcast, but I was. I was so scared.

Isn’t it like God that he would test me with a call to be obedient in faith in the midst of creating a podcast about faith? I was truly having to live out what I was going to preach one more time. God had asked me to do something that seemed scary and I was going to have to decide one more time if I trusted Him or not.

Then IF:Gathering happened that weekend. And man, God was all over me the whole weekend about that podcast–and not in a condemning, pushy way. The whole weekend was centered around faith and each speaker preached a section about Joshua leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. I felt like He lifted that Spirit of Fear and I was so encouraged to take my next steps of faith. And what I realized is even though I really am not qualified and there are many more people that could do a better job, God is calling me. And even though the questions were still there, my job is to offer what little bit of faith I have and it’s enough. I don’t have to have perfect faith that lacks any doubt to be obedient.

I left the weekend so emboldened to move forward. That Sunday I did all the work I had planned while I had been out of town and within a few days had several interviews scheduled.

Then, of course, the first interview the next Tuesday flopped. The sound was off and the software failed to record my guest’s audio. I felt a little like I had lost a battle in the war. I walked away so disheartened. And yet. I still felt so much peace about it and ready to move forward.

I’ve since had two more interviews and guys, I’m beginning to see the true power of these stories. I really thought the faith stories were going to be about people with great faith and how to follow in their footsteps, but truly what they are about is a great God who is faithful and is able to direct our next steps. He is so trustworthy and cares about us so much. Our vision and thoughts are so different than His. Great faith comes from knowing Him more, not understanding the circumstance more. The more we understand His character, the more we can say yes to His calling. And the more we hear these stories, the more we will understand His character.

And so, I’m so excited to see where this goes. And yes, I will probably return to my closet-recording-studio to interview and edit away for another few weeks. I’m really hoping to launch in the first week or so of March.

Here are some things you can pray about in the meantime:

Pray this verse with me: God has not given me a Spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. 1 Timothy 1:7
Pray that I search out the right people to interview
Pray that the right people will answer the call
Pray that our conversations are God-honoring and rightly give Him the glory for what He’s done
Pray that the technical tasks and logistics of launching this will be completed

Thanks so much, friends.

The Podcast: The Name, Art and Intro

January 27, 2015 by Amy 10 Comments

Alright, guys. I finally have enough of the bones of this podcast to start sharing. It probably feels like it’s not much, but believe me when I say a lot of work has gone into getting this far. Today, I want to share the name, the iTunes artwork and the introductory audio clip.

The Name

Let’s start with the name since it came first. I had a very long list of possible podcast names. You guys helped me come up with some. We were batting around ideas around feathers, a cloud of witnesses, and faith. I think I had a list of about 20.

And at this point I was just begging God for a name. I was like, God, if you want me to do this, you’re going to have to give me a name for it! And, of course, He did.

One day I was scrolling through Twitter and saw that Tsh has launched a new eCourse about living more intentionally against mainstream culture and it’s simply called Upstream. I love Tsh and her whole goal in life is to live simply and I realized that’s exactly what we needed to do with this podcast.

The night before, my friend Bette suggested that I record several of them using the different names and see which one fit better.

I pulled out my iPhone’s voice recorder that afternoon and recorded a 12 second snippet introduction (at the end of the post) testing out simply “Feathers.” And then it was like love at first. I knew the podcast would simply be called Feathers.

And just to make it a little more clear that we’re not talking about chicken feathers or something, we’ve added the tag line “Faith in Flight”. Maybe it doesn’t totally make sense what the whole thing is about, but if I’m scrolling through iTunes in the Christianity section and see Faith in Flight as a subtitle, I’m going to have a pretty good clue and probably be interested enough to check out the longer description.

So, guys, meet Feathers. I feel like I’ve named a child.

The Artwork

After I had a name and subtitle, I decided to test out a few pieces of artwork for iTunes. I put something together just as a sample for the designer to know what I liked. I used the feathers from the TrueCotton print. The designer and I spent over a week going back and forth and all sorts of really cute ideas, but nothing really clicked.

Every single time, everyone I showed kept going back to the artwork with the watercolor feathers. But then there was the issue of licensing. Arin over at TrueCotton was so gracious and we were able to work something out. I’m ecstatic to be using her feathers.

FeathersiTunes2-500

Isn’t it pretty? I really do just love it. I’m pretty sure it breaks all sort of “expert Podcasting” rules about artwork, but it’s meaningful, and pretty and I think will do an excellent job of representing the podcast for us.

The Intro Clip

I’ve also recorded the first intro podcast where I share the initial feathers story. Frankly, it was awful trying to record that. I share an intro about myself and then share the feather story. Many of you have followed over the last months, but I’d never really told the whole thing from start to finish in person. I basically had to sum up the entire story in less than 15 minutes! I must have taken 20 different takes trying to get it all right. I now am crystal clear on why I probably shouldn’t do a weekly podcast of just me talking to you. I was literally banging my head on the microphone at one point asking God to help me say it all right. He did indeed do that and the first episode is complete.

I thought I’d let you guys get a tiny peek at the intro to the episode:

Next Steps

So, now that I have a visual and the introductory episode to hand to some folks explaining it a bit, I feel like I can begin the interview process. The goal is to launch with the intro episode and 2 more interview episodes. And then there’s all the business of getting hosting and submitting to iTunes and well, I’ll spare you guys the technical details. In any case, it’s still going to be a few weeks at least. I don’t have a launch date yet.

I’m getting excited (and nervous) as the time goes, though. I keep running into different things just confirming the need to hear these stories. We truly need to hear how God is active and trustworthy and faithful. There’s so much theology being discussed on the Internet and things we should and shouldn’t believe and I’m just so ready to hear how God has actually decided to work in people’s lives. It’s the irrefutable evidence from a witness that can not be shaken. I ran into these words from Christine Caine and love them so much.

We’re surrounded by such great a cloud of witnesses in heaven. Tag, we’re it. We’ve got the baton of faith right now. But my legacy is not how big a ministry Chris Caine builds or how many people she speaks to, but it’s how effective I am in handing over the baton of faith and making sure I don’t hold onto some things longer than I should—that I don’t drop some things in the middle of the exchange zone.

In Christianity, nobody wins until everybody crosses the line.

We talk so much about personal faith, personal salvation, and all those things are critical, but I think it’s so important that we understand that we’re part of an eternal relay and we’re responsible for handing over the baton of faith to our generation.

I want Feathers to be part of that handing over the baton. I want it to encourage your faith so you can experience God’s faithfulness more and join him where He’s at work.

Alright, so, I feel like we’re having a podcast baby and you just got to see the first ultrasound. Er, or something like that! In any case, you’ll get to meet ‘er in live and in iTunes soon!