While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

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This is a podcast FOR bereaved parents BY bereaved parents. Join your host, Jill Sullivan, as she talks with parents who have lost children of all ages to all types of circumstances. This is a podcast of stories ... stories of devastating loss and grief and heartbreak and struggle ... and stories of hope and healing and faith, and yes, even joy. Underlying every conversation will be the hope we have in Jesus Christ, which makes it possible to not just survive the loss of a child, but to live well while we're waiting to see them again in Heaven one day. Visit our website at www.WhileWereWaiting.org for more information about our nonprofit ministry to bereaved parents.

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Top 10 While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

177 | Heaven Working Backwards with Austin and Valerie DeArmond

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

11/15/23 • 44 min

Will we know our children when we get to Heaven? Is my child an angel now that he or she has died? Does my child send me signs? Is it possible to "move forward" in our lives without fearing that we're leaving our children behind? Is the best really yet to come?
Austin and Valerie DeArmond enjoyed 366 days of blessing with their son Gabriel until the Lord took him to Heaven due to a sudden and unexpected illness. Austin is a gifted and articulate theologian, and Valerie is his equal in wisdom and compassion. In today's continuation of our conversation from last week, we discuss these questions and more. Lean in and listen ... and I believe you'll find hope and encouragement in our discussion today.
Click HERE to listen to Part One of my conversation with the DeArmonds.
Austin's blog is full of wonderful articles, including some that we discuss in today's episode. Click HERE to check it out!
If you enjoy theologically-rich quotes related to grief and suffering, you'll love following Austin on Twitter/X. Click HERE to link to his profile.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

** IMPORTANT** - All views expressed by guests on this podcast are theirs alone, and may not represent the Statement of Faith and Statement of Beliefs of the While We're Waiting ministry.
We'd love for you to connect with us here at While We're Waiting!
Click HERE to visit our website and learn about our free While We're Waiting Weekends for bereaved parents
Click HERE to learn more about our network of While We're Waiting support groups all across the country.
Click HERE to subscribe to our YouTube channel
Click HERE to follow our public Facebook page
Click HERE to follow us on Instagram
Click HERE to follow us on Twitter
Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation to the While We're Waiting ministry
Contact Jill by email at: [email protected]

Bonus 195 | The Origin of While We're Waiting (Part 4)

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

03/09/25 • 4 min

Brad and I returned home from the Respite Retreat still basking in the glow of the new relationships we'd formed, the things we'd learned from spending time with other bereaved parents, and a renewed hope that it was still possible to have joy in life in spite of our great loss.
We had a strong sense that God was calling us into a similar type ministry for those who had lost children, but we had no idea how to move forward with it. We talked about it a lot, and we sought God's direction, but we just didn't have any kind of catalyst to push us forward.

Thank you for joining me for another bonus episode in this series in which I’ve been sharing our family’s experiences in the last year of our daughter Hannah’s life, which spanned from February 2008 through February 2009. This series would not be complete without a discussion of the ministry which developed out of Hannah’s homegoing. If you’ll indulge me for a few more bonus episodes, I’d like to share how God used Hannah’s storm to birth the While We’re Waiting ministry to bereaved parents. As always, my desire is to give glory to God and point listeners to hope in Jesus along the way.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

Bonus 125 | Sudden Change of Plans

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

11/02/24 • 3 min

We arrived at Arkansas Children's Hospital on Monday morning all prayed up and psyched up for Hannah's MRI. We had no idea we would be admitted to the hospital instead.
Thank you for joining me for another bonus episode of the While We're Waiting podcast in this year-long series in which I share our family’s experiences as our teenage daughter Hannah battled glioblastoma brain cancer from February 2008 through February 2009. My desire is to process through the events of those twelve months with the perspective that 16 years has brought ... and point listeners to hope in Jesus along the way.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

226 | Living on Earth with Our Eyes on Heaven (Part One) with John and Lisa Cleland

