Healing Through Broken Relationships Author Summit

Welcome, welcome everybody to this beautiful summit. I'm so excited to host this summit, to host the summit for all the authors of this beautiful book, Healing through Broken Relationships. I love our Freedom House summits. My name is Kira Brenton and I am the founder and CEO of Freedom House Publishing Co. Where we change the world one book at a time. And one of my favorite pieces to Freedom House is having these summits where we get to bring the authors behind the books to the readers. And today's book is so good. Collaboration books just have a place in my heart. I love collaboration books because we get to prove to the readers and that is possible. When you read a book where one person tells their story, it's very easy as a reader to say, well, that person's just really gifted or they're really strong. I can't have that. But when you come and read a book of 17 different authors telling their own personal experiences around the same principle or topic, the reader automatically now believes it's possible. And that's what I love about this book is we have 17 authors. 17 authors who shared how they healed through a broken relationship. And not just a relationship between a spouse or a partner, but we have stories in here about a relationship between church, between in business with their body, with their mother with so many aspects. And that's what's powerful about this book is that everybody will find themselves in one of these chapters or more. You're going to find yourself in one of these authors voices. And if you're here, maybe you've already read the book and you can't wait to meet these authors. Maybe you're here because you love these authors and you haven't read the book. If you haven't read it, you need to get it. This is a book that you need to have 10 copies because the topics in this book are topics that are really hard to talk to people about. And you're going to have a loved one going through one of these really hard situations and you're going to have this book to give to them. You're going to have this book to show them there's hope. And I want you to read it and hear someone's story. So everybody here, I just want to honor. Every author is here present and we have some authors that couldn't make it tonight. I want to honor them and I want to honor Randa. So Randa Stratton Dutcher, we're going to pull her her up first. She's the head author. So a head author is someone who comes to me as the publisher and says, I have an idea. I have an idea for a book, and I want a lot of different people to write in it, and they become the team captain. Amanda was an awesome team captain for this book. She rallied. She got these beautiful souls to join her in this mission, and she showed up for these authors and helped them. And so, Randa, I want to just bring you here to tell us a little bit why you felt inspired to bring this book to life, and we'll start this amazing summit together.

Thank you, Kira. I really. I wanted to write a collaboration book about divorce and remarriage, and. But when you and I spoke, it was really apparent that it needed to be a much broader. It needed to be more subjects than just that one niche. And there are. There are a lot of stories in here about divorce, about marriage, about relationships like that, but having a full gamut of different relationships and how people found the resiliency and healing through all kinds of situations. Because not everyone's experienced divorce, and not everyone has experienced marriage, but everyone has experienced at least one thing from one of the authors in this book.

Yeah, I love that. I remember so clearly that day when we were. We were Marco Poloing back and forth, and it was, like, so clear that there was a book that needed to come through. And then when you landed on this topic, it was like, oh, my gosh, yes, because we all have broken relationships with something. But when you're in that deep, dark brokenness, it feels like you're all alone. It feels like you're the only one who's gone through it. And it doesn't feel like hope's around the corner. And what you did by bringing every one of these brilliant authors together is that they all share their story so that somebody who's in that dark hole sees the light and the hope.

Yeah, exactly.

I love that you brought this together. Thank you, Randa. So what I want to do is have every author say their name and say what their chapter title is, but then also give us a little snippet of, like, what is your chapter about? So I'm gonna go from the top of my screen, which is Holly. So, Holly, you want to go first?

Sorry, just finding that unmute button. Okay. Wow. All right, just jumping in. I am chapter six, and I titled it Deliverance from Story, which doesn't really share what it's about, ladies and gentlemen, everyone in between. It's about infidelity, cheating. So need I say more? It's dirty secrets. No, it's not dirty secrets, but, you know, it's the stuff that you don't want to talk about. It's stuff that has been going on in lineages that were just like. That didn't happen. So I brought it into the light and wanted to normalize. Well, maybe not normalize it, but you know what I mean. Just share that. Like, this happened in my life and this happened in my relationship. Things broke because they needed to. And maybe you can hear screaming in the background, hopefully not with children, but things broke that needed to break. And then we made it. We're still. Yeah, we got through it. We at a new and better place. Oh, my God.

Love it. I love it. Holly's also one of our platinum authors because you have written now how many books with us?

Well, I've written in four books and then I was lucky enough to be an illustrator for one of your books by another author on here. So I'm saying five. Five books in 2018.

