April 10, 2025 • 62 mins
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Ten years ago, Adam and Danielle Busby faced an impossible decision: doctors advised selective reduction when they learned Danielle was pregnant with quintuplets. In this powerful episode, the Busbys openly discuss their emotional journey from overwhelming fear to profound joy, revealing how faith and an unexpected peace guided them to choose life for their miracle babies.
Now celebrating their daughters’ milestone birthdays, Adam and Danielle reflect on their family’s transformation, the lessons they’ve learned through hardship, and how God continues to shape their journey as parents. Danielle shares deeply personal excerpts from her upcoming devotional, and together they open up about new challenges and big decisions ahead.
Join the Busbys for an authentic conversation filled with laughter, tears, faith, and unforgettable moments that remind us all—there’s joy waiting on the other side of life’s toughest choices.
Key Topics: Faith, Family Decisions, Parenting Multiples, Infertility Journey, Emotional Reflections, Life-Changing Choices, Marriage Growth
Follow us and subscribe for weekly episodes!
Ten years ago, Adam and Danielle Busby faced an impossible decision: doctors advised selective reduction when they learned Danielle was pregnant with quintuplets. In this powerful episode, the Busbys openly discuss their emotional journey from overwhelming fear to profound joy, revealing how faith and an unexpected peace guided them to choose life for their miracle babies.
Now celebrating their daughters’ milestone birthdays, Adam and Danielle reflect on their family’s transformation, the lessons they’ve learned through hardship, and how God continues to shape their journey as parents. Danielle shares deeply personal excerpts from her upcoming devotional, and together they open up about new challenges and big decisions ahead.
Join the Busbys for an authentic conversation filled with laughter, tears, faith, and unforgettable moments that remind us all—there’s joy waiting on the other side of life’s toughest choices.
Key Topics: Faith, Family Decisions, Parenting Multiples, Infertility Journey, Emotional Reflections, Life-Changing Choices, Marriage Growth
Follow us and subscribe for weekly episodes!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is More Than Reality podcast, where we dive into
all things faith, family, and marriage and share that there
is so much more than the reality that you see
on the surface. Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam
and Danielle Busby.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi, what's up guys? You've been with with us for now?
This is twenty eight episodes, so thank you guys for
sticking around.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Why can I not remember that? Like, bye, I'm going
to start writing it down right here, so I one
day I'm gonna always tear your sheet off. Well, maybe
I'll ask you which one is?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Still?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Why did you just ask me anywhere? I don't know
because I don't think about it until until literally he goes,
what what's up? So? Man, how's life? I feel like
this is this is This week is going by so fast.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Other than like Christmas, this is like the craziest week
of the year for us.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
And it was interesting because we had spring break before
the girl's birthday, and it's usually like not this close
to it. Oh, it's always in March, but like, yeah,
I don't know, I feel like spring break was just
I felt like a birthday trip. Yeah, spring break.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
We did have a lot of fun, but we also
want to thank our sponsor for this episode, which is
Good Ranchers American Meat Delivered. You can go to good
ranchers dot com and we got an awesome promotion to
Spring into Action promotion that's going on right now. You
can get forty dollars off plus a free gift, which
(01:48):
is a meat gift guys every month for the next year.
You can go to good Ranchers right now. They've got
the Spring into Action sale going and I don't know
how long how much longer it's going to be going on,
so uh probably next podcast that may be gone, may
not be, we'll see. You can also enter the code
(02:08):
Busby for forty dollars off. So you got their Spring
into Action promotion going on, get a free gift, and
enter the code Buzzby for forty dollars off. So go
to good ranchers dot com or good ranchers dot com
slash Buzzby for the Busby Bucks which has a seat
ole free chicken nuggets in it. So thank you Good
(02:29):
Ranchers for sponsoring this episode. Yeah, so we're in birthday week,
yeah this week, and it's just crazy how it fell.
I mean, we have Blake our now fourteen year old
fourteen year olds. She turned fourteen. That is just just
four days ago, I mean today, which it would be
(02:50):
three days ago, because two days ago for you guys
eight because we're filming this on the Quin's birthday. So
Blake and the Quints are four days apart, well, four
years and four days apart.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Four years and three days, three days.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, it's three days, four years and three days. I
am I stand corrected in Hazel Basil. You want to
come say hi. The girls just got home from school.
They have their T shirts that mommy made them last
night after bedtime.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, literally had to go to the store, sit on
my lap. Show everybody your shirt. If you're watching, you
can see. But this is a funny story. So Danielle
gets a text message from their teacher.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh so their their T shirt says what does it
say Hazel's Day?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It says bruh. It's my birthday. All the kids say
bruh nowadays.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
But Danielle's teacher said one of the girls teachers, one
of the girls sent Danielle a text today And because
Riley's hair was like half fallen, just like this. If
you're watching and if you're watching YouTube, all you can
see is the B in the H from bruh, And
so it looked like the B word it's my birthday.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, amazing mom moment. If I put B, it's your birthday.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So if you're watching on YouTube, I got my little ginger,
ten year old Ginger on my lap.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Hazel's not ten, not yet? I told her at four
twenty two, Oh, you're not ten yet. How was did
you do anything special at school today? No? What did
anybody tell you? Happy birthday? Ry did? Tell them what
we did in the car this morning? Tell them about lunch?
(04:43):
How was zero down the windows instead playing music? And
what was the music? I okay, we were having a
birthday party in the car on the way to school
because they we didn't get to school on time this morning,
on purpose. We went whenever Blake goes to school, and
so I was dropping Blake off first, and so I'm
(05:04):
pulling up to the middle school, you know, and I'm
letting Blake out and we're playing like all these different
types of birthday music jams, and I had the windows downs,
and there's like one of the some of the kids
from high school like out doing some things with rockets,
and some of them were like in the lake over
there and some of the kids on the their elementary playground.
We're outside and I'm like just screaming like it's their birthday.
(05:27):
It's there and they're like stop at Ava's life and
every Olivia is embarrassed. Hey, they're all lot and I
was like this is so funny. Yeah, and then I
went to eat lunch with them today and it was
like a party at the table. Did you have a
party at the table? And then I was like, what
if I stand up? I took frey awesome? Yeah we yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
I was like what if I uh standing up right
here and just like have the whole cafeteria sing happy
birthday to y'all. I was like no, and so Reesa
was with us and she's like, let's sing every birthday
and then like the Alux, he was like get down.
So we sang it at the table and a couple
(06:13):
of people everybody was looking at us on Hazel. We
were fun. It was like twenty five people at the
table at our table. Yes, it was quite a bit
and I was like, whoa, the party is on Friday?
But am I like such a cool mom? Hazel? Oh?
Was that like a long pause? This is kind of
(06:37):
like radio.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
You have to talk, all right, Go get your snack,
all right, give me those headphones.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, it was funny. Riley was being funny, like she
was being really just really sweet. I shouldn't say that's funny,
but shew no, I know. But like at school, she
like always acts a little bit different, and Parker is
like SHEO cool for school, and like, you know, she
she sat with us. Of course she sat with us, uh,
(07:11):
because I'm cool and I'm fun and like I brought
the party to the cafeteria table. But she all like
gets up afterwards and like goes to her table like
a school table, like classroom table, and send by our friends.
And I was like, all right, girls gotta go. And
they're like gonna go out to whatever it was next,
and all of them are like, by mom, thanks for lunch.
(07:33):
And Raley just kept saying I love you, I love
you and like hugging me. And I was like this
is so sweet. And I go up to park I'm like,
let me go tell Parker by and I go find
Parker and I'm like Parker and I like hug her
from kind of like behind.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And she's like she's takes off, does He's just being
me cramp and my style mom.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And I was like, girls, you give me a hug
or I'm gonna bebarrass you in front of all these people.
It's just funny seeing their personalities like change. It's different,
you know. I think they're just growing more and being
aware of like peers and who their their surroundings and
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So we had Blake's birthday just a few days ago.
We have the Quinn's birthday going on right now, and
then this weekend is there a big birthday party?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, it's very well. Blake's actually felt like on a Saturday,
which is what is it like every seven years your
birthdays actually falls on a Saturday? Is that how that works?
I don't know. I'm just gonna I mean, sometimes there's
a leap here, sometimes there's more days.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Something tells me that's not how that works. It's not
but like it's just but I don't know how it works.
It just doesn't sound right.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It's not right. But whatever, I'm just gonna say every
five to seven years, it's on a different day. The
next day, okay.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So we had a huge get together with all her
friends at a local restaurant. One of Blake's favorite restaurants
over here have.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Blake wanted brunch. She wanted to have brunch with her friends,
which is twenty girls to have brunch at these little
small places. They all said, we either will do it
at nine am or you can come at two pm.
And She's like, no, I want brunch because none of
us are going to get up to be at breakfast
(09:21):
for nine o'clock in the morning. It needs to be
at eleven o'clock and so. And she wanted gumbo, so
then we change it to rupe war and so like.
So it actually worked out really great. Brunch and gumbo
is what she wanted, and we got it worked out. Yeah.
They had their floral like sun sun dresses. Yeah, would
(09:41):
you call them this? Mama always loves the theme and
it's really rubbing off on her kids.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
But they even made a special mocktail for Blake. It's
called the Blake Yeah, and it was like a watermelon
mojito alcohol for you for sure.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, And they had.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Like a little flower on top, like the the Hawaiian
flowers they put in like laze. Yeah, those flowers are
edible and some of them were like wow, I think
Kenny ate like four.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Of them edible doesn't mean you need to be all
of those, but it was really it was a very
It was another like one of those like milestone birthdays
where it's like you can just see your kids are
older and not necessarily like you need to be involved
or like be there in a sense.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But Adam and I, uh kind of just like sat
at another table and originally like a lot of the
moms too, will stay or like whatever, I like to
have them come or especially with a bunch of girls.
But we were pretty local, like in the restaurant around here,
didn't like go to Galveston or in the city or anything.
But Adam came this time because you know, I wanted
(10:54):
him to be there. Plus he had been out of
town and I was like, maybe we can have time
to actually talk face to face. So we had like
a little mini date in the corner as the birthday
party was going on, because you know, they really could
care less that we were there except for the picture taking.
And when I stood up and said at the end
(11:15):
of it, well, now that we're all getting older, high
school's next year, like we're gonna break out. We're going
to break out our family tradition, meaning what I started
for myself a couple of years ago. I think, I
think like five or six years ago.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Danielle is all about like meaningful conversations whenever you're with friends,
and so she forced that on these fourteen year olds.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I did not force it, I literally and I made
it really easy. But I know, growing up, I feel
like if it's your birthday, I don't I don't care,
I don't, I don't know. I just feel like you
want to you want to feel special. Yeah, you want
someone to notice you or to like say happy birthday
(12:03):
to you, or you just you want to feel known
or seen in some kind of aspect. And so for
I mean, now they're old, it's not like we're like
kid birthdays anymore. I mean, listen, we had set a
twenty people at a table, all dressed up in like
cute little sun Maxi dresses, and it was nice. It
(12:23):
was nice brunch, and so I said, you know, thank
everyone for coming. And I was like, we have a
tradition in our family that we on whoever's birthday is,
we go around the table and we say something about them.