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

10/23/24 • 66 min

I had the great privilege of visiting with John and Lisa Cleland on the occasion of their son Zac’s 29th birthday recently, and I am pleased to share our conversation with you today. In today’s episode, we hear about Zac and his service to our country as a proud United States Marine right up until his death under mysterious circumstances in December of 2021. Be sure to come back next week for the rest of his story, and to hear how the Clelands have learned to live on earth with their eyes on Heaven.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

163 | The Best Is Yet To Come! with Terry and Joy Young (A Reprise)

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

08/16/23 • 63 min

On July 31, I received a text from my friend Terry Young, letting me know that his wife Joy had laid down for a nap that day & woke up in Heaven. At first I couldn’t believe it - my dear friend Joy was much too full of life to be gone - but she was. Joy was known for exclaiming at every opportunity, “The best is yet to come!" & for her the best had come.

When Terry found Joy that afternoon, she was lying on their bed with her Bible open to Psalm 46 and was in the middle of writing a note of encouragement to some fellow bereaved parents. She lived to serve others, and to remind everyone she knew about the hope we have in Jesus, and she did that right up until the moment she stepped into Heaven. She had no greater desire than for others to know Jesus personally and by re-releasing this episode, I’d like to give her one more opportunity to make that appeal. Joy didn’t know when she laid down that day that God was going to take her home, but she was ready to go. As you listen today, please make sure you’re ready too. Joy herself is going to tell you how you can have that assurance & know that the best is yet to come!
Plan of salvation:
Realize you are a sinner. No matter how good a life we try to live, we still fall miserably short of being a 'good person.' That's because we're all sinners. We fall short of God's desire for us to be holy. The Bible says, 'No one is righteous - not even one' (Rom. 3:10).
Recognize that Jesus died on the cross for you. 'But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners' (Rom. 5:8 ). This is the good news, that God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die in our place when we least deserved it.

Repent of your sin. The Bible tells us to 'repent therefore and be converted' (Acts 3:19). The word 'repent' means 'to change our direction in life.' Instead of running away from God, run toward him.

Receive Jesus in your life. Being a Christian is not just believing some creed or going to church on Sunday. Being a Christian is allowing Christ himself to take residence in your life and heart. Jesus said, 'Behold, I stand at the door [of your life] and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in' (Rev. 3:20).

If you haven't invited Jesus into your life, pray a sincere prayer like this one: 'Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe you died for my sins. I turn from my sin & open the door of my heart & life. I confess

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

23 | A Story of Peace from Chaos with Bob and Susan Wathen

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

12/16/20 • 62 min

Hannah Wathen was a high school senior with a bright future ahead of her. She was a natural introvert with a brilliant sense of humor and an innate ability to identify and befriend those on the fringes. Her life's goal was to become a doctor, and she was just days away from graduation and heading off to college when she made an impulse decision to take her own life. Jill talks with her parents, Bob and Susan Wathen, about Hannah's life, her suicide, the sovereignty of God, and how He brought peace from unimaginable chaos.
The pamphlet the Wathens refer to in the interview is called "SOS: A Handbook for Survivors of Suicide" by Jeffrey Jackson, and is published by the American Association of Suicidology.
Information about the While We're Waiting Weekend for Bereaved Parents at Kinderhook Lodge in Barry, Illinois, is available HERE.
Information about our While We're Waiting support groups, including the one the Wathens lead in Hannibal, Missouri, is available HERE.
The Wathens refer to our closed While We're Waiting -- Support for Bereaved Parents Facebook group during our conversation. That group can be found by clicking HERE.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

126 | Joy in the Mourning (Part One) with Leslie Harder

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

11/30/22 • 33 min

I’m pleased today to introduce you to my friend Leslie Harder. Leslie joined me to record this episode on what would have been her son William’s 39th birthday. William went to Heaven suddenly and unexpectedly in August of 2016, just five days after the death of Leslie’s mother. In our conversation today, she shares about that experience and how God walked with her through those early days of grieving both her son and her mother. We also discuss her memoir “Joy in the Mourning – Viewing the Rainbow from the Vale of Tears,” in which she shares her story in a series of dated entries. I believe you’ll be encouraged by what she has to share today.
Click HERE to get Leslie's book "Joy in the Mourning - Viewing the Rainbow from the Vale of Tears"
Click HERE to get Leslie's book "Mourning Devotions - Grieving God's Way"
Click HERE to get Leslie's book "Selah - 60 Moments with the Master"