Platinum level. I love it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Holly. I appreciate you sharing. Hey, Kerry, you're next on my screen. Why don't you jump in?

Alrighty. I loved your chapter, by the way, Holly. I read it today. I am Carrie and my chapter is chapter 10, A Mother Reborn. And I wrote that as that chap as the title because I've had a strain with. With my own relationship with myself as well as. As a mother. My identity was based on being a mother until my children were all grown up and I was an empty nester, sort of because they keep coming back. But yeah, the. The reborn part was becoming a new person really, and a mother in a different way. So now I'm a mother as a friend and confidant and an encourager and cheerleader instead of the disciplinarian and the, you know, boss, you know, so to speak. So I'm a totally different realm of being a mother. And one of my beautiful daughters is one of our co authors and she and I are my chapter and I think hers as well. I know hers as well. Focus a lot on our relationship and the muck we went through to become where we are today.

Thank you, Carrie. I love, I love that. And this, this is such a. A story that everyone can relate to because whether everyone who reads it is a mother, but everyone has a mother. And so your story, especially combined with Julie's story, your daughter who's in this book, I mean, so profound and so powerful. So I just honor you for writing your chapter.

Thank you. Beautiful, beautiful.

So next on my screen is Randa and her wonderful husband. How Do I not remember your name right now? Oh, my gosh. We're friends.

Aaron. Aaron.

Oh, my gosh. We're actually friends. It's fine. My brain just doesn't work all the time.

All right, Forget your name. It's okay.

Aaron, why don't you start us off? Tell us a little bit about the chapter you wrote.

All right, so my chapter is chapter 16, Broke and Broken in Business. And it goes back to the Great Recession. And I was in a thriving business with some business partners, and how that all fell apart and really affected me for years, like emotionally, physically, spiritually. And how going through that did make me better, made me stronger. And healing from that was actually able to help me heal this relationship, which is another story, not in this book, but will be in another one. And looking at that, you know, a lot of people don't think as businesses, as relationships, but I tell people all the time, when you're doing business with someone else, you might as well be getting into bed with them. I mean, it's going to be a very intimate relationship because that's what business is, and you spend a lot of time with them. And so I think it's a good outlook for a lot of people that have had business relationships that have gone bad or gone south, and that it's okay to hurt from them, and it's good to heal from them.

So powerful. Aaron, I'm so happy you wrote that. That's such a powerful chapter to have in this book. Thank you, Randa, I'd love for you to tell us what your chapter is about.

My chapter is about my struggle with suicide ideation and the broken relationship I've had with my body. And I think a lot of people have experienced that not accepting their body or wanting it to be or look a certain way or operate a certain way. And I think that it's something that needs to be talked about in safe spaces and that it's okay to say that I struggle in that way. Yeah.

Powerful. I am so grateful you wrote your chapter. I know so many people who struggle, and you and I share the same. You know, we both have struggled with suicide ideation throughout our life and how silenced it is and. And the silence is what allows it to grow, and you sharing your voice is what allows it to heal others. So I just really honor you for bringing that through.

Yeah.

Powerful. Thank you. All right, the next author on my screen is Jessica Tan.

Hi, guys. So my chapter was chapter three, the.

Journey to My Treasure.

I think that's what it was.

Yeah.

The Journey to my treasure. And I. This was kind of the final chapter. I wrote a book called Fiercely Cherished Beings before I wrote this chapter, and it was incomplete. And I felt like this chapter, the journey to my treasure, was my way to kind of complete that journey and talk about how I had had a pattern in relationships and in allowing myself to change who I was to please those relationships.

And ultimately.

And it was partially Aaron's inspiration of talking about business relationships. It was a business relationship that broke me. It was not the romantic relationships or the family relationships or any of the others. It was when it happened in the business setting that finally it really shattered my sense of who I was and everything I'd built up around myself.

And so that chapter was really the. The process of healing from that breaking.

Obviously, that's the topic of the book.

But then discovering what that treasure is, what I was hiding or what I was, wasn't seeing, that existed with.

Inside myself while I was hiding behind.

All of those other ways of living or.

Or ways of perfecting myself to. To be what other people wanted me to be. And. And that when we can get to that center part, that's when we can.

Really make magic in the world and.

Make a difference in the world.

And so powerful. Thank you, Jessica. Jessica is also another one of our platinum authors. She has written three individual books, and she's also been in two or three collaboration books now. Two collaboration books. Yeah. So phenomenal work. So grateful for you to share your voice in here. Thank you. Thank you. Kendra, you're next on my screen. Can you hear me? Yes, but we can't see you now. Oh, we want to see your face. We like your face.

