Newborn Promise Podcast Callie Grant, Audra Haney, Charissa Kolar

"To be quite honest, I felt like God betrayed us. We just stepped off the mission field and committed ourselves to full-time ministry, and this is what we got?" When Diane Dokko Kim learned that her two-year-old son was autistic, she said her spiritual life went "blue screen," and her faith was gutted. She said she was hit with two diagnoses: her son's and then her own disabled spirit. For the next five years Diane wrestled with God through his Word, searching for meaning in her devastating circumstance. The result was a phenomenal book, Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special-Needs Parent. Any parent who has experienced trauma and asked the questions: If you're a good God, how could you let this happen? Why us? Why our child? Is this how you're going to treat us? How are you going to fix this? And if not, how am I going to trust you again? will benefit from Diane's experience of digging deeper to understand how the Bible answers.

With more than 31 million views of his amazing You Tube video "How to Calm a Crying Baby," Dr. Robert C. Hamilton, creator of the Hamilton Hold, must be one of the most well-known pediatricians in the world. Now, he has a new book offering even more wisdom and practical advice: The 7 Secrets of Newborns, which includes many surprises for moms and dads about pregnancy and the first year. In this Newborn Promise Podcast episode with Callie Grant, Dr. Hamilton shares his seasoned perspective as a Christian physician, parent, and grandparent on the most important thing moms and dads need to hear.

Grow in your prayer life as a parent by growing your understanding of what prayer means to God. As the author of Praying the Scriptures for Your Children, Praying the Scriptures for Your Teens, and Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children, Jodie Berndt has learned that, "Each age and stage lets me know I'm not finished praying. We say, 'You never stop being a parent and you never stop praying.'" Through her personal experiences and her travels speaking nationwide, Jodie has assembled vital biblical knowledge about prayer, which she tenderly—and often humorously—shares in love with others. This is our most foundational Newborn Promise Podcast episode.

With more than 400,000 children in the foster system nationwide, more couples are stepping up to meet the need to care for them. In this episode, Chrystal Smith, founder and executive of Foster Village in Dripping Springs, Texas, explains the process, the challenges, and the measures her own family took that made all the difference. Chrystal's advice relates to families already having children, couples who have been through infertility, and those just starting out. She discusses one common factor that is vital to success for all.

Bluebonnets are radiant wildflowers that grow from the poorest of soil. Hear Meg Calvin describe how she came up with the analogy for the children she serves who come from troubled homes. Meg offers practical steps that anyone can take to help such children, and shares how the local church can be a supplemental family that showers them with God's grace as they grow.

If laughter is humanity's most effective weapon, as Mark Twain said, then Holly Mackle wields a powerful force to help parents cut through the everyday messes of life. In this episode, host Audra Haney and Holly discuss her new book "Same Here, Sisterfriend: Mostly True Tales of Misadventures in Motherhood," and how to keep a lighter outlook because, "We might as well laugh!"