And here I am saying this to a bunch of teenagers, right,
and I was like, listen, just to make Blake feel
(12:45):
special today it's her birthday. I was like, you can
say something embarrassing story, and usually we say what we
love about that person, but I didn't want to make
it stressful for them. So I was like, he can
say something you love about Blake. You can tell us
an embarrassing story. You can say so than funny or
just any memory or anything about Blake. And so I
(13:05):
would say it went amazing. I it was my favorite
part of like the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Of course, it was like I was like worried for
probably about five seconds. So I mean, I know most
I know, but it's like putting them on the spot,
and like there's like that moment of that's what I
learned whenever we did like high school ministry and stuff
like you have to thrive on silence and so you
just like forced silence to get them to talk because
(13:33):
they don't.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
They did ask me if I was paying for this before.
I'm sure, just kidding, Yeah, I'll pay for it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
If you say that, I'm just whatever, however your answer
is will determine whether or not we buy your brunch.
But yeah, it turned out really sweet. Yeah, I mean,
and I.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Mean a lot of those girls are outgoing and we'll
say anything comfortable and it literally but it's like all
and it literally took five seconds for to go, okay,
I'll say something, and once someone said something like everybody
went around and it like some people went around again
and again, and it just was a very sweet moment.
And I know Blake, and I know she wouldn't ask
(14:16):
for that, but I know how much that affects her
and makes her feel, and I knew that that was
something that would would be like a like a great
sweet memory for her. And she told me afterwards in
the car, I said, because you left to go help
Ben with building a.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Table and benthing just being contractman contractors, you're gonna put
our car heart stuff on and belts, yeah, spit spit.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Spit and scratch yeah. But I was like, did I
embarrass you? She says no, But I thought you were
gonna make us go around the table like we do
it dinner and say what was your high today? And
I was like, no, not for birthday. We're gonna talk
about you. That's funny. But it was a very sweet
moment and it was a good day, good day.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, I mean yeah, I found myself like kind of
even just tearing up a little bit, like just how
much they like just kept going around the table and stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I'm like, wow, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You just see like like how your daughter impacts her
friends' lives and just hearing you know, those stories from
them and just like how much Blake means to them,
and just a funny you know you kind of you
kind of learn a little bit about your kid just
by hearing her friends just talk and share stories and
stuff and just like, you know, because okay, what was
(15:48):
something you your kids act you know a certain way
at home or like with family or whatever. But then
you hear, you know, over and over, you know, them
just talking about just how how like goofy she is
at school and like cuts up and just like jokes
around and it's it was it was cool to hear that,
(16:08):
for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And it's funny because I remember going through like sixth
seventh grade, Blake would be like, some of my friends
just don't get my humor, Like it's just hormones. But
they a lot of I mean, they all had sweet
things to say, and one of her dad's dark humor
would war on her did you find out anything like
surprising or like something you felt like you didn't know? No, no,
(16:32):
necessarily like that, I didn't know. It was just like
they you know, so many of them, how would would
mention just like just the funny outbursts and stuff or
like the funny things that Blake says. It's just like the.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Completely catches them off guard, you know them laugh or
whatever and makes them laugh.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
It's like so rilly page like her, what do you
call that? Like that dry sarcasm. Yeah, Blake, They're one
of the ones. Was like Blake. They'll be sitting at
tennis or athletics or pete or like in a in
a crowd and no one's saying anything, and Blake will
just go what was it were they say? Blake will
just go mmm mmmm or like just make some kind
(17:13):
of like said like noise or a whistle or a
nope she didn't or no, she didn't, like in dead silence,
like just kind of under her breath to like whoever
whatever friend is like next to her, and they all
would laugh, And a lot of them had like little
things like that about it. But it was just I'm
so proud of all the girls for like doing that.
(17:35):
I didn't think that any of them would not not
do it. I just love the repeated stories because a
lot of the stories that they say, Blake will come
home and like or in the car time, like after
school will tell me about him, or like I tried
to trip her and then she fell. Like it's just
funny stuff like that, but it was. It was a
(17:56):
good day. And then now we're in quent birthday mode,
which is it's just like a different, different thing. And
it's been a little bit more stressful this season, just
because we've always done birthday dates and I'm like, and
I'm like overwhelmed with this this year of birthday dates
because they all wanted to do them separate. I knocked
(18:18):
out ab and Olivia's together last Friday because I was like,
if y'all both want to get nails done, we're doing
it together, Like we're doing it together in the same place.
Then yeah. Yeah. But they wanted to go by themselves
and or with a friend, and I was like, you
got four friends that are within three four minutes of
(18:41):
birth next to you, just pick a sister. But I
told him, I was like, this is the last year.
This is the only year we're doing this thing with
one friend, because like now I feel like I'm having
a whole other party.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Like every time we're taking them out kind of causes
drama between their friends because it's like, well that is
what I did learn. They have to pick one, you know,
and then usually we're usually we kind of do it
on a school day where like we check them out
of school a little early. Ye go, do there? You know,
have to, And so I mean that's a big deal
for a kid to get checked out early. But then
(19:15):
you're also taking one of their friends with them, and
whenever there's five, you know, that's only a five, you know,
like they have a lot of friends friends from the class,
so that I feel like that causes drama between the kids.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Send a message to all these moms a text message
me like I'm sorry. My kids have gone back and
forth with who they said they wanted to invite, and
I said, if you told one person, then that's the person,
and then it's gone, well she can't go this day,
and so I need to pick someone else. I'm like, ah,
we're not doing this again. We're not doing this again.
I don't like it. Yeah, So I apologize to those
(19:47):
mothers if there.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Was plus, like they went, y'all went and did like nails,
but they also took a friend. And so I'm like,
because you're like, do you want to go? Yeah, I
would have gone, but like your take like you're also
bringing like two other girls. I'm like, look, if they're
just bringing their friend, then I'll set this one out.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, but that was Nails too, like that you like
with Riley, Riley wants to go eat crawfish, So crawfish
and uh to go skating roller Yeah, like rollerblades. Is
there a roller rink open during the day on a weekday?
We can take her roller bays and like go like
skate around some park or whatever walk or something. And
(20:27):
Parker wants to go to some slime Moo SLINKs slime
Moo something. I don't know. She has a whole list
of things. And my girlfriend or that always has a
list that is about a week's worth of activities list.
She keeps a running list of everything she wants to do.
Stuff has gone back and forth on her list. I'm
(20:48):
not really quite sure what she's decided on, but all
I do know is that she's probably start up the
most drama across all the friends because she's gone back
and forth and told them, well, I'm gonna invite her
now and I'm like, you can't do that. She's like, wow,
she said, I said sorry. I said sorry, I'm going
to take her instead, and I'm like, you can't do that, Hayes.
(21:12):
She's like, I apologized, I said sorry. I'm like, I know,
but it's just some I was like, we will just
now invite both of them because I feel bad. Yeah,
I like Hazel's like whatever, She's like, I said sorry
and I wasn't mean.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
It's so crazy because she's like the sweetest, like tender
hearted little kid.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
But then for like random stuff like that, she says
every little detail about every little thing.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, she'll she'll act you in the heart in a heartbeat,
she's gone bye.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
She's doing it or anything. But it's just she doesn't
see anything wrong. She's like, I apologize and I spoke
the truth. I wasn't mean.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, So today we're not gonna do this connect cards because.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
We kind of had a long icebreaker. Yeah, I'm gonna
do this. Yeah, so today we're gonna be talking about
what kind of reminiscing and just kind of thinking about
since it's birthday season for us and you know, this
week comes and it's like all in one week where
we celebrate all of our girls, and so it's just
(22:26):
it's it's kind of emotional, but usually the emotions don't
hit me till like literally afterwards. But I was a
little bit more emotional, like at Blake's. Like with Blake's
just because I feel like now that she's like officially
like you know, she's almost done with middle school and
going into high school, it's like just such a huge, yeah,
(22:48):
age change. And I just looked at like pictures literally
it just popped up on my phone, is like memories
of Blake's tenth birthday, and I'm just like I felt
like that was literally happened, and how small she looks,
and just like within four years, like how much she's changed,
and like just to know that, like the Quins are
(23:08):
their ten now they're becoming those pre teens too, and
it's just it's just wild. We've had a lot of
life happened in the last ten years, and it's just
it's overwhelming if you like really think about it. But
then it's so filled with so much just joy and
(23:30):
you know, just kind of thinking about how it all began,
in like the trials and the hardship and the journey
to have a family and just to be here now
celebrating ten years and fourteen years with our children, and
it's it's very humbling and just one. I can't believe
(23:54):
I'm that old to be able to say I have
a fourteen year old and olds, okadd I feel like
I feel like I should be older than when I
am but not. And so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
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Speaker 3 (26:37):
So, yeah, go to Good Ranchers seed ole free nuggets
in our bucks. They don't last for long in this
house for sure. Oh yeah. I would get our box
and then get the nuggets, add the nuggets as your
free gift because you're gonna need more than one because
they're gonna not last.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I get to see like a lot of the inside
stuff at Good Ranchers and stuff that they're like working
on in the future and stuff and work. We have
a lot of items that are going to be coming
out in the near future that's like pre cooked food,
you know. We have like the seed all free chicken nuggets.
We have hot dogs, now, we have sausage. There's a
few other things that are just like pre cooked and
(27:15):
obviously for us as busy as we are during the week.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
The nuggets. I am now happy there cooked stuff goes
pretty fast. Yeah, I'm happy to say that I can
be a chicken nugget mom with these nuggets. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Guilt free chicken nuggets. Yeah, seed all free, gluten free, uh,
whole chunk chicken breast. So to make your purchase, you
can head on over to good ranchers dot com.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's Good Ranchers American Meat Delivered. All right, Now, let's
go back to the episode. It's such a it's such
a powerful week in our house just with like a
lot of change and excitement. But then it's also has
me thinking about, Wow, Blake's gone from ten to four
and like a snap, and what at fourteen? Yeah, ten
(28:07):
to fourteen, not ten to four, because that would be weird.
It's a little Benjamin Button. Oh, such a weird show.