Okay. Having trouble here.

Go look at the. The video. And there should be a line through it right now. You just click on the video icon and it will pop your video up.

It switched on me. Come back to me.

Okay, we'll come back to you. Okay. Veronica, you're next, my friend. Hope you're muted. Hold on.

Yeah, that worked. Yep. Good evening, everybody. Chapter 15, Veronica Morrow Chapter is purpose to Our souls pain. And what I really wanted to share in the book was the faith that it takes to get through the challenges and all the struggles that we have in life. And with my particular story, it was about forgiveness and offering grace and not judging a book by its cover as well. Like, we tend to put people on pedestals because we either believe they're more educated than us, prettier than us, smarter than us, and we tend to hold them at this standard that we believe that they should know better. But the reality is that we're all human. And I feel that throughout the whole story with my son, that was one of the things that I learned was that I wish I would have spoken to this doctor sooner because it would have allowed me to be able to get through the trials and tribulations and the stress that I put on myself with what I believed something to be that I like. Our brains, like do these things to us where we like walk through these stories and we make them bigger or even worse than what they really are, when in actuality sometimes it just takes communication and you know, and for me it was really the faith that I needed to not give up during this stuff. And understanding that at the end of it, I do believe that it gave there's power to pain and it gave me the power to be able to have a stronger faith for the things that were to come in the future that I endured after that, which were many more things that occurred. But I do believe that with what happened to me during that time, it allowed me to help others as well. And I do believe if we can get through those struggles, have the faith, lean on the people around us, then we can get through whatever comes at us. And so I thought it was just, you know, this was an awesome thing to do with everybody. I learned so much from everyone and it's just like it was a great experience. Thank you.

And your chapter is so powerful and I just thank you for bringing it through.

Thank you.

Yeah. So beautiful. Kendra, I see your face. Why don't you jump in?

I think. Can you hear me and see me?

Can see in here.

Perfect. So my chapter is chapter five and it's called Believe the Be. And I made these little. I don't know if you guys can see these. I made these little bookmarks because I figured I needed a bookmark for my books. So the be and believe stands for broken event, which you don't get through life without broken events. But. And sometimes you have to leave those things. Right. Believe. But my book actually started out honestly as a parenting book. My daughter, when she was about a teenager, it was going to be a parenting book on how do you parent and a. An 18 year old. Right. 18 and beyond versus 18 and below. But what happened is when she was 17, just about to turn 18, her father died and that just changed things and hadn't anticipated that. So you go from being. We got married when we were younger, we had divorced. So I was used to being, you know, a single parent. Right. But now I realize that I was an only parent and that was at least only here on earth, which does matter. But I still feel that he and I co parent. He just co parents from heaven and I co parent from earth. That's how I look at that. So. But like you were saying, dependent on your relationship side, I have a code word and it's parents. And we all have them, regardless of your relationship with them. And so for me, the letters stand for something because when you're parenting, you may need the P. It could be prayer, it could be patience. It could be whatever you want it to be, and it goes on down the list. So this is what helps me and I hope it helps others realize that whatever broken event you're going through, if you have that in your mind, you can make it be whatever you want it to be, and it will help you.

Wow. I love it. I love it. Thank you. And such a great visual. I appreciate you sharing that. Thank you. Thank you. We are up to Jason. Jason, I'd love for you to unmute and tell us about your chapter.

Oh, thank you. First of all, I just want to thank Randa for letting me be a part of this amazing experience. And to all of my beautiful co authors and handsome co authors, I'm honored to be among such interesting and magnificent people. My story is that I was wounded pretty severely in the line of duty as a Phoenix police officer. So severely, in fact, that I lost the ability to walk. Took me several years to get back onto my feet. Right after I was wounded, my wife divorced me and just a tragic series of events happened. And before I realized that I was homeless, unemployable divorce, crippled, and financially ruined all at the same time. And when you're. When everything has been taken away from you, you're left with two choices. It's victory or death. And so my story is my story, my personal story of overcoming the darkness and what my sedition against the evil looked like, and my reconnection with my faith and with my belief in God and how I rebuilt my life based on the principles of the warrior ethos, of finding that spirit inside of you. I've spent the last 30 years as a soldier and a police officer. And so it was time for me to stop saying that I'm a warrior and start acting like one. And I fought a battle that most people wouldn't be able to survive. And I'm not blowing my own horn. I'm just explaining what happened. And I was able to come through it.

