Nnamdi and Deidra Okonkwo share their journey through infertility, including learning about the surprising cause, the strain it placed on their marriage, and the unexpected path that ultimately led them to adoption. Together they discuss navigating different cultural perspectives, wrestling with unanswered prayers, learning to trust God's timing, and recognizing His hand in life's smallest details.

Their story is filled with humor, heartbreak, miracles, and profound testimony—including tender experiences that transformed their understanding of family, parenthood, and God's love. Whether you're walking through infertility, considering adoption, or simply trying to trust God when life looks different than you imagined, this episode offers hope that He is present in every detail of our lives.

If this episode resonates with you, please follow the podcast so you'll be notified when new episodes are released.

We'd also love to hear your story. Join us as we support one another through the challenges of infertility.

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this compelling episode, Shannon and Pam sit down with Niki White as she shares, for the first time publicly, the story of how childhood trauma, infertility, and faith have shaped her life.

After surviving years of abuse and later facing cervical cancer as a young adult, Niki discovered that the effects of her childhood would continue to impact her dream of becoming a mother. With remarkable honesty, she opens up about grief, healing, therapy, the unwavering support of her husband, and the Savior who has walked beside her through every chapter.

Rather than focusing on what was taken from her, Niki's story is ultimately one of hope. She shares how healing doesn't erase the past—it changes its hold on us—and how our experiences may explain our pain without ever defining our worth.

Whether your own journey includes infertility, trauma, loss, or simply unanswered questions, we hope Niki's testimony reminds you that your story isn't over. There is hope, there is healing, and through Jesus Christ, there is always another chapter waiting to be written.

Content Note: This episode includes discussion of childhood trauma, sexual abuse, infertility, cancer, PTSD, and emotional healing. While the conversation avoids graphic details, some listeners may find these topics difficult. Please listen in whatever way feels healthy to you.

If today's conversation brought up difficult emotions or reminded you of your own experiences, please know you don't have to walk through healing alone.

Professional Therapy & Trauma Resources

• Find an EMDR Therapist (EMDRIA Directory)
• Find Mental Health Treatment Near You (FindTreatment.gov)

Resources from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

If you are a member of the Church and are interested in Family Services counseling, your bishop can help connect you with available resources in your area. Family Services also offers group counseling for concerns such as trauma, healing from sexual abuse, anxiety, depression, grief, and marriage support, while also helping members find trusted community providers when longer-term care is needed.

• Family Services
• Finding the Right Mental Health Resource
• Managing Mental & Emotional Health

If You Are in Crisis

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (Call or text 988 in the U.S. and Canada.)

If this episode resonates with you, please follow the podcast so you'll be notified when new episodes are released.

We'd also love to hear your story. Join us as we support one another through the challenges of infertility.

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this special panel discussion, Shannon and Pam are joined by two friends, Shanda Clark and Kaycee Michalow, for an honest conversation about living with unresolved infertility. Though each woman's journey is unique, all four share the experience of reaching midlife without children and reflect on what it has meant to navigate faith, grief, hope, and healing along the way.

Together they discuss the unexpected losses infertility brings—not only the loss of motherhood, but also the loss of future grandchildren, family legacies, and dreams that quietly change over time. They talk candidly about church culture, well-meaning but painful comments, adoption, fertility treatments, miscarriage, and the ways infertility has shaped their marriages and their relationships with God.

Rather than offering easy answers or neatly wrapped conclusions, this episode explores how faith can grow even when prayers remain unanswered. Through personal stories, scripture, and heartfelt testimony, the conversation points to the hope that Christ walks with us through every fiery furnace, and that even in the hardest seasons, our lives can still be filled with purpose, love, and lasting influence.

Whether you're in the middle of your infertility journey, supporting someone you love, or simply seeking greater compassion and understanding, we hope this conversation reminds you that you are not alone.

Please follow the podcast to be notified of future episodes!

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Christy Lakip shares a story you'll find hard to believe. But even more impressively, she shares a faith that is even bigger than all the unfairness and drama she's lived.

Years before she found the Church, she experienced the nightmare of having her baby taken from her by close family members. She describes a guardianship scheme and legal battle involving falsified documents that, 16 years later, still keeps her from raising her firstborn child.

And that's just the beginning.

She has a lot of reasons she could be angry at God. But when she found the Church, her faith became something that would carry her through the hardest times.

While she did not experience infertility, she poignantly feels the emptiness of not having her firstborn child in her home, and the faith and testimony she shares can be an inspiration to any of us going through what may seem like unfairness or cruelty at any level.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of the traumatic loss of parental custody, family abuse, sexual assault, and other emotionally difficult experiences.

Please follow the podcast to be notified of future episodes!

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠⁠

Dr. Amanda Colby joins us to talk about her experience of infertility, leading to the eventual adoption of a son and daughter. From a fertile family where her 6 sisters all had babies during her time of infertility, she shares about periods of real depression but also the one thing she believes helped her move out of that sadness and feel peace and happiness years before children came to their family.

She teaches us the impact of replacing thoughts that create pain with thoughts that are more helpful, and highlights the important reality that not feeling pain does not equate to not caring.

Dr. Colby understands both the science and lived background of the challenge of letting go of pain, and shares valuable strategies to co-regulate our nervous system in an effort to let go of pain and allow comfort and peace to enter.

You can find more tools and ideas, including a masterclass for navigating all sorts of life challenges, from both her website and blog:

https://theneuroscientistnextdoor.com/blog/

https://dramandacolby.com/#

Please follow the podcast to be notified of future episodes!

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠⁠⁠

Years of infertility followed by a life-altering conversation with a neighbor is how Candace's journey begins.

Among other things, her roller coaster to parenthood includes a longterm guardianship situation that was never quite spelled out for future implications, fostering joy and trauma, a significant weight loss journey, a misdiagnosed fertility condition, and a doctor's visit years down the road that brought a drastic change of thinking about what was possible.

Candace is still riding the roller coaster and finding joy, peace and excitement in where God is taking her. More to come--this episode is just part 1.

Please follow the podcast to be notified of future episodes!

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠⁠⁠

Have you fostered or considered fostering? The need for qualified, loving foster parents is overwhelming. But fostering with the hope to adopt can be complicated to say the least.

In this episode Pam shares part of her journey as a foster parent. She and her husband had a lot of joy from loving the children that came into their home. But there was a cost, and it's important to go into fostering with your eyes open to the potential heartache it may bring.

The difficulties shared in this episode are not meant to discourage anyone from fostering. We also aren't suggesting that fostering is right for everyone. It is a highly personal decision.

Pam's story is an illustration of how pure, selfless love can be shared freely for the sole reason that God has asked us to care for His children, without any expectations of what that love will bring us.

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/⁠

Faith--and our efforts to stay active in it--can be the one thing that gives us real hope, peace and comfort. It can ironically also be the one thing that makes it a lot more painful.

Whether it's a comment that landed in a hurtful way at church (despite good intentions) or simply the pain of not being able to "multiply and replenish," despite the desire--there are ample opportunities we can find to justify stepping away from faith.

But there are even more, deeper reasons we can find to stay, or return.

Pam and Shannon share some of the poignant ways they've seen God in their lives, despite never being blessed with children, and how they know that means they can continue to trust in Him and His goodness.

Co-hosted by Pamela Denison.

Message us to share your story on the podcast and join us in supporting each other:

• Facebook group: Full Faith, Empty Arms-LDS Infertility ⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1J5UnWMJP9/⁠

• Instagram: Full Faith, Empty Arms ⁠https://www.instagram.com/fullfaithemptyarms/