I don't know. I thought we could maybe kind of
reminisce on just like the Journey. I know we've talked
about it a little bit, like of our story and
like things we've gone through, and just maybe just talking
(28:28):
about like because you know, it's it's good to remember
and to bring up things where you've seen God kind
of like move in your life and where you've seen
God show up and like shine because in seasons of
like trials and hardship, and we sometimes forget like what
(28:49):
God has done for us, and whether you're not in
a hardship or in a trial in your life or struggles,
sometimes we forget, like even when you're like life is
good and great and you think you don't need God,
but like we really do, and He's always walking with
us and always there with us. And I just feel
like God was so evident and and just the presence
(29:10):
we had with experiencing this life of you know, wanting
to grow a family and the struggles through that. But
then after we had Blake and you know, got this
amazing child, and God blessed us and gave us everything
we wanted and asked for. And then you know, years
(29:32):
go by and people around us are having you know,
their second kid, their third kid, my you know, family
members and friends, and it's just was this desire that
grew like in our hearts to be like, I think
we want another one, but how do we how do
why do we want this?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Like when it was such a tough trial and a
tough season to here and have one like you feel
guilty for Okay.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
God, can we have an Yeah? And I think because
you just feel like what he gave us was which
which was such.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
A you know, how could we ask for more?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah? It's like how do you know that guilt of like,
you know, I have this desire in my heart, but
how do you ask for something more than what you
prayed for and you receive?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
You know?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So I remember like struggling and going through that season
and just being like, man, if this isn't meant to
be or this or these desires, if I'm having these
desires and they're not your desires, then take these desires
away because I don't like the way I feel like
(30:49):
grateful but then kind of like sad in a way.
You know. It's it's hard to kind of like explain
that season, but I'm sure there are families too that
could relate to that type of feeling. I have been
the secret guys. I've been working on Life Journey Story
(31:12):
devotional and so I've been trying to get it to
thirty days and I think I'm at like ten or
twelve days right now, it's been very beautiful and something
to like kind of like talk about but also kind
of like have a devotional to be able to share
with a lot of you, and it's something that's going
to help hopefully help all women really in the story
(31:35):
of hope, but also are a lot of our story
is walking through infertility and then becoming a mom and
then seeing how big God is in him showing us
how much more he can give to us and how
much we need Him in our life to sustain and
to do this life. And so I thought I wanted
(31:58):
to kind of like maybe give you like a little
snippet of like one of the days that I've kind
of been like writing about, just because it's kind of
a memory onto like what we're talking about like birthday
season and taking us back on memory lane for the
quints and stuff. I can do that now, or if
you had anything you wanted to, I can start. Okay,
(32:21):
So this is not editated or nothing. These are just
like first drafts of things, and it's gonna be like scripture.
I'll have like devotional kind of like life moments story
and then the reflection and then like some questions and stuff.
So I'm just gonna read a little bit from it.
(32:42):
So this one says, this is the life moment stories. Hey,
I'll never forget the weight in the car, the heaviness
of a decision I was never meant to carry. The
doctors had just told us that if we did it,
reduce the pregnancy, because remember I'm pregnant with quintuplets, which
is five babies at one time. Just for those of
(33:03):
you who may have been listening for the first time,
neither I nor the babies might make it. The words
selective reduction rang in my ears like an alarm, shaking
everything I thought I believed. So selective reduction what basically
means to abort? There is five in there, so you
need to be selective on the ones that you want
(33:24):
to terminate and abort so that the livelihood of you
and or the babies would have a better life chance
of survival. This was the first time I had heard
the term selective reduction at the doctor's office and was
really overwhelmed. This is me, Like, this is not in
(33:44):
the book, this is me just kind of add them
and like I never heard that term before, and it
was kind of like what like you're telling me, I
have to we have to make a decision. Like that's heavy. Yeah,
we didn't even know that that was even an option
or what they like parents of high order multiples have
(34:05):
to go through and a decision that they have to make.
You know, we're now being faced with all of this,
and to go from like a season of infertility and
trying and you know, let down and heart heartbreak and
like all these things and all of a sudden, finally
you're pregnant. And then two years later, you know, we
(34:26):
finally get pregnant again, and then all of a sudden,
now the doctor comes back and says, you're not going
to survive. None of them are going to survive.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
You need to select, you know, which ones are gonna
make it. Yeah, in a sense at the very beginning,
and we were both just like completely like it was
like a gut punch, Yeah, And we didn't think that
that wasn't, you know, some a decision that we were
going to have to make, a decision that we were
faced with. And and all of a sudden, here we
(34:59):
are in this office and the doctor just like throws
that on us, and we're just like whoa.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, And then one another side too, is that like
something like we had a desire for to grow our
family and like have another child and whatnot, and here
we are and God, there's a long story between finding
out we're having quints, but you can listen to our
earlier episodes in the podcast to fill in those details.
But you know, it's like, here we are pregnant, and
(35:27):
like we're feeling overly, overwhelmingly blessed at this moment, and
you know, struggling and going through guilt and like trying
to ask guy, like, how do we ask for more
to grow our family? And now we're finding out we're
pregnant with quintuplets to then now say, wait, you're gonna
have to reduce the number of kids that you're going
(35:49):
to have, And it's like, WHOA, what is going on here?
Speaker 4 (35:53):
You know?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
And so those words of selective reduction literally means you
need to pick out of your children, which ones you
want to abort, which ones you want to terminate, which
ones you want to kill. It like nobody should ever
be faced with that. It's just like it just makes
me furious inside to know the amount of people who
probably have heard this and trusted in the doctors, and
(36:17):
given all the signs of medical all the things like
show that is to be true, like these are medical facts,
these are whatever. But our God is bigger, right, And
this is where you had to let our we had
to let our faith kind of like say, okay, but
(36:39):
God's brought us here a place we never imagined, even
more than we could ever imagine has happened. That's not
We're not going to let our hearts be hard and
turn to the enemy of saying like, you must take
control of this, Daniel, Adam, you must obey the medical
medical decisions here. And we just held on and I'll
(37:04):
continue reading this, but you know, said no, God's brought
us here, and we're gonna trust in this. And so
as I continue, it was clinically and it was clinical,
calculated and deeply personal. And as the weight of these
words settled into my chest, something inside me shattered out
of my satin silence. Driving down I forty five after
(37:26):
the doctor's appointment, no music, no words, just the hum
of the wheels beneath us and the deafening roy of
emotions in our hearts. I wanted to cry, scream, pray, laugh,
and hide all at once. We were being told to
choose between life and life? How do you do that?
How do you weigh one heart beat against another? The
truth is we couldn't. I heard the fear of the
(37:48):
doctor's voice. I felt the urgency pressuring in from every side.
I knew the risk. But even under the crushing weight
of it all, even with the reality what I might
not survive, that I might not survive, I knew in
my heart this decision wasn't mine to make. Each of
those babies had a heartbeat, a life, a purpose. I
was already their mother, And no matter how broken or
(38:10):
afraid I felt in that moment, the truth was louder
than the fear. I could not choose, and never choose
who got to live. I couldn't play the role of
God in their story. Even the odds against us, I
knew that choosing life, all life was the choice I
would choose to give. I couldn't play the role of
God in their story. Even the odds against us, I
(38:31):
knew that choosing life and all life was the choice
I could live with. The truth in my heart was
louder than the fear in my head, And that was
both terrifying and freeing. And then something unexpected filled the car.
What peace? You remember this? Yeah? How could you? How
(38:54):
could we not write such an impactful moment in old stories.
It wasn't because I had answers. It wasn't because the
outcome had changed. It was a peace that didn't make sense,
a peace that met us in the fear. His piece
wasn't a feeling. It was a presence, some presence, guys,
right here on the high highway, I felt held. It
(39:17):
just so happened that exact moment I needed God most.
He showed up, not in a thunder or answers, but
in a stillness and a presence in peace. And that
is the first time I fully understood Isaiah twenty six
to three. God didn't promise i'd have I'd never face fear.
He promised I could have peace in the middle of it.
(39:37):
Peace didn't come because things were okay. Peace came because
He was.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
And then I kind of have like a little reflection.
God's peace isn't something that we can create or force.
It's something He gives, and so often he gives it,
not when things are calm, but right in the eye
of the storm. I didn't expect to feel peace in
that moment. I didn't ex affect anything but fear, but
it just so happened when I was at my weakest,
(40:05):
God reminded me of his strengths, which I'm reminded of
this every single day, Like every single day, I ask
for God to give me strength because every single day
we are out numbered, we are overworked, we are overstimulated
all those things, and we need the presence of peace
and strength. And I, speaking for myself, just to make
it through every day. Peace came not because the situation changed,
(40:29):
but because my focus did. Isaiah twenty six to three
says that peace is found in keeping our minds steadfast,
anchored in the one who never moves. Maybe today you're
sitting on your own I forty five moment, maybe feeling
uncertain and fear is trying to call the shots. But
peace is not in the absence of chaos. It's the
(40:50):
presence of Jesus in the middle of it. And it
just so happens He's already right there with you. So
then I go into a prayer and like some questions
to reflect on for that devotional So I was reminded
today we're always going to have moments of feeling overwhelmed,
(41:10):
stepping in the face of fear, feeling tempted, feeling stress,
and God is always with us even in the midst
of the chaos chaos, and I feel like there's so
many times that we are so overwhelmed and life feels
like so chaotic. Sometimes it's like little reminders that like
(41:34):
God is still there, Like when we can look at
each other and there's like we just laugh because it's
like what else can we do in this moment, you know,
And like I'm reminded that like his his presence is
always with us, is always near, even if we don't
feel it, even if we feel like scared or overwhelmed.
And you know, I think that we faced a lot
(41:55):
of these trials of witnessing and and feeling the presence
of God and understanding like what true piece is and
it's a piece that is hard to explain. And if
it's something that you have felt, like true godly peace,
(42:17):
there's no feeling that really describes that, like sense of
being held. I guess that's how I can describe it,
Like just a feeling like a heart and a gut
wrench feeling of like feeling protected and held and just
(42:37):
carried I was just thinking about working on this devotional
that I have been working on for this year so far,
and I'm only into about twelve days of the thirty days.
But you know, it's taken a couple of months to
just get my mind to settle into right. But it's beautiful.
I love doing it and I love being able to
(42:58):
be reminded of this season of life, that season of life.
Today has been a good day and celebrating the Quints,
But to think back to this day, that day where
we were faced with being told you are not going
to be able to survive this, they are not going
to survive this.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
And being able to celebrate now because they all are, yeah,
and they're all here, and we chose, and for us,
it wasn't even really a choice. We just we went
through with what we felt as Scott's plan for us,
and you know, we were obedient to that and didn't
let fear set in, let the enemy attack us one
(43:40):
where we and scared, and you know, we looked up
and we fixed our eyes on him, and he welcomed
that and rewarded that with just an overwhelming abundance of
peace and has showed up and has been right there
with us through you know, every step of the way,
(44:02):
all of the scary stuff that we've had to go through,
the months and the nick you where some days were great,
some days we're just agonizing and just tough. And you know,
every every time, you know, the fear set in whenever
we were faced with something new, Yeah, we would struggle
a little bit, and we would we would we would
(44:24):
fight it, but you know it was always you know,
setting our eyes on things above and we were just
met with overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Peace through that.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
It's always it's always cool, like every you know, especially
like this time of year. You know, whenever, you know,
you just get sentimental about you know, this life that
we have, and you know you look back through old
photo albums and or camera albums and and videos and stuff,
(45:00):
and you know you just kind of replay in a
sense like you would do on social media, just kind
of doom scroll through these just old videos and you're
just like filled with this sense of gratitude for you know,
what He's blessed us with, and you know, it's it's
fun just to go back and like relive those moments
that we've had and just like so thankful to that
(45:21):
we've captured so much of that to be able to
go back and like see that and see you know,
just the goodness of God in our lives and right
here in the middle of it. And yeah, I mean
we're just extremely blessed. And you know, now they're fourteen
and ten, and it just feels like it just went
by in the blink of an eye. Through this whole
(45:42):
you know, last ten years.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
You know, there was just so many moments of fear.
You know, you can you can spot out like those moments.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
No constant fear at times, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
You know, and you know every day, I mean it's
like something scary or something you got to deal with
or on a weekly basis, and we always go back
to and run back to the same place, you know,
and that's that's where we find That's where we find
our peace. And He meets us, you know, in our
in our moment of weakness, and uh, you know, and
(46:17):
it's not just that he like takes fear away from
us or or or just takes burden away from us.
You know, he walks through it and through that, through
that struggle, through that journey of just walking through it
with us. You know, that's where we grow and you know,
(46:37):
we've grown so much over the years, and reading this
book right now, he just talks about, you know, your
life is like the spiral where you know you could
be going up, but you could also be going down.
And but like it's like every new every new stage,
it's almost like every like eighteen months or so, like
you you get to this like in a sense, like
(47:00):
little plateau, and it's like another step up. And usually
that step is something's very difficult in your life that
you have to work through and fight for and it
really tests you and pushes you so that you can
overcome that so that you're ready for that next level
and for that next stage. And you know, our life,
especially over the last ten years eleven years, really has
(47:22):
been just full of that of just growing and growing
through the struggles and growing through the trials.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
And I mean it's just it's and I feel like
it's and I feel like it's almost like in a
way the things that we have trialed through and overcame
and walk through with this life of raising six girls
and you know, including the quintuplets, and as hard as
(47:50):
it was in those seasons, it's like, you know, it's
kind of like what we heard at church, Like you
look back and you think, like, man, I missed this
or I missed that, or like I was foolish with
this and that, and like but in the moment, like
we felt comfortable and like God was walking with this
and whatnot. But like there's still things that we were
learning and growing from. And here we are now in
(48:12):
a new season of like raising a teenager and like preteens,
and like this is this is scary, Like I think
now more than ever, it's like how do we continue
to teach and instill and mold and encourage these girls
to not be of the world, but to know and
(48:33):
love Jesus and and people and and to give and
to serve and to love one another. Like it's a
it's a tough tough world these days to be raising
kids in because there's so much temptation easily accessible. And like,
you know, there's a lot of things that I feel
like God's putting on my heart, like with this age
(48:53):
and and things that are like appearing and like coming
into my heart that like things I never would have
thought over, things I've never would have desired. But like
God's still working and God's still molding us as parents
just as we are molding and teaching our children. And
it's the biggest gift that anyone can receive is to
(49:14):
raise a child, to give them, you know, love and
support and nurture, and that in itself is a challenge.
And I'll, you know, be a little bit honest right now.
I always thought mothering was something I could do and
I needed more to do too, because I'm that task
(49:35):
oriented and constant, like to be working and whatever. But
you know, I think God is weeding out a lot
of unnecessary things and changing the direction of values. Not
that I like diminish the value of family or whatever,
because that's so important to me, but the value of
how I see my time. It's been ten years. We've
(49:59):
got four years left with Blake and until she's out
on her own quote unquote on our own, and about
you know, eight years with the Quins, and I feel
like God has opened my eyes more than ever now
to see what you're needed for most is to mother,
is to be a mother and to nurture them and
(50:19):
to raise them. And like, I'm seeing it so differently
than I have have in fourteen years of being a mom.
And I wouldn't say that I think I always felt
that it wasn't it wasn't enough for me, even like
I'm emotional, even even this life that God has given
(50:42):
me with, I have put a lot of distraction and
a lot of things in front of it to do
what I'm used to doing, which is overwhelmingly working myself
out of comfort and just busyness. And it's not that
they're bad. Busynesses are bad things, but God's just been
(51:03):
working within me and showing me that, like, you know what,
this season has passed, this is a priority. You need
to change these things. This is going to be better
for the family. And I mean they're all in a
sense on a different level of talking about walking through
fear and walking through a scared season, like I feel
(51:25):
like I'm approaching that now because it's so different, it's
out of my norm and just thinking of different obstacles
we're facing or going to face, and it's a it's
a season that I've never we've I have never experienced
in like kind of like taking a step back and
(51:46):
a lot of things. It's hard, but I therefore feel
so it just it wrestles in my heart so much,
these thoughts constantly, and they're not of worry thereof Wow,
Like God is like showing me so much differently right
(52:08):
now then even when Blake was at this age with
the Quins, and I'm just being so pulled to that
and it's weighing on me to make changes. I don't
know what that looks like, and I have some things
that I think I'm not ready to like talk about
and share with like a community yet. But you know,
(52:29):
I mean it, it's scary. It's scary because I don't
know where that's going to lead and what that's going
to look like for us and our life and our
lifestyle and things. But I think that, you know, the
the weight of what it's doing to my heart is
worth the trust. It weighs, like I kind of said
(52:49):
in this devotionable, like it weighs more than the fear,
like that that uncomfortableness for me, and what God is
like doing in my heart is so much louder than
the fear, you know. But it's easy to let the
fear step forward first because we don't know, we don't know,
and you know me, I'm a control person and I
(53:10):
like to know a plan and those things, and like
I I just feel like I'm letting go of the reins.
And I've been praying for this, Oh God, for fifteen
twenty years. How do I let go of certain things?
And how do I lose control? Meaning lose to let
(53:32):
go of control and a lot of things and be
okay with it and to be this identified woman, wife, mother?
And then it's as stupid of me because if we
read scripture and to say, like what is the what
is a mom? What is a wife? Like why do
(53:54):
we why do we fight against what God created? You know?
We let so many different things influence and take our
minds and distractions, And here I am thinking all those
things are not important. Like what's important is raising these
girls and teaching them and molding them and being a wife,
(54:18):
and like that's what I always wanted as a child,
to grow up and to have this life, And why
am I wasting it? You know? And I feel like
that at times, I feel like I'm wasting a lot
of things God has given us because of all the
(54:40):
distraction around. And so I've been saying this for like
over a year, Adam, I just want to take us.
I want to take us out, and I just want
to replant us somewhere else where. It's just a a new,
just a new, and I feel like we're slowly seeking
into that and having to settle and rustle with like
(55:01):
what does that look like? And I'm emotional because it's scary.
I don't know what that looks like, and it's it's hard.
But I knew once I started crying after this week,
it would just it was gonna come with mean think
about everything. Now, I'll here come the emotions. Now I'm
gonna think about everything. And my dream I had of
(55:21):
Gus and then he had to go to the vet
and they gave me Gus and it wasn't Gus, and
I was fighting with them.
Speaker 2 (55:29):
I'm like, this is not my dog.
Speaker 3 (55:31):
And I woke up so distressed with giving me another dog.
They would not understand me. Still that's still waiting on me,
Like what does that mean anyway? So yeah, I am.
I'm still constantly needing encouragement, needing to be reminded of
(55:52):
what God has taught us in our journey and what
He has spoken to us, what he has carried us through,
what he has reminded this with because I still feel
like in a different story, in a different phase of life,
I'm still going through that right now, I feel like
I'm still wrestling with some fear and some trust and
(56:14):
some like control, and God is opening my eyes and
my heart where I'm like starting to let go of
things and it's scary because it's going to mean something's
gonna change, something's gonna be different, and whatever that's gonna
be for me, for you, for us, for this family,
for where we live. Like I don't know, I think
(56:36):
it's all going to be different, and I don't know
what it looks like. And I'm sure I'm saying a
lot right now, and you're like, what the heck? She
just now is gonna be downpouring all the things, But
just as just to be vulnerable and just to say,
like this story that I shared that I was writing
about in this devotional that hope to come out later
(56:58):
this year in a book form is still powerful today.
It's still powerful today. So I hope that words that
you hear from us, whether it can be today or
any podcast, divorce, or anytime it's someone we meet, like,
I hope that you know we are reminded that God
(57:19):
is always with us and can use us, and can
use you and can be with you.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (57:24):
You're not alone and whatever weight, whatever heaviness that you're
feeling right now, Like God's there, man, And I want
to have the same peace with the decisions that I'm
wrestling right now that I did in the car driving
down forty five. Maybe I just need to go on
a car ride. A lot of things happen in the
car rides, but peace. It's just it's I like I
(57:50):
pray now, like Lord, bring us peace, Bring us peace,
and his decisions that we have to make that are
to come, and like what changes are going to be made,
and take the fear away, take the uncertainty away. And
you know it's it's hard. Yeah, so sorry, I'm matching
my shirt, my pink shirt right now.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
And also sorry that we're not giving you a whole
lot of context. But you know, even some of the
decisions may they're kind of involve all of this, you know,
maybe made in the near future, but we still don't
like fully know everything about everything yet and so that's
(58:34):
why we're not quite ready to like share a lot
of the stuff. But you know, it's just it's coming
as one of those like growth seasons of just like really.
Speaker 3 (58:45):
Like another pivotal season of ours of like something drastic
is happening, and we feel I think we feel that,
and we don't know what exactly we are to do yet,
but we do know that there is a change of
some sort and a redirection of things. And so if
(59:08):
y'all could just pray for God to reveal these things
to us, we would like to I'd like to know.
I'd like to know where we go.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
What the my recurring prayer almost every day, it is
every day. It's just you know, just like seeking guidance
and seeking wisdom and seeking peace and you know, decisions
that we're making and and just praying for, but just
seeking guidance and direction and peace about you know, decisions
(59:40):
that we're ultimately going to be making about our future
that uh, and we just don't quite know what the
outcome yet will be. And so you know, it's just
it's just hard decisions that we hopefully will have like
clear answers on rather than feeling like we're just making
the best like educated guests or yeah, hope what.
Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
We want or what we think.
Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Yeah, we really we don't want to do any make
any especially big decisions that affect you know, our family
and stuff. Is just like something that you know, a
hunch or something that we think or yeah, you know,
we want to have like a deep conviction of it
and kind of agree on that together before stepping into it.
So I don't know, you just you see, you know,
(01:00:26):
even like surface level, like you see people and uh,
some days we're struggling. Some days we're we're fighting and
wrestling with like just tough decisions. And you know, it's
not always like shun sunshines and rainbows. Everybody sees like
the social media side of people a lot of times, and.
Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
So I'm getting more and more frustrated with social media.
I'm just gonna be honest.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Like, so you just you just never really know what's
going on, you know, behind the curtain. You know, even
even people that I see all the time that you know,
I see them on social media a lot, but then
I'll also get to see him in person, and you know,
whenever you finally get to catch up and you like
hear the real and you're like, oh, okay, good, I'm
glad that you're dealing with this kind of stuff that
(01:01:10):
I'm dealing with too, because it doesn't appear that way
on social media. I don't know, I just keep that
in mind that like, it's not always it's not always
what you see.
Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I think everybody knows that when it comes to social media.
I mean, another's topic for another day.
Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Yeah, but today we just wanted to kind of keep
things more upbeat. And that's like bring it down towards
the end. But you know, we're just like really in this,
you know, especially this week, this past couple of weeks
of just like gratitude and and I'm just grateful for
you know, all the things that we've this life that
God has given us and blessed us with and stuff,
(01:01:47):
and just like reflecting on the life that He's blessed
us with and the kids and and so we're gonna
we're gonna go and have a family dinner.
Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Some cookie cake that they want it after right after school. No,
that's for dinner. Yeah, they kept coming up to the office.
Can we eat that cake? No? Not yet.
Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
So thank you guys for tuning in. This is episode
twenty eight More Than Reality Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Thanks for listening and watching. If you're watching us when
you dude, yeah, we'll see you again real soon.
Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Thank guys.
Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
All right, love you guys much.
This is More Than Reality podcast, where we dive into
all things faith, family, and marriage and share that there
is so much more than the reality that you see
on the surface. Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam
and Danielle Busby.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi, what's up guys? You've been with with us for now?
This is twenty eight episodes, so thank you guys for
sticking around.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Why can I not remember that? Like, bye, I'm going
to start writing it down right here, so I one
day I'm gonna always tear your sheet off. Well, maybe
I'll ask you which one is?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Still?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Why did you just ask me anywhere? I don't know
because I don't think about it until until literally he goes,
what what's up? So? Man, how's life? I feel like
this is this is This week is going by so fast.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Other than like Christmas, this is like the craziest week
of the year for us.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
And it was interesting because we had spring break before
the girl's birthday, and it's usually like not this close
to it. Oh, it's always in March, but like, yeah,
I don't know, I feel like spring break was just
I felt like a birthday trip. Yeah, spring break.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
We did have a lot of fun, but we also
want to thank our sponsor for this episode, which is
Good Ranchers American Meat Delivered. You can go to good
ranchers dot com and we got an awesome promotion to
Spring into Action promotion that's going on right now. You
can get forty dollars off plus a free gift, which
(01:48):
is a meat gift guys every month for the next year.
You can go to good Ranchers right now. They've got
the Spring into Action sale going and I don't know
how long how much longer it's going to be going on,
so uh probably next podcast that may be gone, may
not be, we'll see. You can also enter the code
(02:08):
Busby for forty dollars off. So you got their Spring
into Action promotion going on, get a free gift, and
enter the code Buzzby for forty dollars off. So go
to good ranchers dot com or good ranchers dot com
slash Buzzby for the Busby Bucks which has a seat
ole free chicken nuggets in it. So thank you Good
(02:29):
Ranchers for sponsoring this episode. Yeah, so we're in birthday week,
yeah this week, and it's just crazy how it fell.
I mean, we have Blake our now fourteen year old
fourteen year olds. She turned fourteen. That is just just
four days ago, I mean today, which it would be
(02:50):
three days ago, because two days ago for you guys
eight because we're filming this on the Quin's birthday. So
Blake and the Quints are four days apart, well, four
years and four days apart.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Four years and three days, three days.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, it's three days, four years and three days. I
am I stand corrected in Hazel Basil. You want to
come say hi. The girls just got home from school.
They have their T shirts that mommy made them last
night after bedtime.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, literally had to go to the store, sit on
my lap. Show everybody your shirt. If you're watching, you
can see. But this is a funny story. So Danielle
gets a text message from their teacher.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Oh so their their T shirt says what does it
say Hazel's Day?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It says bruh. It's my birthday. All the kids say
bruh nowadays.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
But Danielle's teacher said one of the girls teachers, one
of the girls sent Danielle a text today And because
Riley's hair was like half fallen, just like this. If
you're watching and if you're watching YouTube, all you can
see is the B in the H from bruh, And
so it looked like the B word it's my birthday.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, amazing mom moment. If I put B, it's your birthday.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So if you're watching on YouTube, I got my little ginger,
ten year old Ginger on my lap.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Hazel's not ten, not yet? I told her at four
twenty two, Oh, you're not ten yet. How was did
you do anything special at school today? No? What did
anybody tell you? Happy birthday? Ry did? Tell them what
we did in the car this morning? Tell them about lunch?
(04:43):
How was zero down the windows instead playing music? And
what was the music? I okay, we were having a
birthday party in the car on the way to school
because they we didn't get to school on time this morning,
on purpose. We went whenever Blake goes to school, and
so I was dropping Blake off first, and so I'm
(05:04):
pulling up to the middle school, you know, and I'm
letting Blake out and we're playing like all these different
types of birthday music jams, and I had the windows downs,
and there's like one of the some of the kids
from high school like out doing some things with rockets,
and some of them were like in the lake over
there and some of the kids on the their elementary playground.
We're outside and I'm like just screaming like it's their birthday.
(05:27):
It's there and they're like stop at Ava's life and
every Olivia is embarrassed. Hey, they're all lot and I
was like this is so funny. Yeah, and then I
went to eat lunch with them today and it was
like a party at the table. Did you have a
party at the table? And then I was like, what
if I stand up? I took frey awesome? Yeah we yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
I was like what if I uh standing up right
here and just like have the whole cafeteria sing happy
birthday to y'all. I was like no, and so Reesa
was with us and she's like, let's sing every birthday
and then like the Alux, he was like get down.
So we sang it at the table and a couple
(06:13):
of people everybody was looking at us on Hazel. We
were fun. It was like twenty five people at the
table at our table. Yes, it was quite a bit
and I was like, whoa, the party is on Friday?
But am I like such a cool mom? Hazel? Oh?
Was that like a long pause? This is kind of
(06:37):
like radio.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
You have to talk, all right, Go get your snack,
all right, give me those headphones.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, it was funny. Riley was being funny, like she
was being really just really sweet. I shouldn't say that's funny,
but shew no, I know. But like at school, she
like always acts a little bit different, and Parker is
like SHEO cool for school, and like, you know, she
she sat with us. Of course she sat with us, uh,
(07:11):
because I'm cool and I'm fun and like I brought
the party to the cafeteria table. But she all like
gets up afterwards and like goes to her table like
a school table, like classroom table, and send by our friends.
And I was like, all right, girls gotta go. And
they're like gonna go out to whatever it was next,
and all of them are like, by mom, thanks for lunch.
(07:33):
And Raley just kept saying I love you, I love
you and like hugging me. And I was like this
is so sweet. And I go up to park I'm like,
let me go tell Parker by and I go find
Parker and I'm like Parker and I like hug her
from kind of like behind.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And she's like she's takes off, does He's just being
me cramp and my style mom.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And I was like, girls, you give me a hug
or I'm gonna bebarrass you in front of all these people.
It's just funny seeing their personalities like change. It's different,
you know. I think they're just growing more and being
aware of like peers and who their their surroundings and
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So we had Blake's birthday just a few days ago.
We have the Quinn's birthday going on right now, and
then this weekend is there a big birthday party?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, it's very well. Blake's actually felt like on a Saturday,
which is what is it like every seven years your
birthdays actually falls on a Saturday? Is that how that works?
I don't know. I'm just gonna I mean, sometimes there's
a leap here, sometimes there's more days.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Something tells me that's not how that works. It's not
but like it's just but I don't know how it works.
It just doesn't sound right.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It's not right. But whatever, I'm just gonna say every
five to seven years, it's on a different day. The
next day, okay.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So we had a huge get together with all her
friends at a local restaurant. One of Blake's favorite restaurants
over here have.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Blake wanted brunch. She wanted to have brunch with her friends,
which is twenty girls to have brunch at these little
small places. They all said, we either will do it
at nine am or you can come at two pm.
And She's like, no, I want brunch because none of
us are going to get up to be at breakfast
(09:21):
for nine o'clock in the morning. It needs to be
at eleven o'clock and so. And she wanted gumbo, so
then we change it to rupe war and so like.
So it actually worked out really great. Brunch and gumbo
is what she wanted, and we got it worked out. Yeah.
They had their floral like sun sun dresses. Yeah, would
(09:41):
you call them this? Mama always loves the theme and
it's really rubbing off on her kids.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
But they even made a special mocktail for Blake. It's
called the Blake Yeah, and it was like a watermelon
mojito alcohol for you for sure.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, And they had.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Like a little flower on top, like the the Hawaiian
flowers they put in like laze. Yeah, those flowers are
edible and some of them were like wow, I think
Kenny ate like four.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Of them edible doesn't mean you need to be all
of those, but it was really it was a very
It was another like one of those like milestone birthdays
where it's like you can just see your kids are
older and not necessarily like you need to be involved
or like be there in a sense.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
But Adam and I, uh kind of just like sat
at another table and originally like a lot of the
moms too, will stay or like whatever, I like to
have them come or especially with a bunch of girls.
But we were pretty local, like in the restaurant around here,
didn't like go to Galveston or in the city or anything.
But Adam came this time because you know, I wanted
(10:54):
him to be there. Plus he had been out of
town and I was like, maybe we can have time
to actually talk face to face. So we had like
a little mini date in the corner as the birthday
party was going on, because you know, they really could
care less that we were there except for the picture taking.
And when I stood up and said at the end
(11:15):
of it, well, now that we're all getting older, high
school's next year, like we're gonna break out. We're going
to break out our family tradition, meaning what I started
for myself a couple of years ago. I think, I
think like five or six years ago.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Danielle is all about like meaningful conversations whenever you're with friends,
and so she forced that on these fourteen year olds.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I did not force it, I literally and I made
it really easy. But I know, growing up, I feel
like if it's your birthday, I don't I don't care,
I don't, I don't know. I just feel like you
want to you want to feel special. Yeah, you want
someone to notice you or to like say happy birthday
(12:03):
to you, or you just you want to feel known
or seen in some kind of aspect. And so for
I mean, now they're old, it's not like we're like
kid birthdays anymore. I mean, listen, we had set a
twenty people at a table, all dressed up in like
cute little sun Maxi dresses, and it was nice. It
(12:23):
was nice brunch, and so I said, you know, thank
everyone for coming. And I was like, we have a
tradition in our family that we on whoever's birthday is,
we go around the table and we say something about them.
And here I am saying this to a bunch of teenagers, right,
and I was like, listen, just to make Blake feel
(12:45):
special today it's her birthday. I was like, you can
say something embarrassing story, and usually we say what we
love about that person, but I didn't want to make
it stressful for them. So I was like, he can
say something you love about Blake. You can tell us
an embarrassing story. You can say so than funny or
just any memory or anything about Blake. And so I
(13:05):
would say it went amazing. I it was my favorite
part of like the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Of course, it was like I was like worried for
probably about five seconds. So I mean, I know most
I know, but it's like putting them on the spot,
and like there's like that moment of that's what I
learned whenever we did like high school ministry and stuff
like you have to thrive on silence and so you
just like forced silence to get them to talk because
(13:33):
they don't.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
They did ask me if I was paying for this before.