And.

And now I'm happier Healthier, richer. I have a bigger family, and I'm better off now that I've come through the darkness and I found that path to healing. And so I. That's. That's my story.

Wow, Jason. Oh, thank you. Hearing you speak, it is so powerful to hear it come out of your voice. For some reason, I just really want to acknowledge that. Like, thank you for speaking it. Thank you for writing, like. Yeah.

Oh, it's.

Sorry, it's chapter seven. Sorry. And the title is Warrior.

Warrior Up. I love that. So good. Thank you, Jason. Oh, I mean, can you guys just feel all of our. All of our participants and even our authors, like, the power in this book? Do you feel it? Like, this isn't just some normal book that you're going to find just anywhere? Like, this book radiates power and strength and warrior energy and light and just lights me up. Makes me so happy this book came to life. So let's keep going. We've got Julie, Elizabeth, why don't you jump in and tell us about who you are in your chapter?

Hi, everyone. Yeah, I'm really grateful to be part of this. This project, this call. When Rhonda told me about it, I was like, I have to. I have to. And I am such a believer in the, quote, that the quality of our life is defined by the quality of our relationships. And, you know, that doesn't stop with having broken relationships. Right? There's. There's not a lack of hope in that. So my chapter is chapter 11. It's titled Choosing Me. And I wrote about my broken relationship with a mother Wound, and I wrote it with my mom, Carrie, who. Who shared earlier. And it's been such an incredible journey to. To share our experience. You know, in many ways, this was also my journey to. To just healing with the mother archetype and kind of finding that internal mother figure within me and connecting to a divine mother and, you know, working through some of the brokenness in the. The human relationship that my mom and I were having. And it was just such an interesting thing. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that in this life, like, we got to do that in the human realm. It's just. It's really inspiring and beautiful to me, looking back on it. And I gained so much from going through those experiences and learning how to set boundaries for myself and learning how to, you know, grow into myself and nurture myself and show up for myself even when others around me didn't have capacity to meet my needs. And. And so that's really what My chapter is about is. Is how I kind of navigated that as a child and then growing into adulthood.

Wow. Julie. So beautiful. So, so beautiful. Julie's also one of our other authors. She wrote a book this summer. So just such a joy to have you here in this book as well. So thank you. Thank you, Julie.

Thank you.

All right, who we have? We have Carol Ann. I see. Carol Ann, you want to pop in?

Yeah, thanks. Hi. Yeah, happy to be here. I am Chapter four, Santa Pearl. A healing space. So. So we'll start there with the. How the Santa pearl happens. Right. So. So I compare myself as an irritant, as a sand. A piece of sand. And you can read about how pearls are made. And so I came up with this analogy because of an experience I had at SeaWorld and. Da, da, da. And you'll have to read the chapter to find out about that. But it's a lot about, first of all, about how I have moved through my life in changing a whole bunch of things in my life. Careers, marriages, parenting, you know, lots of things without the healing power of another person. So I've had to heal broken relationships without the other person. And. And it started with I feeling, you know, gypped, without having my pre existence, my grandfathers that I never knew and. And then other males in my life that I haven't had, their. Their guidance or their. Their power of healing. And I've had to just do it through my own process. Right. And so how do you come out the other side is how I talk about forgiveness and healing and joy and, you know, how that. That works. And I. I basically had to reborn myself as a whim, a woman and a wife. And I feel like I, you know, you get second chances and you start over and you remarry, you, you know, go through divorce, you remarry, you step, you know, your step kids, your. Your grandkids, you know, so I've gone through that in shaping my spirit, my soul, in a way that I never thought was possible. You still have lots of disappointments and grievances, but I kind of educate a way to do it. It's a lot of education, and I quote books and have some references on how to do that. As a therapist, I have to throw some of that in there. I do a lot of education. And so how do you get to that place where you can have emotion, but you're not disturbed with emotion and you can move through it?

Mm, I love that. And I love the analogy of the sand and the pearl and the irritant. Being the thing that creates the beauty. So I love that. And you're also in another collaboration book, so really great to have your voice again in these powerful books. So thank you. That. Thank you for being here. All right, we've got Cheryl next on my screen. Cheryl, I'd love to hear from you. Hold on. I can't hear you quite yet. Hopefully we can get your mute button to work, because we really want to hear from you. Let me see if I can. I don't know. I can't unmute you, I don't think.

