Season 2 is finally here! I’ve been really looking forward to Season 2 because I have some amazing guests to share and the theme is dynamite. We will be focusing on our personal journey and evolution as parents!
In this kickoff episode, I share summaries and audio clips of the first four episodes in Season 2 so you can really whet your appetite for the good stuff coming!
Listen to the Preface episode here: https://therarelifepodcast.com/show-notes/preface
Madeline Cheney 0:00
Hi! You're listening to The Rare Life. I'm your host Madeline Cheney, and today I'm thrilled to kick off Season 2. As a reminder, each season is structured around themes. If you want a little more information about that and you haven't already, please go to the preface episode. That is where I explain a lot more about the podcast, the purpose of it and how it works, and a little bit of getting to know you. In a nutshell, each season's theme is a loose theme that mostly guides the topics for the professional episodes, my solo episodes, and parents' special topic episodes. And the story episodes are much looser in their themes. So Season 2's theme is our personal journey. It is all about the way that our children and their medical needs, and their special needs have affected us as people. I'm really excited about this topic. I think it's really fascinating to explore how it's changed us, for better or for worse, and most often a combination of the two. A few episode topics include grief, self-care, trauma counseling, and mindfulness. Per tradition, I will give you a glimpse into the first four episodes of Season 2. Our first parent story episode is The Story of Claire with her mom, Katie. Claire has a very rare and lethal form of dwarfism. Among other things, in this episode, Katie shares the heart-wrenching experience of being told that their daughter Claire would not survive childhood. Katie is hilarious and she's real, and I really enjoyed this conversation with her. Her special topic episode is the following episode, and she shares all about anticipatory grief as she has experienced with her daughter. She shares how it has evolved throughout her daughter's four years of life. And she also shares advice for people that are experiencing anticipatory grief and advice for those who know someone who's going through that. Our first professional episode of season two is with Tara Docekal. Tara is the founder of the nonprofit organization, Mightiest Mamas. After her own traumatic antepartum and NICU experience with her daughter, Tara decided to give back in a one-time gifting project to the St. Louis Missouri hospital. That one-time project turned into many others and eventually received nonprofit status. Tara is really inspiring and she shares in that episode, what it is like to serve these other moms who are going through things that she has experienced, as well as the healing power that she has found in giving back. She advises us in ways that we can give back, and the first steps to take if we are feeling that itch. Following that episode is my solo episode and is a very personal solo episode. This one is all about finding out that I am a carrier for my son's genetic syndrome, which translates over to mean that it is all my fault. That's a fun one. There are many implications on my personal life and my family life. And I'm excited to share that one with you. Following my solo episode, we'll have another parent story and then her special topic and so on. And now you get to enjoy a few extended clips of the upcoming four episodes you have coming your way.
Katie 3:42
"When they tell you like your kid is gonna die... and they were like, 'You'll be lucky to get two years.' I honestly, I was like I don't even care that she has a disability. I just care that she's gonna die. I would take care of her for 80 years if she was so severely disabled like I wouldn't even care. Like that doesn't even matter to me."
Katie 4:06
"Anticipatory grief, what is that? So if you think, someone died, you would have grief for that person, right? Anticipatory grief is grief that occurs before death, versus, you know, the typical death as I stated earlier, which is grieving after someone has passed away. So, right, in a nutshell, it's grieving the loss of someone before they are actually gone."
Tara 4:38
"For me, it's just been such a healing thing for my own journey. And I think a lot less about all of the trauma that we went through, and I think a lot more about thankfulness. Thankfulness that, you know, we are doing so well and we can give back. So that's been a really amazing thing that I wasn't expecting to come from all of this. I really wasn't doing it to heal myself, but it amazingly has done that for me."
Madeline Cheney 5:05
"I've done therapy. And while I was there, we were talking about it. And I was like, of course it's not my fault. Like, I didn't do anything. And then she was like, 'Do you believe that?' And then I actually let myself feel what I had been feeling all along. And I was like, 'No. No, it's all my fault. It's all my fault. I gave my son his condition. I gave him all these horrific birth defects. I gave him this life-threatening condition and things that he will deal with for his whole life.' And I hate that. I hate knowing that I gave this to him.'
Madeline Cheney 5:54
Well, I hope you're as excited as I am for Season 2! Consider it officially kicked off. You can follow me on Instagram at the_rare _life, and "like" the Facebook page, The Rare Life Podcast to learn about episodes being released. See you next time!
Add new comment