I'm sure, just kidding, Yeah, I'll pay for it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
If you say that, I'm just whatever, however your answer
is will determine whether or not we buy your brunch.
But yeah, it turned out really sweet. Yeah, I mean,
and I.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Mean a lot of those girls are outgoing and we'll
say anything comfortable and it literally but it's like all
and it literally took five seconds for to go, okay,
I'll say something, and once someone said something like everybody
went around and it like some people went around again
and again, and it just was a very sweet moment.
And I know Blake, and I know she wouldn't ask
(14:16):
for that, but I know how much that affects her
and makes her feel, and I knew that that was
something that would would be like a like a great
sweet memory for her. And she told me afterwards in
the car, I said, because you left to go help
Ben with building a.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Table and benthing just being contractman contractors, you're gonna put
our car heart stuff on and belts, yeah, spit spit.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Spit and scratch yeah. But I was like, did I
embarrass you? She says no, But I thought you were
gonna make us go around the table like we do
it dinner and say what was your high today? And
I was like, no, not for birthday. We're gonna talk
about you. That's funny. But it was a very sweet
moment and it was a good day, good day.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, I mean yeah, I found myself like kind of
even just tearing up a little bit, like just how
much they like just kept going around the table and stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I'm like, wow, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You just see like like how your daughter impacts her
friends' lives and just hearing you know, those stories from
them and just like how much Blake means to them,
and just a funny you know you kind of you
kind of learn a little bit about your kid just
by hearing her friends just talk and share stories and
stuff and just like, you know, because okay, what was
(15:48):
something you your kids act you know a certain way
at home or like with family or whatever. But then
you hear, you know, over and over, you know, them
just talking about just how how like goofy she is
at school and like cuts up and just like jokes
around and it's it was it was cool to hear that,
(16:08):
for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And it's funny because I remember going through like sixth
seventh grade, Blake would be like, some of my friends
just don't get my humor, Like it's just hormones. But
they a lot of I mean, they all had sweet
things to say, and one of her dad's dark humor
would war on her did you find out anything like
surprising or like something you felt like you didn't know? No, no,
(16:32):
necessarily like that, I didn't know. It was just like
they you know, so many of them, how would would
mention just like just the funny outbursts and stuff or
like the funny things that Blake says. It's just like the.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Completely catches them off guard, you know them laugh or
whatever and makes them laugh.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
It's like so rilly page like her, what do you
call that? Like that dry sarcasm. Yeah, Blake, They're one
of the ones. Was like Blake. They'll be sitting at
tennis or athletics or pete or like in a in
a crowd and no one's saying anything, and Blake will
just go what was it were they say? Blake will
just go mmm mmmm or like just make some kind
(17:13):
of like said like noise or a whistle or a
nope she didn't or no, she didn't, like in dead silence,
like just kind of under her breath to like whoever
whatever friend is like next to her, and they all
would laugh, And a lot of them had like little
things like that about it. But it was just I'm
so proud of all the girls for like doing that.
(17:35):
I didn't think that any of them would not not
do it. I just love the repeated stories because a
lot of the stories that they say, Blake will come
home and like or in the car time, like after
school will tell me about him, or like I tried
to trip her and then she fell. Like it's just
funny stuff like that, but it was. It was a
(17:56):
good day. And then now we're in quent birthday mode,
which is it's just like a different, different thing. And
it's been a little bit more stressful this season, just
because we've always done birthday dates and I'm like, and
I'm like overwhelmed with this this year of birthday dates
because they all wanted to do them separate. I knocked
(18:18):
out ab and Olivia's together last Friday because I was like,
if y'all both want to get nails done, we're doing
it together, Like we're doing it together in the same place.
Then yeah. Yeah. But they wanted to go by themselves
and or with a friend, and I was like, you
got four friends that are within three four minutes of
(18:41):
birth next to you, just pick a sister. But I
told him, I was like, this is the last year.
This is the only year we're doing this thing with
one friend, because like now I feel like I'm having
a whole other party.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Like every time we're taking them out kind of causes
drama between their friends because it's like, well that is
what I did learn. They have to pick one, you know,
and then usually we're usually we kind of do it
on a school day where like we check them out
of school a little early. Ye go, do there? You know,
have to, And so I mean that's a big deal
for a kid to get checked out early. But then
(19:15):
you're also taking one of their friends with them, and
whenever there's five, you know, that's only a five, you know,
like they have a lot of friends friends from the class,
so that I feel like that causes drama between the kids.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Send a message to all these moms a text message
me like I'm sorry. My kids have gone back and
forth with who they said they wanted to invite, and
I said, if you told one person, then that's the person,
and then it's gone, well she can't go this day,
and so I need to pick someone else. I'm like, ah,
we're not doing this again. We're not doing this again.
I don't like it. Yeah, So I apologize to those
(19:47):
mothers if there.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Was plus, like they went, y'all went and did like nails,
but they also took a friend. And so I'm like,
because you're like, do you want to go? Yeah, I
would have gone, but like your take like you're also
bringing like two other girls. I'm like, look, if they're
just bringing their friend, then I'll set this one out.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, but that was Nails too, like that you like
with Riley, Riley wants to go eat crawfish, So crawfish
and uh to go skating roller Yeah, like rollerblades. Is
there a roller rink open during the day on a weekday?
We can take her roller bays and like go like
skate around some park or whatever walk or something. And
(20:27):
Parker wants to go to some slime Moo SLINKs slime
Moo something. I don't know. She has a whole list
of things. And my girlfriend or that always has a
list that is about a week's worth of activities list.
She keeps a running list of everything she wants to do.
Stuff has gone back and forth on her list. I'm
(20:48):
not really quite sure what she's decided on, but all
I do know is that she's probably start up the
most drama across all the friends because she's gone back
and forth and told them, well, I'm gonna invite her
now and I'm like, you can't do that. She's like, wow,
she said, I said sorry. I said sorry, I'm going
to take her instead, and I'm like, you can't do that, Hayes.
(21:12):
She's like, I apologized, I said sorry. I'm like, I know,
but it's just some I was like, we will just
now invite both of them because I feel bad. Yeah,
I like Hazel's like whatever, She's like, I said sorry
and I wasn't mean.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
It's so crazy because she's like the sweetest, like tender
hearted little kid.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
But then for like random stuff like that, she says
every little detail about every little thing.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, she'll she'll act you in the heart in a heartbeat,
she's gone bye.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
She's doing it or anything. But it's just she doesn't
see anything wrong. She's like, I apologize and I spoke
the truth. I wasn't mean.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, So today we're not gonna do this connect cards because.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
We kind of had a long icebreaker. Yeah, I'm gonna
do this. Yeah, so today we're gonna be talking about
what kind of reminiscing and just kind of thinking about
since it's birthday season for us and you know, this
week comes and it's like all in one week where
we celebrate all of our girls, and so it's just
(22:26):
it's it's kind of emotional, but usually the emotions don't
hit me till like literally afterwards. But I was a
little bit more emotional, like at Blake's. Like with Blake's
just because I feel like now that she's like officially
like you know, she's almost done with middle school and
going into high school, it's like just such a huge, yeah,
(22:48):
age change. And I just looked at like pictures literally
it just popped up on my phone, is like memories
of Blake's tenth birthday, and I'm just like I felt
like that was literally happened, and how small she looks,
and just like within four years, like how much she's changed,
and like just to know that, like the Quins are
(23:08):
their ten now they're becoming those pre teens too, and
it's just it's just wild. We've had a lot of
life happened in the last ten years, and it's just
it's overwhelming if you like really think about it. But
then it's so filled with so much just joy and
(23:30):
you know, just kind of thinking about how it all began,
in like the trials and the hardship and the journey
to have a family and just to be here now
celebrating ten years and fourteen years with our children, and
it's it's very humbling and just one. I can't believe
(23:54):
I'm that old to be able to say I have
a fourteen year old and olds, okadd I feel like
I feel like I should be older than when I
am but not. And so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
All right, guys, So we're gonna take a little break
for our sponsor today.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
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Speaker 2 (24:47):
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Speaker 3 (24:59):
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(25:21):
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Speaker 2 (25:40):
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Speaker 3 (25:56):
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plus you get to add in a free item of
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(26:22):
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Speaker 3 (26:24):
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Speaker 2 (26:27):
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you can purchase the Buzzby box and also get the
discount as well plus a free item.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
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they're gonna not last.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
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on in the future and stuff and work. We have
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We have hot dogs, now, we have sausage. There's a
few other things that are just like pre cooked and
(27:15):
obviously for us as busy as we are during the week.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
The nuggets. I am now happy there cooked stuff goes
pretty fast. Yeah, I'm happy to say that I can
be a chicken nugget mom with these nuggets. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
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can head on over to good ranchers dot com.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's Good Ranchers American Meat Delivered. All right, Now, let's
go back to the episode. It's such a it's such
a powerful week in our house just with like a
lot of change and excitement. But then it's also has
me thinking about, Wow, Blake's gone from ten to four
and like a snap, and what at fourteen? Yeah, ten
(28:07):
to fourteen, not ten to four, because that would be weird.
It's a little Benjamin Button. Oh, such a weird show.
I don't know. I thought we could maybe kind of
reminisce on just like the Journey. I know we've talked
about it a little bit, like of our story and
like things we've gone through, and just maybe just talking
(28:28):
about like because you know, it's it's good to remember
and to bring up things where you've seen God kind
of like move in your life and where you've seen
God show up and like shine because in seasons of
like trials and hardship, and we sometimes forget like what
(28:49):
God has done for us, and whether you're not in
a hardship or in a trial in your life or struggles,
sometimes we forget, like even when you're like life is
good and great and you think you don't need God,
but like we really do, and He's always walking with
us and always there with us. And I just feel
like God was so evident and and just the presence
(29:10):
we had with experiencing this life of you know, wanting
to grow a family and the struggles through that. But
then after we had Blake and you know, got this
amazing child, and God blessed us and gave us everything
we wanted and asked for. And then you know, years
(29:32):
go by and people around us are having you know,
their second kid, their third kid, my you know, family
members and friends, and it's just was this desire that
grew like in our hearts to be like, I think
we want another one, but how do we how do
why do we want this?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Like when it was such a tough trial and a
tough season to here and have one like you feel
guilty for Okay.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
God, can we have an Yeah? And I think because
you just feel like what he gave us was which
which was such.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
A you know, how could we ask for more?
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah? It's like how do you know that guilt of like,
you know, I have this desire in my heart, but
how do you ask for something more than what you
prayed for and you receive?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
You know?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So I remember like struggling and going through that season
and just being like, man, if this isn't meant to
be or this or these desires, if I'm having these
desires and they're not your desires, then take these desires
away because I don't like the way I feel like
(30:49):
grateful but then kind of like sad in a way.