Hmm. There. I think I got it.

We got it. Yes. Cheryl. Share away, share away.

I just have to tell you how grateful I am for you and Randa. This has been a really great experience for me, and I have been so touched and emotionally touched from everybody's stories. Jason, I got to tell you, your story is so powerful. So I just feel very blessed and fortunate to be a part of all of you who wrote these wonderful stories. And I am like all of you have had other broken relationships besides the one I wrote about. And I think relationships are the hardest thing in this planet. I think that they are all good, they are all hard, that there are ups and downs. And my chapter is chapter eight, Rise Girl. And at the beginning of the year, certain circumstances happened, but rise was my word for this year. Eric was popping up everywhere. And so Scott Kellum wrote a really beautiful song just called Rise. So go Google it. Go listen to it. It's powerful. It's very emotional. And I wrote about having my mentor in life. She became a very best friend to me. She passed away six years ago from lung cancer. She was very private. Didn't know she was sick. My world just kind of shattered. She was the person who poured greatness. I mean, if any of you are blessed enough like I was to have somebody pouring greatness into you all the time, believing you, seeing your potential, even though you know you have it, but, you know, she builds you up. And that is what she was to me and thousands of other people. And her father is just like her, or she's like her father, I should say. He's 94 now. And so I just wrote about how it's okay to let go. And grieving is so hard when someone passes away. And I firmly believe in heaven and angels. And I know that she has been close to me so many times. And so when you and Randa guided me in letting go and letting the process unfold how it would, it just gave me that space to where I could just Feel close to Kathy and yet be able to hold and maintain my emotions about it and. And know that maybe my story can help someone else who has lost somebody very dear to them. I have close friends who have lost children and other people in their life that were, you know, tragically or, you know, whatever the circumstances can be. So I hope that my chapter can give someone else hope about how to let go and grieve and that it's okay to do it your own way. There's no certain way to process the passing of someone that you care about. And definitely signals were given to me as I was writing this. Chapter one. I write about how I'm in a corporate job. I was always big into network marketing. That's where this friend mentored me, was very successful, had this great career, and now I'm in a corporate job. And this gratitude event came up, and people were saying things to me that she used to say to me. I was like, oh, there she is. She's still with me. And it just makes me know that I need poor greatness into other people all the time and see the goodness that people have and not focus on people's weaknesses, but focus on their strengths and lift other people up. We don't know, somebody cuts you off on the road, someone's irritated with you at the grocery store. We have no idea what's going on in their world. And so if I could just inspire anybody to just, you know, be a little kinder, be a little more tender to other people and know that they are processing something we have we know nothing about. And eventually we'll write other books. And it has opened up doors for me that I'll share some stuff as we go through tonight that different opportunities have opened up because of this process. So thank you.

Oh, Cheryl, I have so much love for you. I'm so glad that you wrote this chapter.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we have got Jenny Harris. Jenny, you want to pop in? Can you hit unmute? Yeah. There we go. My.

My Internet. We're visiting somebody right now, and my Internet is terrible, so I keep getting bumped off and back on. So if it pauses, just keep going. Good. So thank you. I just wanted to first say thank you so much for Kira and Randa, for putting us all together and for helping us through this process. This was the first time I wrote anything that was published.

Now is the Internet breaking?

Oh, dang it.

I want you guys to hear Jenny. Okay. Hopefully she'll come back. Okay. Jenny, is it? Are you back? Okay, let's try let's try again.

I'm back.

Yes.

Okay, we'll try one more time. So thank you guys for coaching us through this, helping us through this, loving us through this, praying for us through this. I have learned quite a bit about who I am through this process and also learned it is hard to write a book that's going to be published. So it took a lot of cheerleading from you guys, and I appreciate that so much. So I think that you were there.

Your energy, your soul, your spirit. I just feel like it was just. It was really tender to have you in there.

Thank you.

Yes.

That's really sweet of you.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm so happy your Internet worked. All right, we have one last author, unless I miss someone. But, Sandra, I'd love for you to share.