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

Bonus 1 | Sixteen Years

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

02/14/24 • 2 min

Welcome to the first of what is planned to be a year-long series of bonus episodes on the While We’re Waiting podcast.
This month marks sixteen years since our 17-year-old daughter Hannah was diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer, which she battled for a little over a year before she went to Heaven on February 26, 2009. During that year, I documented her journey through a series of almost daily emails, at first just to family and friends ... and eventually to tens of thousands of people, as these email updates were shared around the world.
Over the upcoming year I’d like to share those emails, along with some commentary, with you. My desire is to process through the events of those twelve months with the perspective that 16 years has brought ... and if you’d like to follow along, I’d love for you to join me.
Most of these episodes will be very short ... five minutes or less ... and they will be very simple ... just the emails, along with some commentary. The first few episodes will actually be setting the context ... sharing how we discovered the cancer ... the first email wasn’t actually sent until February 20, 2008.

Many people who followed Hannah’s cancer journey sixteen years ago have shared with us that they were inspired by it, that they drew closer to God because of it, and some even came to know the Lord as their Savior as a result of it.
Ultimately, my desire is to humbly and faithfully point people to Jesus as I share these glimpses into our journey through a year of cancer and the loss of our precious daughter. Thank you for joining me.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

158 | A Period, Not a Question Mark with Tommy & Susan Cartwright

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

07/12/23 • 25 min

We had the incredible privilege of hosting two While We're Waiting events in Botswana, Africa, a couple weeks ago, and today's episode opens with a brief summary of our time there. The bereaved parents we met there were gracious and kind, and we are so grateful that we were able to play a small role in assisting them to find community with others who truly understand the journey of child loss, and are leaning on Jesus to get them through. It was an experience I'll never forget.
Today I also have the pleasure of introducing you to my friends, Tommy and Susan Cartwright, from Pineville, Louisiana. They are the parents of Chad, a personable young man with a magnetic personality and a tender heart, who served honorably in the United States Army, completing a 13-month-tour of Iraq. He fought another battle as well, and that was a battle against addiction, and ultimately God received him into Heaven in May of 2011 due to an accidental heroin overdose. Today, the Cartwrights share his story, and discuss the impact his passing had on their marriage relationship. Come back next week as we extend our conversation to include some very practical issues faced by parents after the loss of a child.
Click HERE to access the "How the Non-Bereaved Can Help" document that was referenced in this episode.
Click HERE to listen to my interview with Scott and Karen Harmening.
Click HERE to listen to my interview with Lisa Armstrong.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

242 | Jesus Wept ... with Shawn and Sandy Smith

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

02/12/25 • 32 min

Today's episode is a continuation of my conversation with Shawn and Sandy Smith about their son Andrew—a joy-filled boy with a love for music—who went to heaven in 2009 after a courageous battle with DIPG.

Today, we look at what life has been like over the sixteen years since Andrew went home to Jesus. In this episode, Shawn and Sandy open up about how they’ve learned to carry their loss, what has brought them comfort, and how their faith has deepened in ways they never expected.

We’ll talk about the struggles and the hope, the moments that still take them by surprise, and the ways God has shown His love and faithfulness through the years. I believe today’s episode will be an encouragement to you.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. Click here to send me a message!

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FAQ

How many episodes does While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss have?

While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss currently has 453 episodes available.

What topics does While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss cover?

The podcast is about Christianity, Parenting, Faith Based, Kids & Family, Grief, Religion & Spirituality, Podcasts and Christian.

What is the most popular episode on While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss?

The episode title '69 | A Story of a Deeper Faith with Carol Mathus' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss?

The average episode length on While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss is 22 minutes.

How often are episodes of While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss released?

Episodes of While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss are typically released every 3 days.

When was the first episode of While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss?

The first episode of While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss was released on Jul 20, 2020.

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While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss