Moms Like Me Podcast by SupportNow

Jordan Arogeti
  • 4.9 (13)
  • Mental Health

We dive into the messy middle of life's major moments and learn how everyday people make it through. Jordan Arogeti unpacks the struggles and successes during parenthood, hospitalizations, major diagnosis, loss, and more.

  1. Sep 8

    What Kids Really Remember: Motherhood with MS | Julie Stamm

    She thought she was letting her son down. He remembered their adventures. What if the days you feel like you're falling short as a parent look completely different through your child's eyes? In Episode 65 of Moms Like Me, powered by SupportNow, host Jordan Arogeti sits down with mom, author, and disability advocate Julie Stamm for an honest, hopeful conversation about motherhood and life with multiple sclerosis. Julie shares her six-year journey to a diagnosis, finding love after divorce, and becoming a mom after believing pregnancy wasn't possible for her. She also reveals how her son's perspective transformed the way she saw her hardest parenting days—and inspired her to write a children's book. In this episode, you'll hear: • What Julie wishes she'd known about advocating for herself when doctors dismissed her symptoms. • How she approaches talking to her son about chronic illness with honesty and age-appropriate reassurance. • Why meaningful family memories don't require elaborate plans or endless energy. • What support from a partner can look like in everyday, unspoken moments. • How her work on 52 Essential Inclusion Skills helps families start conversations about disability, difference, and belonging. Whether you're parenting with a chronic illness, supporting someone who is, or carrying the weight of mom guilt, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on what it means to show up for the people you love. Follow Julie on Instagram: @iamstamm Subscribe to Moms Like Me for more honest conversations about motherhood, connection, and finding support. Share this episode with a parent who needs to hear it.

  2. Sep 1

    When Life Changes in an Instant | Lisa Appelo on Grief, Faith & Finding Joy Again

    URL - GodofComfortBook.com Life can change in a single moment—and somehow, even after unimaginable loss, it can become good again. When Lisa Appelo's husband, Dan, died suddenly from cardiac arrest, she found herself grieving the man she had loved since high school while simultaneously helping their seven children navigate a loss none of them were prepared for. In this deeply moving episode of Moms Like Me, Lisa joins Jordan Arogeti to share what those first days of grief really looked like, what she wishes she had known about trauma, and how she learned to keep showing up for herself and her children when life had been divided into a permanent "before" and "after." Lisa shares candidly about the different ways children experience grief, why trying to "fix" someone's pain often isn't what they need, the importance of allowing others to help, and the small gestures that can make someone who is hurting feel seen and loved. They also explore why grief isn't linear, how faith and daily rhythms helped Lisa find enough hope for the day in front of her, and what it means to discover joy and purpose again without leaving the person you lost behind. In this conversation: • Helping children grieve at different ages • The difference between grief and a trauma response • Why grieving people need permission to have less capacity • How to meaningfully support someone after a loss • Why community matters long after the initial crisis • Learning to receive help when you're used to giving it • Finding faith, hope, and purpose in the midst of pain • Why moving forward doesn't mean "getting over" grief • How Lisa transformed her experience into support for other widows and grieving women Lisa is the author of God of Comfort and has turned her own experience with devastating loss into a ministry of helping others discover that grief can remain part of your story without becoming the whole story. This is a conversation for anyone walking through loss—and for anyone who wants to know how to better walk alongside someone who is. 🎧 Listen now to Moms Like Me, powered by SupportNow.

  3. Aug 12

    From Mom Guilt to Mom Life Comics: with Mary Catherine Starr

    Modern motherhood has a way of rewriting the rules you thought your family would live by. In this episode of Moms Like Me Jordan sits down with illustrator, author, and Mom Life Comics creator Mary Catherine Starr for a refreshingly candid conversation about the parts of motherhood that are often hardest to put into words.   Mary Catherine opens up about a traumatic birth, postpartum anxiety, extreme sleep deprivation, and how she and her husband went from an intentionally equal partnership to unexpectedly falling into more traditional parenting roles. Together, they unpack the invisible mental load, resentment between partners, the pressure moms feel to "do it all," and what it actually takes to begin redistributing that responsibility. Mary Catherine also shares how drawing became a therapeutic outlet during the pandemic, how one viral comic about the double standards of parenting transformed her creative career, and how those experiences inspired her comic memoir, Mama Needs a Minute. It's an honest, funny, and deeply relatable conversation about loving your children fiercely while admitting that motherhood can still be exhausting, complicated, lonely—and nothing like the version you expected.