All right, thank you. Good to be here tonight. My name is Sandra Howell, and my chapter is 13 the bottle that Saved My Marriage. And just like any relationship, ups and downs, sometimes I felt like it would be easier to not have the relationship. But mine hopefully will give people hope that their. Their to not give up to try again. One of the quotes I have in my chapter is, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And sometimes we even backtrack. We walk backwards 10. We can still start with our one step. My particular chapter has a lot to do with fragrance and holding on to what once was the beauty of a fragrance is that it speaks to your heart and hopefully someone else's. And the bottle that did save my marriage is the first bottle of perfume my husband gave me. And it's one that sat on the shelf for, you know, 15 years now. And I. I've had to dust it off multiple times. And, you know, the smell of that when I do use it reminds me of the good times and gives me the hope to get through the bad times. And so I'm. I'm hopeful that my chapter will hopefully help somebody else that may be considering giving up and wants to try everything before that happens. So just. We just all need to remember, nobody's perfect. We're here to build relationships. That's why we're here on Earth. And it is the most challenging thing in our lives, our relationships. I. I think somebody else said that earlier and I fully believe that as well. So it's been a great healing. Just writing the words down for me and hopefully it will for others. And the entire book is very, very good and will help so many people. So thank you, thank you.

Thank you for sharing your chapter on a topic that I know so many will relate to and and need. So thank you. Thank you. So I guess I'll share. I'm one of the authors. I don't know what chapter it is, but I am one of the authors and, you know, it's a little humbling for me. I don't know if any of you guys notice this as co authors or. Or even any of the authors who are on here tonight. We have a lot of Freedom House authors here. I wrote my chapter and then my experience with religion changed again after I finished my chapter. So I don't know if any of you guys wrote a chapter and then afterwards you're like, well, actually things have changed. So that's pretty fun, right? You're like, well, I just wrote this whole chapter and then my life changed again. But I wrote a chapter on how I broke with religion and it's called Broken Pavement. Maybe something I should maybe do my homework on what I wrote. But what is it called?

Broken. Broken Ground.

Thank you. Broken ground, chapter 14. And I write about how I grew up very religious and it was my lifeblood. And when it broke for me, it was the most traumatic experience of my life. Having religion break for me was pure trauma. And I write about it in this chapter and I write about my relationship with religion after it broke. And also I get to share that, like, am I relationship with religion continues to break and heal and break and heal. And so those of us who write chapters and books and write books, it doesn't mean that's who you always are. Right? Like we're always expanding and it gets to be a pocket of time where that was your story at that time. And I don't know if anyone in this book has felt like that. Like you wrote it and you're like, oh, damn. Everything actually changed after I wrote my chapter. But it's also like gorgeous and beautiful and it's like part of the flow and ebb of growth. So that's my chapter. I. I would love, Randa, if you could just name the other chapters and the authors names who aren't here in person so that they get to be presence here. Do you have a book with you, Randa?

Yeah.

Perfect.

So Jenny McCall, she's in Hawaii with her daughter for her daughter's birthday. Her chapter is the tale of. Of my Starfish. And her chapter is a beautiful experience that she has had in fostering children and the brokenness in the foster care system and how her family dealt with that. It's beautiful. Chapter. And then Spencer Caldwell is chapter two, making a Difference in Children's Life of Divorce. He actually wrote a book about four kids. It's a children's book called Mine Are Two. Four kids that are. That their parents are going through a divorce and just saying that they're not alone. And so his chapter is a spin off of that on how adults can talk to kids and how they can support kids as their parents go through divorce. And then the third author that isn't here is Janice Harris, and her chapter is Love first, and it's about her marriage and how there was some brokenness and how they came back together. All beautiful chapters. Every chapter in this book is amazing and beautiful as someone tells their story as they've gone through something hard. It's. It's really difficult not to connect with someone on some level and. And see yourself in. In their shoes. And I'm so thankful for each of these authors for sharing and opening up and being vulnerable to share this with the world. And I. And I hope that everyone that does read will find resilience, will find healing through something they're going through. That's hard because I feel like everyone's going through a lot of hardship right now. I don't feel like there's anyone that's exam exempt from that. True.

I love it. I'm so glad and I love that so many of our authors got to be here. So I like to hold these for one hour. I know everyone's got busy things. We have 15 minutes left. What I'd like to do is actually first ask any of our participants who are here if you have any questions for any of the authors or if you read a chapter that really made a difference for you or if you heard something tonight that really inspired you, I'd love for you to just have the space to share. Obviously, no pressure. I know, like, you probably didn't come expecting to share, but know that this space in time is open for you. And if you do, just put your hand up and I'll call on you. For everyone who is here, all the authors, I want you to drop in your heart and I want those of you who feel inspired to share just a short little tidbit of how your life changed when you decided to be vulnerable and share your story. So drop in your heart, whoever's heart is just beaten and can't wait to tell. How did your life change telling your story? Just hit unmute for me because I can't see everyone at the same time.

