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Rising Above with Becky Davidson is a place of encouragement, honesty, and hope for families navigating the unique joys and challenges of life with disability. Each episode offers heartfelt conversations, practical wisdom, and faith-filled insights to help you know you’re not alone on the journey. Becky shares stories from her own life as well as uplifting perspectives from guests who understand the road, equipping you with tools and inspiration to face each day with courage. Whether you’re seeking community, strength, or a fresh reminder of God’s faithfulness, this podcast invites you to rise above the struggles and discover joy in the midst of it all.
Episodes
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
About John
John Felageller has spent over 15 years in education, working with children from Infants to Middle School, serving in a variety of roles including Teacher, Mentor Teacher, School Director and Non Profit ManagerJohn lives in Highwood, IL, and is a single father to his son Christopher (AS), and is currently a special education teacher in Chicago, IL. He is a regular contributor to Key Ministry’s Special Needs Family blog, as well as other special needs blogs including Hope Anew and The Mighty.
Related Links
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
Tuesday Apr 27, 2021
This week, our team at Rising Above experienced the loss of our good friend and Rising Above Volunteer, Tracy Alexander. Enjoy remembering back with us to our "friend chat" from By the Brook 2019 as we discuss the value of friends to the special-needs mom.
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
About Kim
Kim Albrecht is a southerner transplanted to California via the Midwest along with her husband and 2 teenage daughters, the oldest of which has level 3 non-speaking autism.
She hosts the award winning LOMAH Special Needs Podcast, where over 100 expert guests have been interviewed on topics relevant to planning the future for teens and young adults with disabilities. The show deep dives into a single issue for 12 episodes and has covered disability housing, transitioning from school to adult services, financial planning, safety, technology, health, and more.
When not in the trenches of parenting, you can find her hunting sea glass, hiking a trail, or on instagram as @journey2lomah.
Related Links
IG: @journey2lomah
Website: lomah.org
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
About Sara
Sara is a special needs mom, wife, organization guru, writer, podcaster, and speaker. She knows first-hand the overwhelm of being a special needs mom and that the supports we often search for are hard to find or don’t exist.
Sara's passion is to help equip other special needs moms for a life they most likely weren’t prepared for so she can focus on what matters. She loves walking alongside other moms who may feel isolated, fearful and defeated; eventually arriving at a place of community, feeling heard & seen, and ultimately a place of authentic joy.
Saraclime.com is a place where she shares her years of experience and unique skills navigating the special needs world. She has first-hand experience knowing that by implementing practical tools to deal with the daily grind of special needs parenting, you create margin for what really matters.
Sara believes that a debilitating diagnosis does not need to be a debilitating life.
Favorite Quotes
“Is my faith foundational or is my faith fluff?” -Sara
“I realized that I’m so busy standing with my fists up…that the only thing they see is my back.” -Sara
“It’s not being thankful for your circumstances, it’s rejoicing in them.” -Sara
Related Links
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
About Diane
Diane serves as a disability ministry consultant, national speaker, and author of Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special-Needs Parent (Worthy, 2018). Her work has been featured in Christianity Today, LifeWay, Bible Gateway, Parenting Magazine, Joni and Friends, Moody Radio, Orange, and Jen Hatmaker’s For The Love Podcast.
As a mother to children with multiple disabilities, she is passionate about encouraging struggling families and equipping churches into becoming inclusive faith communities.
Whether by diagnosis, disillusionment, a death—or the death of a dream— everyone gets “disabled” by the jagged edges of a broken planet and must reconcile faith with disappointment. Sin and brokenness may steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus is an equal opportunity Redeemer.
Diane and her husband, Eddie, live in the San Francisco Bay Area with their two sons. Connect with her at dianedokkokim.com where she shares on life, “Wrecked, redeemed and repurposed.
Favorite Quotes
“The very thing that I thought would decimate my faith, God repurposed into the very thing that would draw me closer to him.” -Diane Dokko Kim
“God didn’t heal him of his cognitive disability, but He healed me of my spiritual disability.” -Diane Dokko Kim
Related Links
Find Diane on Facebook
Find Diane on Instagram
Diane’s book, Unbroken Faith
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Tuesday Mar 30, 2021
Enjoy hearing from our Rising Above team about all we have planned in 2021! We are excited to share with you and hope you will join us!
Related Links
By the Brook 2021 - Apply to be a host site or register individually beginning May 1, 2021!
Tuesday Mar 23, 2021
Tuesday Mar 23, 2021
Join Dawn and Lori, as well as director of special education in our local county, Sheri Roberson, as we discuss a topic familiar to special-needs parents everywhere, IEPs!
Knowledge about what to expect can take away the fear of the unknown, so listen and learn some from these experienced special-needs moms.
Related Links
https://vimeo.com/489689091 - Spartan cheerleaders from By the Brook 2020
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
Tuesday Mar 16, 2021
About Cara
Cara is a professor in the Gupta College of Business at the University of Dallas. She is also mom to three little boys - Everett (7 years old), Liam (5), and Alec (3). Everett has Trisomy 21 so a lot of her free time is spent working with different advocacy groups (the DSDN, DSPNT, and their local SPED PTA) and advocating herself through her blog (mamability.com) and social media accounts. Her husband is VP of marketing at a local nonprofit and she also spends time supporting his leadership role and the good work he is doing in the DFW community. Their entire family attends Burleson Church of Christ, albeit virtually these days.
Favorite Quotes
"It's just a part of who we are." - Cara
"You can live the life you thought you were going to live while raising a child with special needs." -Cara
Related Links
Blog: www.mamability.com
Instagram: @mamabilityblog
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
About Melanie
Married for 28 years, Melanie is the mother of two young men, one of whom was born with a rare genetic disorder. Passionately sharing God’s message of joy, hope and purpose with every special needs mom she meets is an integral part of her calling. She lives it out through speaking engagements, blogging, missions work in Haiti, and her recently published devotional titled “Bundle of Joy”. Melanie lives in Sunny South Florida and enjoys traveling the world with her whole family.
Favorite Quotes
“All I need really is for God to fix me.” -Melanie
“The difference is…perspective.” -Melanie
“I’m intentional about reminding myself what He has done.” -Melanie
Related Links
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
Tuesday Mar 02, 2021
About Bret
God uniquely prepared Bret to serve with Joni and Friends, an international ministry serving the spiritual, physical, social, and practical needs of people living with disability around the world. He grew up with a sister with a significant physical disability, served in pastoral ministry for 19 years focusing on discipleship and counseling, and has spent the past 7 years with Joni and Friends focusing on training and equipping churches to welcome and embrace individual and families impacted by disability to find their place of belonging in the body of Christ.
Favorite Quotes
“The biggest barrier [to churches reaching out to the disability community] is ignorance. We don’t know what we don’t know.” -Bret
“Our belief system about people with disabilities can lead us astray.” -Bret
“A lot of churches get stuck on care, but we need to get to friendship.” -Bret
“There are people in your church with disabilities whether you know it or not.” -Bret
Related Links