You know. It's it's hard to kind of like explain
that season, but I'm sure there are families too that
could relate to that type of feeling. I have been
the secret guys. I've been working on Life Journey Story
(31:12):
devotional and so I've been trying to get it to
thirty days and I think I'm at like ten or
twelve days right now, it's been very beautiful and something
to like kind of like talk about but also kind
of like have a devotional to be able to share
with a lot of you, and it's something that's going
to help hopefully help all women really in the story
(31:35):
of hope, but also are a lot of our story
is walking through infertility and then becoming a mom and
then seeing how big God is in him showing us
how much more he can give to us and how
much we need Him in our life to sustain and
to do this life. And so I thought I wanted
(31:58):
to kind of like maybe give you like a little
snippet of like one of the days that I've kind
of been like writing about, just because it's kind of
a memory onto like what we're talking about like birthday
season and taking us back on memory lane for the
quints and stuff. I can do that now, or if
you had anything you wanted to, I can start. Okay,
(32:21):
So this is not editated or nothing. These are just
like first drafts of things, and it's gonna be like scripture.
I'll have like devotional kind of like life moments story
and then the reflection and then like some questions and stuff.
So I'm just gonna read a little bit from it.
(32:42):
So this one says, this is the life moment stories. Hey,
I'll never forget the weight in the car, the heaviness
of a decision I was never meant to carry. The
doctors had just told us that if we did it,
reduce the pregnancy, because remember I'm pregnant with quintuplets, which
is five babies at one time. Just for those of
(33:03):
you who may have been listening for the first time,
neither I nor the babies might make it. The words
selective reduction rang in my ears like an alarm, shaking
everything I thought I believed. So selective reduction what basically
means to abort? There is five in there, so you
need to be selective on the ones that you want
(33:24):
to terminate and abort so that the livelihood of you
and or the babies would have a better life chance
of survival. This was the first time I had heard
the term selective reduction at the doctor's office and was
really overwhelmed. This is me, Like, this is not in
(33:44):
the book, this is me just kind of add them
and like I never heard that term before, and it
was kind of like what like you're telling me, I
have to we have to make a decision. Like that's heavy. Yeah,
we didn't even know that that was even an option
or what they like parents of high order multiples have
(34:05):
to go through and a decision that they have to make.
You know, we're now being faced with all of this,
and to go from like a season of infertility and
trying and you know, let down and heart heartbreak and
like all these things and all of a sudden, finally
you're pregnant. And then two years later, you know, we
(34:26):
finally get pregnant again, and then all of a sudden,
now the doctor comes back and says, you're not going
to survive. None of them are going to survive.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
You need to select, you know, which ones are gonna
make it. Yeah, in a sense at the very beginning,
and we were both just like completely like it was
like a gut punch, Yeah, And we didn't think that
that wasn't, you know, some a decision that we were
going to have to make, a decision that we were
faced with. And and all of a sudden, here we
(34:59):
are in this office and the doctor just like throws
that on us, and we're just like whoa.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, And then one another side too, is that like
something like we had a desire for to grow our
family and like have another child and whatnot, and here
we are and God, there's a long story between finding
out we're having quints, but you can listen to our
earlier episodes in the podcast to fill in those details.
But you know, it's like, here we are pregnant, and
(35:27):
like we're feeling overly, overwhelmingly blessed at this moment, and
you know, struggling and going through guilt and like trying
to ask guy, like, how do we ask for more
to grow our family? And now we're finding out we're
pregnant with quintuplets to then now say, wait, you're gonna
have to reduce the number of kids that you're going
(35:49):
to have, And it's like, WHOA, what is going on here?
Speaker 4 (35:53):
You know?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
And so those words of selective reduction literally means you
need to pick out of your children, which ones you
want to abort, which ones you want to terminate, which
ones you want to kill. It like nobody should ever
be faced with that. It's just like it just makes
me furious inside to know the amount of people who
probably have heard this and trusted in the doctors, and
(36:17):
given all the signs of medical all the things like
show that is to be true, like these are medical facts,
these are whatever. But our God is bigger, right, And
this is where you had to let our we had
to let our faith kind of like say, okay, but
(36:39):
God's brought us here a place we never imagined, even
more than we could ever imagine has happened. That's not
We're not going to let our hearts be hard and
turn to the enemy of saying like, you must take
control of this, Daniel, Adam, you must obey the medical
medical decisions here. And we just held on and I'll
(37:04):
continue reading this, but you know, said no, God's brought
us here, and we're gonna trust in this. And so
as I continue, it was clinically and it was clinical,
calculated and deeply personal. And as the weight of these
words settled into my chest, something inside me shattered out
of my satin silence. Driving down I forty five after
(37:26):
the doctor's appointment, no music, no words, just the hum
of the wheels beneath us and the deafening roy of
emotions in our hearts. I wanted to cry, scream, pray, laugh,
and hide all at once. We were being told to
choose between life and life? How do you do that?
How do you weigh one heart beat against another? The
truth is we couldn't. I heard the fear of the
(37:48):
doctor's voice. I felt the urgency pressuring in from every side.
I knew the risk. But even under the crushing weight
of it all, even with the reality what I might
not survive, that I might not survive, I knew in
my heart this decision wasn't mine to make. Each of
those babies had a heartbeat, a life, a purpose. I
was already their mother, And no matter how broken or
(38:10):
afraid I felt in that moment, the truth was louder
than the fear. I could not choose, and never choose
who got to live. I couldn't play the role of
God in their story. Even the odds against us, I
knew that choosing life, all life was the choice I
would choose to give. I couldn't play the role of
God in their story. Even the odds against us, I
(38:31):
knew that choosing life and all life was the choice
I could live with. The truth in my heart was
louder than the fear in my head, And that was
both terrifying and freeing. And then something unexpected filled the car.
What peace? You remember this? Yeah? How could you? How
(38:54):
could we not write such an impactful moment in old stories.
It wasn't because I had answers. It wasn't because the
outcome had changed. It was a peace that didn't make sense,
a peace that met us in the fear. His piece
wasn't a feeling. It was a presence, some presence, guys,
right here on the high highway, I felt held. It
(39:17):
just so happened that exact moment I needed God most.
He showed up, not in a thunder or answers, but
in a stillness and a presence in peace. And that
is the first time I fully understood Isaiah twenty six
to three. God didn't promise i'd have I'd never face fear.
He promised I could have peace in the middle of it.
(39:37):
Peace didn't come because things were okay. Peace came because
He was.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
So.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
And then I kind of have like a little reflection.
God's peace isn't something that we can create or force.
It's something He gives, and so often he gives it,
not when things are calm, but right in the eye
of the storm. I didn't expect to feel peace in
that moment. I didn't ex affect anything but fear, but
it just so happened when I was at my weakest,
(40:05):
God reminded me of his strengths, which I'm reminded of
this every single day, Like every single day, I ask
for God to give me strength because every single day
we are out numbered, we are overworked, we are overstimulated
all those things, and we need the presence of peace
and strength. And I, speaking for myself, just to make
it through every day. Peace came not because the situation changed,
(40:29):
but because my focus did. Isaiah twenty six to three
says that peace is found in keeping our minds steadfast,
anchored in the one who never moves. Maybe today you're
sitting on your own I forty five moment, maybe feeling
uncertain and fear is trying to call the shots. But
peace is not in the absence of chaos. It's the
(40:50):
presence of Jesus in the middle of it. And it
just so happens He's already right there with you. So
then I go into a prayer and like some questions
to reflect on for that devotional So I was reminded
today we're always going to have moments of feeling overwhelmed,
(41:10):
stepping in the face of fear, feeling tempted, feeling stress,
and God is always with us even in the midst
of the chaos chaos, and I feel like there's so
many times that we are so overwhelmed and life feels
like so chaotic. Sometimes it's like little reminders that like
(41:34):
God is still there, Like when we can look at
each other and there's like we just laugh because it's
like what else can we do in this moment, you know,
And like I'm reminded that like his his presence is
always with us, is always near, even if we don't
feel it, even if we feel like scared or overwhelmed.
And you know, I think that we faced a lot
(41:55):
of these trials of witnessing and and feeling the presence
of God and understanding like what true piece is and
it's a piece that is hard to explain. And if
it's something that you have felt, like true godly peace,
(42:17):
there's no feeling that really describes that, like sense of
being held. I guess that's how I can describe it,
Like just a feeling like a heart and a gut
wrench feeling of like feeling protected and held and just
(42:37):
carried I was just thinking about working on this devotional
that I have been working on for this year so far,
and I'm only into about twelve days of the thirty days.
But you know, it's taken a couple of months to
just get my mind to settle into right. But it's beautiful.
I love doing it and I love being able to
(42:58):
be reminded of this season of life, that season of life.
Today has been a good day and celebrating the Quints,
But to think back to this day, that day where
we were faced with being told you are not going
to be able to survive this, they are not going
to survive this.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
And being able to celebrate now because they all are, yeah,
and they're all here, and we chose, and for us,
it wasn't even really a choice. We just we went
through with what we felt as Scott's plan for us,
and you know, we were obedient to that and didn't
let fear set in, let the enemy attack us one
(43:40):
where we and scared, and you know, we looked up
and we fixed our eyes on him, and he welcomed
that and rewarded that with just an overwhelming abundance of
peace and has showed up and has been right there
with us through you know, every step of the way,
(44:02):
all of the scary stuff that we've had to go through,
the months and the nick you where some days were great,
some days we're just agonizing and just tough. And you know,
every every time, you know, the fear set in whenever
we were faced with something new, Yeah, we would struggle
a little bit, and we would we would we would
(44:24):
fight it, but you know it was always you know,
setting our eyes on things above and we were just
met with overwhelming.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Peace through that.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
It's always it's always cool, like every you know, especially
like this time of year. You know, whenever, you know,
you just get sentimental about you know, this life that
we have, and you know you look back through old
photo albums and or camera albums and and videos and stuff,
(45:00):
and you know you just kind of replay in a
sense like you would do on social media, just kind
of doom scroll through these just old videos and you're
just like filled with this sense of gratitude for you know,
what He's blessed us with, and you know, it's it's
fun just to go back and like relive those moments
that we've had and just like so thankful to that
(45:21):
we've captured so much of that to be able to
go back and like see that and see you know,
just the goodness of God in our lives and right
here in the middle of it. And yeah, I mean
we're just extremely blessed. And you know, now they're fourteen
and ten, and it just feels like it just went
by in the blink of an eye. Through this whole
(45:42):
you know, last ten years.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
You know, there was just so many moments of fear.
You know, you can you can spot out like those moments.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
No constant fear at times, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
You know, and you know every day, I mean it's
like something scary or something you got to deal with
or on a weekly basis, and we always go back
to and run back to the same place, you know,
and that's that's where we find That's where we find
our peace. And He meets us, you know, in our
in our moment of weakness, and uh, you know, and
(46:17):
it's not just that he like takes fear away from
us or or or just takes burden away from us.
