Real Parenting Stories
Julie & Chris: Fighting For Family
Episode Summary
Chris and Julie's journey through parenting, including Julie's cancer diagnosis, highlights the importance of resilience, open communication, recognizing when support is needed, setting healthy boundaries, embracing imperfection, and committing to personal growth and understanding in family dynamics.
Episode Notes
I really enjoyed talking to Chris and Julie about their journey with parenting. While moving to California, Julie was diagnosed with cancer, yet they found the strength to thrive, rebuild a church and a community from scratch, and share their story in their new book, 'Fighting for Family.' I witnessed a lot of generosity and humbleness in their book and through my conversation with them. They have a great relationship with their children, which to me is the ultimate proof of a strong family. Here are the topics we covered:
- Fostering resilience and connection: highlighting the importance of learning resilience personally before teaching it to their children, and emphasizing the need for authenticity and vulnerability within the family.
- Setting practical goals for your family: seeking to understand before being understood, believing the best about each other, having open and honest conversations, working through difficulties, and inviting feedback without defensiveness.
- Recognizing when support is needed: Julie was able to see when her daughter needed emotional well-being support, ultimately leading her to homeschool her.
- Setting healthy boundaries: Julie shared how she and Chris were able to communicate openly about their needs in their relationship.
- Embracing imperfection: acknowledging that messiness is a natural part of family life and encouraging embracing imperfection rather than striving for an unrealistic ideal.
- Three commitments they strive to live by: admitting they can't control everything, being messy around others, and letting people be complicated, among others.
Click here to contact Chris and Julie