I can go.

Yeah. Thank you, Jason.

So when I started to recover from my Injuries. People started seeing this happen and they asked me, how in the world can you recover from all of that at the same time? And so I started telling my story to people and I developed a real knack of public speaking. And I don't know if you can see right here, but I just engaged the nationwide contest. It's kind of like Dancing with the Stars, but they're making a whole new television show, but instead of about singing and dancing, it's about public speaking. And they had nationwide tryouts and they actually had one here in Phoenix, Arizona. And I went and through a couple of rounds, I actually won the golden ticket. That's that guy right there. And I ended up going all the way to the finals. And with 27,000 applicants, I made it to the top 10 on the big stage. And I can't tell you any more than that, guys, I'm sorry, but I had to sign a non disclosure agreement so that they can actually. You actually want to watch the show. But I never would have done that if I hadn't have made that first step and made that. That first act of sedition against the darkness and decided to. That it was going to be victory. And so there back then, you know, six, seven, eight years ago, I. If you had asked me what I see in the future, I was just wondering if I was going to live through the night when I tell you my life has changed because I chose victory. My life has absolutely changed because I chose victory. So that's what's happened to me so far. I mean, among other amazing things, that's the latest what's happened to me.

Goosebumps. Jason, I'm so excited for you.

Thank you.

Wow. And what a gift for all the people who hear your story and all the people who read this book. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for sharing. That's so beautiful.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Does anyone else want to share how their life has changed by writing their story? How did it impact you to be vulnerable and share your story?

I'll go, yeah. So I think the biggest thing for me is to share a legend of truth with some facts about a past family member, my grandfather, that about three people on the planet knew about. And so I published his letter to me, you know, and you know, you'll find out that it's like, okay, I sent him a letter back and he'd already died. So I knew him literally for three months. And it's just revealing to me and my soul and my generations to come and the past that I can say, you know what let's look at a different side for a minute. And I have proof of that, you know, because I never knew the other side. So it's vulnerable because, you know, I did this. No one knows about it.

It's.

You'll. You'll see the sinner versus the saint. That's my two grandfathers. So you can see which one was the center and which one is the saint. And so I worshiped my saint grandfather that I never knew. But I worried and wondered about the other sinner that I never knew anything about. And I wanted the truth. And so when I was 20, which was 30 years ago, I found him. So. And, you know, so it's like, so that's healing. That. That to me is just like, okay, this is my part. This is my side. I had to find that to heal that a long time ago. And it's still healing me as 30 years later, I published a letter that he wrote to me that no one knew I had. And, you know, so it's. It's just. It's okay. It doesn't matter. The time. Time is a very funny thing. You never know, 30 years later that I would ever be sitting here or. And never be a therapist and gone back to school and been divorced. And all those things you say. It's like time just is really a weird thing. Like Jason says, I didn't know if I would wake up tomorrow, you know, but it's like, yes, we don't know what this brings, but if you hope and have faith in that, it's supposed to teach us something. And so that letter almost 30 years ago is now teaching me now, and hopefully helping others to say, find who you are. Find who you are. Wow. And. And then you heal from that when you find out who you are. So beautiful.

Oh, thank you for sharing that. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm excited because one of our participants has raised his hand. How do I say your name? Hold on, let me find him. Hi.

Is it me? Patricia?

Yes. Patricia. What would you like to share?

How are you? Well, I wasn't. I did not have. I had no plan on being on camera.

That's okay.

I make a living by being on camera as a television reporter.

Wow.

But I just want to thank you guys for sharing your stories. They're very inspiring. And I don't want to use the word unfortunately, so I guess I will say I had had the opportunity to very much live many of your stories. Grief, broken relationships, the loss of a soulmate. At the same time, I had the wonderful opportunity to Fall in love again. I'm still amazed at the power that our heart holds, because I have not only fallen in love once, but more than once. I'm still trying to work it out. I want to write those stories, and I haven't had a chance to figure it out how. So listening to you and how you have put this together is inspiring to me, and I just wanted to thank you for that.

Thank you for sharing. Thank you. We're so happy you came. We're so happy.

Thank you.

Oh, I love hearing from our participants. So thank you, guys. Holly, did I see you raise your hand? Yes.

