Send us a text, we want to hear from you!

Some weeks call for a pause.

Last week, we were scheduled to release a new episode sharing a valuable resource for medical parents. But with everything that unfolded in our country, it felt important to step back, take a breath, and model what we so often encourage within this community: giving ourselves space and grace when things feel heavy, and allowing time to process before pressing on.

So this week, we’re revisiting a conversation from the early days of Empowered by Hope—an episode that has quietly carried many parents through dark nights. We’ll return to our planned new episodes next week.

Originally shared in February of 2023, this episode centers on a question that sits in the chest and refuses to leave when a child is hurting: Why does God allow suffering, especially when it involves our children?

For many parents, this question emerges through faith language; for others, it rises as a deeper, human longing for meaning, justice, or understanding. However it shows up for you, the weight of it is real. And in moments like the ones we’re living through now—when suffering and injustice feel overwhelming and impossible to make sense of—this question often returns.

We don’t try to fix what can’t be fixed with tidy answers. Instead, we tell the truth about fear, anger, guilt, resentment, and the moments we felt abandoned—alongside the moments we were surprised by peace.

Together, we name four anchors that actually hold:

• Rejecting shame and the reflex to blame ourselves for a diagnosis
• Leaning into a grounding truth many parents find strength in: that our children are deeply loved, and that their pain is not meaningless
• Allowing reflection or prayer—raw, repetitive, sometimes wordless—to be exactly what it is, without polishing or performance
• Practicing acceptance without agreement with suffering, so we can make clear decisions, listen for wisdom, and keep showing up for the child we adore

If you’ve ever stood in a hospital hallway and wondered how to walk back into a room full of beeps and worry, this episode offers presence over platitudes, honesty over explanations, and space to face the full breadth of your emotions without judgment.

Sometimes hope begins not with answers, but with the relief of not holding it all by ourselves.

We kindly ask that you share this podcast with other families who might benefit from our insights and support. Additionally, please take a brief moment to leave a review on your preferred podcast platform, which helps us to reach as many families as possible who are navigating this challenging journey, so they can find our support circle and access the assistance they rightfully deserve. No one should walk this journey alone.

To get more personal support, connect with us directly at:
https://parentempowermentnetwork.org

Facebook: Parent Empowerment Network
Instagram: ParentEmpowermentNetwork
Join the Parent Empowerment Network Community of Hope
Get your copy of She is Charlotte: A Mother’s Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey with Her Child with Medical Complexities by Emily K Whiting on Amazon

Send us a text, we want to hear from you!

January on Empowered by Hope is dedicated to something we talk about often but live out imperfectly: self-care. Or, as we prefer to name it in medical-parent reality, self-preservation — the small, necessary choices that allow us to be the parent advocates we want and need to be.

This episode opens with a deeply personal conversation as we honor Emily K. Whiting, our incredible co-founder of Parent Empowerment Network and co-host of Empowered by Hope. Emily shares her decision to pause her formal role with the organization and the podcast in order to focus fully on her family and the ongoing complex medical needs that first inspired both PEN and this podcast.

This is not an ending. It’s a season.

We name a hard truth with compassion: when hospital days, surgeries, advocacy, and parenting stack up, something has to give. Choosing family does not mean abandoning a mission — sometimes it means protecting it in a different way. Emily’s decision reflects the very values PEN was built on: discernment, courage, faith, and honoring what each season requires.

From there, we zoom out to the larger story you helped build. What began as a kitchen-table idea has grown into a global community across 18 countries. We revisit why being diagnosis-agnostic matters, why undiagnosed families must always feel fully included, and how that commitment led to one of our proudest outcomes: connecting Hardikar families worldwide, supporting expanded research cohorts, published guidance, and a first-ever family gathering. It’s one powerful example of what happens when determined moms, loving families, caregivers, and clinicians move together — faster answers, clearer direction, and a quieter kind of hope that lasts.

In true Emily & Ashlyn fashion, this episode offers listeners powerful takeaways as we get practical. If “self-care” feels like another impossible task, we rename it self-preservation: being honest with ourselves about what must be prioritized right now and what might need to be paused or tabled for a season. The mission continues with open hands.

Expect more empowering and honest conversations with medical parents who truly understand, trusted subject-matter experts and credible voices diving into the topics you’ve asked for, shared resources that make the journey a little lighter, and plenty of love, laughter, and support — the same steady presence this community is built on.

We kindly ask that you share this podcast with other families who might benefit from our insights and support. Additionally, please take a brief moment to leave a review on your preferred podcast platform, which helps us to reach as many families as possible who are navigating this challenging journey, so they can find our support circle and access the assistance they rightfully deserve. No one should walk this journey alone.

To get more personal support, connect with us directly at:
https://parentempowermentnetwork.org

Facebook: Parent Empowerment Network
Instagram: ParentEmpowermentNetwork
Join the Parent Empowerment Network Community of Hope
Get your copy of She is Charlotte: A Mother’s Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey with Her Child with Medical Complexities by Emily K Whiting on Amazon

Send us a text, we want to hear from you!

New year energy can feel fraudulent when you’re parenting through hospital stays, procedures, and constant logistics. We’re trading perfection for something truer: a simple ritual to release what hurts and a short list of keepers that actually help us breathe, love, and carry on. No grand resolutions, no reinvention—just small, honest choices that hold up under real life.

We start with a plate-smashing ritual—yes, really—to mark what we’re done carrying: self-depletion, people-pleasing, and the belief that unconditional love demands self-abandonment. Then we move to what stays. Laughter on purpose, curated so it finds us even on hard days. Childlike wonder that turns clouds, stars, and tiny flowers into quick routes back to calm. Ten minutes of morning prayer for alignment when the schedule is anything but predictable. Deep breathing to reset a nervous system trained by years of fight-or-flight. A phone in the “peace and presence” basket so feeding, rocking, and bedtime become connection instead of multitasking. And self-advocacy—asking for what we need from care teams and our circle without apology.

Along the way we reframe mistakes with grace. You can name a misstep and still honor your heart. Own it, repair, and try again. That stance—gentle and steady—makes space for gratitude to grow, even in grief. We talk practical tools for caregivers of medically complex kids, from boundary-setting to micro-rest, and how to build a more regulated baseline without pretending life is easy. This is trauma-aware, faith-rooted, and deeply human.

If this conversation gave you breath or language for your own reset, follow and share it with another caregiver who needs hope. Subscribe, leave a review, and email us your “leave behind” and “keepers”—we’d love to hear what goes on your plate and what you’ll carry forward.

We kindly ask that you share this podcast with other families who might benefit from our insights and support. Additionally, please take a brief moment to leave a review on your preferred podcast platform, which helps us to reach as many families as possible who are navigating this challenging journey, so they can find our support circle and access the assistance they rightfully deserve. No one should walk this journey alone.

To get more personal support, connect with us directly at:
https://parentempowermentnetwork.org

Facebook: Parent Empowerment Network
Instagram: ParentEmpowermentNetwork
Join the Parent Empowerment Network Community of Hope
Get your copy of She is Charlotte: A Mother’s Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Journey with Her Child with Medical Complexities by Emily K Whiting on Amazon