You know, he walks through it and through that, through
that struggle, through that journey of just walking through it
with us. You know, that's where we grow and you know,
(46:37):
we've grown so much over the years, and reading this
book right now, he just talks about, you know, your
life is like the spiral where you know you could
be going up, but you could also be going down.
And but like it's like every new every new stage,
it's almost like every like eighteen months or so, like
you you get to this like in a sense, like
(47:00):
little plateau, and it's like another step up. And usually
that step is something's very difficult in your life that
you have to work through and fight for and it
really tests you and pushes you so that you can
overcome that so that you're ready for that next level
and for that next stage. And you know, our life,
especially over the last ten years eleven years, really has
(47:22):
been just full of that of just growing and growing
through the struggles and growing through the trials.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
And I mean it's just it's and I feel like
it's and I feel like it's almost like in a
way the things that we have trialed through and overcame
and walk through with this life of raising six girls
and you know, including the quintuplets, and as hard as
(47:50):
it was in those seasons, it's like, you know, it's
kind of like what we heard at church, Like you
look back and you think, like, man, I missed this
or I missed that, or like I was foolish with
this and that, and like but in the moment, like
we felt comfortable and like God was walking with this
and whatnot. But like there's still things that we were
learning and growing from. And here we are now in
(48:12):
a new season of like raising a teenager and like preteens,
and like this is this is scary, Like I think
now more than ever, it's like how do we continue
to teach and instill and mold and encourage these girls
to not be of the world, but to know and
(48:33):
love Jesus and and people and and to give and
to serve and to love one another. Like it's a
it's a tough tough world these days to be raising
kids in because there's so much temptation easily accessible. And like,
you know, there's a lot of things that I feel
like God's putting on my heart, like with this age
(48:53):
and and things that are like appearing and like coming
into my heart that like things I never would have
thought over, things I've never would have desired. But like
God's still working and God's still molding us as parents
just as we are molding and teaching our children. And
it's the biggest gift that anyone can receive is to
(49:14):
raise a child, to give them, you know, love and
support and nurture, and that in itself is a challenge.
And I'll, you know, be a little bit honest right now.
I always thought mothering was something I could do and
I needed more to do too, because I'm that task
(49:35):
oriented and constant, like to be working and whatever. But
you know, I think God is weeding out a lot
of unnecessary things and changing the direction of values. Not
that I like diminish the value of family or whatever,
because that's so important to me, but the value of
how I see my time. It's been ten years. We've
(49:59):
got four years left with Blake and until she's out
on her own quote unquote on our own, and about
you know, eight years with the Quins, and I feel
like God has opened my eyes more than ever now
to see what you're needed for most is to mother,
is to be a mother and to nurture them and
(50:19):
to raise them. And like, I'm seeing it so differently
than I have have in fourteen years of being a mom.
And I wouldn't say that I think I always felt
that it wasn't it wasn't enough for me, even like
I'm emotional, even even this life that God has given
(50:42):
me with, I have put a lot of distraction and
a lot of things in front of it to do
what I'm used to doing, which is overwhelmingly working myself
out of comfort and just busyness. And it's not that
they're bad. Busynesses are bad things, but God's just been
(51:03):
working within me and showing me that, like, you know what,
this season has passed, this is a priority. You need
to change these things. This is going to be better
for the family. And I mean they're all in a
sense on a different level of talking about walking through
fear and walking through a scared season, like I feel
(51:25):
like I'm approaching that now because it's so different, it's
out of my norm and just thinking of different obstacles
we're facing or going to face, and it's a it's
a season that I've never we've I have never experienced
in like kind of like taking a step back and
(51:46):
a lot of things. It's hard, but I therefore feel
so it just it wrestles in my heart so much,
these thoughts constantly, and they're not of worry thereof Wow,
Like God is like showing me so much differently right
(52:08):
now then even when Blake was at this age with
the Quins, and I'm just being so pulled to that
and it's weighing on me to make changes. I don't
know what that looks like, and I have some things
that I think I'm not ready to like talk about
and share with like a community yet. But you know,
(52:29):
I mean it, it's scary. It's scary because I don't
know where that's going to lead and what that's going
to look like for us and our life and our
lifestyle and things. But I think that, you know, the
the weight of what it's doing to my heart is
worth the trust. It weighs, like I kind of said
(52:49):
in this devotionable, like it weighs more than the fear,
like that that uncomfortableness for me, and what God is
like doing in my heart is so much louder than
the fear, you know. But it's easy to let the
fear step forward first because we don't know, we don't know,
and you know me, I'm a control person and I
(53:10):
like to know a plan and those things, and like
I I just feel like I'm letting go of the reins.
And I've been praying for this, Oh God, for fifteen
twenty years. How do I let go of certain things?
And how do I lose control? Meaning lose to let
(53:32):
go of control and a lot of things and be
okay with it and to be this identified woman, wife, mother?
And then it's as stupid of me because if we
read scripture and to say, like what is the what
is a mom? What is a wife? Like why do
(53:54):
we why do we fight against what God created? You know?
We let so many different things influence and take our
minds and distractions, And here I am thinking all those
things are not important. Like what's important is raising these
girls and teaching them and molding them and being a wife,
(54:18):
and like that's what I always wanted as a child,
to grow up and to have this life, And why
am I wasting it? You know? And I feel like
that at times, I feel like I'm wasting a lot
of things God has given us because of all the
(54:40):
distraction around. And so I've been saying this for like
over a year, Adam, I just want to take us.
I want to take us out, and I just want
to replant us somewhere else where. It's just a a new,
just a new, and I feel like we're slowly seeking
into that and having to settle and rustle with like
(55:01):
what does that look like? And I'm emotional because it's scary.
I don't know what that looks like, and it's it's hard.
But I knew once I started crying after this week,
it would just it was gonna come with mean think
about everything. Now, I'll here come the emotions. Now I'm
gonna think about everything. And my dream I had of
(55:21):
Gus and then he had to go to the vet
and they gave me Gus and it wasn't Gus, and
I was fighting with them.
Speaker 2 (55:29):
I'm like, this is not my dog.
Speaker 3 (55:31):
And I woke up so distressed with giving me another dog.
They would not understand me. Still that's still waiting on me,
Like what does that mean anyway? So yeah, I am.
I'm still constantly needing encouragement, needing to be reminded of
(55:52):
what God has taught us in our journey and what
He has spoken to us, what he has carried us through,
what he has reminded this with because I still feel
like in a different story, in a different phase of life,
I'm still going through that right now, I feel like
I'm still wrestling with some fear and some trust and
(56:14):
some like control, and God is opening my eyes and
my heart where I'm like starting to let go of
things and it's scary because it's going to mean something's
gonna change, something's gonna be different, and whatever that's gonna
be for me, for you, for us, for this family,
for where we live. Like I don't know, I think
(56:36):
it's all going to be different, and I don't know
what it looks like. And I'm sure I'm saying a
lot right now, and you're like, what the heck? She
just now is gonna be downpouring all the things, But
just as just to be vulnerable and just to say,
like this story that I shared that I was writing
about in this devotional that hope to come out later
(56:58):
this year in a book form is still powerful today.
It's still powerful today. So I hope that words that
you hear from us, whether it can be today or
any podcast, divorce, or anytime it's someone we meet, like,
I hope that you know we are reminded that God
(57:19):
is always with us and can use us, and can
use you and can be with you.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (57:24):
You're not alone and whatever weight, whatever heaviness that you're
feeling right now, Like God's there, man, And I want
to have the same peace with the decisions that I'm
wrestling right now that I did in the car driving
down forty five. Maybe I just need to go on
a car ride. A lot of things happen in the
car rides, but peace. It's just it's I like I
(57:50):
pray now, like Lord, bring us peace, Bring us peace,
and his decisions that we have to make that are
to come, and like what changes are going to be made,
and take the fear away, take the uncertainty away. And
you know it's it's hard. Yeah, so sorry, I'm matching
my shirt, my pink shirt right now.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
And also sorry that we're not giving you a whole
lot of context. But you know, even some of the
decisions may they're kind of involve all of this, you know,
maybe made in the near future, but we still don't
like fully know everything about everything yet and so that's
(58:34):
why we're not quite ready to like share a lot
of the stuff. But you know, it's just it's coming
as one of those like growth seasons of just like really.
Speaker 3 (58:45):
Like another pivotal season of ours of like something drastic
is happening, and we feel I think we feel that,
and we don't know what exactly we are to do yet,
but we do know that there is a change of
some sort and a redirection of things. And so if
(59:08):
y'all could just pray for God to reveal these things
to us, we would like to I'd like to know.
I'd like to know where we go.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
What the my recurring prayer almost every day, it is
every day. It's just you know, just like seeking guidance
and seeking wisdom and seeking peace and you know, decisions
that we're making and and just praying for, but just
seeking guidance and direction and peace about you know, decisions
(59:40):
that we're ultimately going to be making about our future
that uh, and we just don't quite know what the
outcome yet will be. And so you know, it's just
it's just hard decisions that we hopefully will have like
clear answers on rather than feeling like we're just making
the best like educated guests or yeah, hope what.
Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
We want or what we think.
Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Yeah, we really we don't want to do any make
any especially big decisions that affect you know, our family
and stuff. Is just like something that you know, a
hunch or something that we think or yeah, you know,
we want to have like a deep conviction of it
and kind of agree on that together before stepping into it.
So I don't know, you just you see, you know,
(01:00:26):
even like surface level, like you see people and uh,
some days we're struggling. Some days we're we're fighting and
wrestling with like just tough decisions. And you know, it's
not always like shun sunshines and rainbows. Everybody sees like
the social media side of people a lot of times, and.
Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
So I'm getting more and more frustrated with social media.
I'm just gonna be honest.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Like, so you just you just never really know what's
going on, you know, behind the curtain. You know, even
even people that I see all the time that you know,
I see them on social media a lot, but then
I'll also get to see him in person, and you know,
whenever you finally get to catch up and you like
hear the real and you're like, oh, okay, good, I'm
glad that you're dealing with this kind of stuff that
(01:01:10):
I'm dealing with too, because it doesn't appear that way
on social media. I don't know, I just keep that
in mind that like, it's not always it's not always
what you see.
Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I think everybody knows that when it comes to social media.
I mean, another's topic for another day.
Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Yeah, but today we just wanted to kind of keep
things more upbeat. And that's like bring it down towards
the end. But you know, we're just like really in this,
you know, especially this week, this past couple of weeks
of just like gratitude and and I'm just grateful for
you know, all the things that we've this life that
God has given us and blessed us with and stuff,
(01:01:47):
and just like reflecting on the life that He's blessed
us with and the kids and and so we're gonna
we're gonna go and have a family dinner.
Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Some cookie cake that they want it after right after school. No,
that's for dinner. Yeah, they kept coming up to the office.
Can we eat that cake? No? Not yet.
Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
So thank you guys for tuning in. This is episode
twenty eight More Than Reality Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Thanks for listening and watching. If you're watching us when
you dude, yeah, we'll see you again real soon.
Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Thank guys.
Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
All right, love you guys much.
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