I wanted to piggyback a little bit on that Patricio, because I was going to say what I got out of writing this and telling the story is, like, it's okay to be honest. It's okay to tell my story. It's okay to share this. Like, I live in an age where I'm not going to get stricken down by anything or anyone, you know, necessarily. I might get canceled, but, like, whatever. I hope I get canceled. No, I don't. But it's nice to be able to, like, have said just. Just to put it out there and let it be a place for healing for me and then let other people know, like, hey, you can heal from it too. It doesn't have to hide in a corner. Just shedding light on things that need to be seen. And it was fun to, like, throw a tool into it, too, as far as, like, yeah, I wrote about, like, some drama, but really, I wrote it so that anyone can know, like, you can make it through anything. The story is just a story. It's just that it doesn't have to define who you are. So I'm not letting you define who you are.

And I'm realizing, like, I'm.

I'm really honest. I'm an honest person. I might do some sinister things, but I'm honest.

Thank you, Holly. I love that. I love that you. You were honest because so many experience that, and it's so shamed and so hidden in dark corners. So thank you for bringing it to light. Yeah. All right, we see. I see Jenny's hand up. This will probably be our last. A last one. So, Jenny, why don't you share with us? Hold on. You're muted. See if we can get you unmuted here. Do we lose her? No. Jenny.

Are you there?

Yep, we can hear you.

As soon as you said my name, my connection got lost. But I. I just loved how by writing it and sharing the experiences that we had with losing our babies that it showed me, like, where I was at in my healing process. And it was just so wonderful. Like, I felt so much joy writing that, and it just was really beautiful to me, the healing that came. And I was just so grateful to the Lord, like, so grateful that he had brought us to a place where we could talk about something as hard as losing your children and just be full of joy sharing it. And to have had the message, you know, like, just be able to move through us in a joyful way. Like, I don't know. It was just a really beautiful healing time for me to write that and to have so much joy and the lessons that we learned along the way.

So beautiful. Yes, Jenny, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I'm going to turn as we close up, I just want to ask Randa if there's anything that she wants to share, since she was the head author of this, a beautiful book. Is there anything that you'd like to share, Randa, as we close this summit up.

I feel like Jenny just summed it up so beautifully, and I'm gonna not know how to quote her exactly, but how she went through something so painful, but then was able to share the joy of coming through it. And I think that's just a beautiful way to conclude all of this. It's been a beautiful experience, and we've been a real team, and I could not have done this on my own, and I wouldn't have wanted to. I'm just so thankful for everyone at Freedom House. Every one of these authors. This guy. I think we all played the running back, the quarterback, the defense, all of it. We were coaches. We all played a part in this beautiful game. So thank you. Thank you for playing with me and bringing this to fruition.

Such an honor. Such an honor. Well, as we close up one, I just want to thank every author for being the bold, powerful human you are. To write a chapter is hard, but to write a chapter that is vulnerable as hell, that shows your dark parts, that shows the yucky stuff, that shows the places that we try and keep hidden. That's what a warrior does. That's what a brilliant, brave human does. And every single one of you did that. And I just honor you. And I'm so damn lucky to be your publisher, and I'm lucky to be a co author in this book. And for those who came as guests here in person and everyone who watches afterwards, my hope, and I know all of our hope, is that you walk away knowing that there is nothing too dark that you can't get through that. There is nothing too broken that can't heal. And I know every one of these stories will touch somebody's heart, either who's here or that you know somebody who needs this book. So if you know one of these authors, reach out to them, you can get a signed copy from them. They will sell it to you from their own, their own world, so they can sign it and give you their good energy. You could also get it on Amazon. And if anybody watching wants to be in a collaboration book, we have two big ones that are coming out that are really, really big. We've got a collaboration book that's coming out called God Is My Business Plan Collaboration. So anybody who's ever built business with God, I want your story in this book. I want to show the world that can be a successful business owner working with God. And that's going to be a really rad collaboration book. We've got a. We've got one coming out around addiction and being married to an addict. And that's going to be a really scary, interesting, vulnerable as hell book that's coming into the world. So we. We take really hard topics and we bring them to light so that we change people's lives. One of my taglines I've decided is I don't publish boring shit. That's my tagline over here, and I mean it. We actually publish books that change the world. And every one of you here, you did your part. You have changed at least one person's life. 1. You changed yours because you showed up and you wrote your story. And now it gets to go out and ripple and change so many other people's lives. And with that, from the depths of my heart, I love you. I. I am so grateful for you. Thank you everyone who's been here. I hope that this was a pocket of light in your day and I will see you all at some point. Big love, guys.