  4. Jul 28

    The 5 Stages of Grief Are Garbage" | A Mother's Story After Losing Her Daughter

    Six days before she died, Katie Boehm earned a full scholarship to nursing school. Then on an ordinary Tuesday night in December, she went out to run an errand — and never came home. Lisa K. Boehm had spent decades in oncology. She'd been trained in grief. And when it landed on her own doorstep, she discovered she knew nothing at all. In this conversation, Lisa tells Jordan Arogeti what the ten years since have actually taught her: why the five stages of grief made her feel like she was doing it wrong, why the people you expect to show up often can't, and how a conversation she overheard at a support group four days before Christmas changed everything. This one is heavy. It's also full of hope. As Lisa puts it: tragedy wasn't the end of her story — it was the beginning. In this episode: (00:00) Meet Lisa — and the night everything split into before and after (02:30) Who Katie was: a spark plug, a go-getter, six days from her scholarship (04:00) What shock actually feels like when the officer is in your living room (06:45) "The five stages of grief are garbage" — and why the model does harm (09:00) The quiet cruelty of feeling like you're grieving wrong (11:00) Why people ask "was she drinking? was she texting?" — and what's really behind it (13:30) When the people closest to you can't show up (and the strangers who do) (15:30) Driving the road where Katie died, three days before Christmas (17:00) Two women, one overheard conversation, and permission to grieve your own way (21:00) The single kindest thing you can say to someone who's lost a child (22:30) Tell the story until you don't need to tell it anymore (24:30) A beach, a smile, and the guilt that followed (26:00) Carrying grief in one hand and joy in the other (26:45) "When you smile, Katie smiles. Go give her something amazing to watch." Connect with Lisa K. Boehm: Website & free grief resources: https://griefsupportformoms.com Books: Journey to HEALING: A Mother's Guide to Navigating Child Loss and Now What? Podcast: Child Loss & Grief Support for Moms Moms Like Me is powered by SupportNow. Subscribe for more conversations with mothers we can look to for inspiration, not perfection. #Grief #ChildLoss #MomsLikeMe #GriefSupport #BereavedMothers #Motherhood

  5. Jul 8

    Vanessa Schreckengast's Journey Through Hearing Loss, Microcephaly, and Finding Community

    Registry Link: https://www.supportnow.org/merritt-mullet-schreckengast In this episode of Moms Like Me, Jordan sits down with Vanessa Schreckengast, a mom of three whose journey into the disability community began when her daughter Maddie was born with hearing loss—and deepened when her youngest son, Merritt, was diagnosed with microcephaly, cerebral palsy, cortical vision impairment, and epilepsy. Vanessa shares the heartbreak of knowing something was wrong before answers came, the grief of watching her child's path unfold differently than expected, and the daily realities of caregiving while also parenting two other children and working as a teacher. She also opens up about the power of finding other moms who truly "get it," why well-meaning phrases like "I don't know how you do it" don't always land, and what support can look like when a family is carrying the weight of medical complexity. This honest and deeply moving conversation is a reminder that special needs parenting is not about being superhuman—it's about waking up every day, loving your child, and finding community strong enough to help you keep going.

  6. Jun 30

    Sara Derting's Spina Bifida Journey: Hope, Advocacy, and Letting Asa Lead the Way

    When Sara Derting learned at 24 weeks pregnant that her son Asa had spina bifida, she was suddenly thrown into a world of unfamiliar medical terms, urgent decisions, and overwhelming uncertainty. In this episode of Moms Like Me, Sara shares the raw reality of receiving a difficult prenatal diagnosis, navigating fetal surgery options, processing fear during pregnancy, and learning how to advocate for her child before she had even met him. Sara's story is also one of deep hope. Asa, now five, has continued to surprise doctors, defy expectations, and live with a joyful determination that has shaped the way Sara approaches motherhood. From NICU days and brain surgery to physical therapy, biking, moving across the country, and learning to stay present, this conversation offers encouragement for families facing diagnosis, disability, and the unknown. Listeners will hear a powerful reminder that a diagnosis is not the whole story — and that sometimes the best thing a parent can do is take the next day, trust their child, and never let someone else define what is possible.

  7. May 28

    Maggie Herndon on Autism, Apraxia, and Finding Her Son's Voice

    When Maggie Herndon's son Chase was diagnosed with autism after losing his speech as a toddler, her family entered a world of therapies, uncertainty, grief, and relentless hope. Years later, after discovering the Spellers Method, Maggie began to hear from Chase in a way she had always believed was possible — revealing his intelligence, faith, personality, and powerful desire to advocate for others. In this episode of Moms Like Me, Maggie shares her journey of raising a non-speaking son, reframing autism through the lens of whole-body apraxia, and learning to presume competence even when communication looks different. She opens up about the hard early years, the emotional breakthrough of finally "meeting" Chase through spelling, and why parents facing a new diagnosis should know that a label does not define their child's future. This conversation is full of honesty, hope, and practical encouragement for families navigating autism, communication challenges, and the search for resources beyond the traditional path.

  8. May 26

    Choosing Prevention Before Cancer: Aliza Friedlander on BRCA, Motherhood, and Taking Back Control

    What happens when knowing your genetic risk could change the entire course of your life? In this powerful episode of Moms Like Me, Jordan sits down with Aliza Friedlander, a mom of three and BRCA1 "previvor," to talk about the deeply personal decisions that come with genetic testing, cancer prevention, and protecting both your physical and mental health. Aliza shares how her family's history with breast cancer led to years of uncertainty, why she waited a decade before getting tested, and what changed after her younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at 32. From prophylactic mastectomy and reconstruction to a complete hysterectomy and surgically induced menopause, Aliza opens up about the emotional, physical, and practical realities of choosing prevention before a diagnosis. She also reflects on advocacy, clinical trials, hormone replacement therapy, and why there is no one-size-fits-all path when it comes to medical decisions. This conversation is a reminder that knowledge is powerful, but so is timing, support, and trusting yourself enough to ask better questions. Whether you have a family history of cancer, are navigating genetic testing, or simply want to better understand your options, Aliza's story is honest, hopeful, and deeply human.

    Choosing Prevention Before Cancer: Aliza Friedlander on BRCA, Motherhood, and Taking Back Control
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4.9
out of 5
13 Ratings

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We dive into the messy middle of life's major moments and learn how everyday people make it through. Jordan Arogeti unpacks the struggles and successes during parenthood, hospitalizations, major diagnosis, loss, and more.

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