Transcript
Speaker: People expect or I got comments like, well, you just changed a lot. Yes, grief will change you. And a you will be somebody else on the other side. And a lot of mistakes that we're doing, we're fighting and trying to be who we used to be. But that's not by design.
Speaker: Everything we went through, God is going to use it to his glory if we allow them to. Welcome to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Rinaldi.
Speaker: This is a space to explore the full spectrum of grief, from the kind that comes with death to the kind that shows up in life's many transitions. Through stories and conversations, we remind each other that we're not alone.
Speaker: Your journey matters, and here we're figuring it out together. Let's dive right in to today's episode.
Speaker: Let's start with a quick disclaimer. This podcast includes personal stories and perspectives on topics like grief, health, and mental wellness. The views expressed by guests are their own and may reflect individual experiences that are not meant as medical advice.
Speaker: As the host, I hold space for diverse voices, but that does not mean I endorse every viewpoint shared. Please listen with care and take what resonates with you.
Speaker: Welcome to today's episode. Today I'm chatting with Michaela. She goes by Mia Godfrey. She is a certified life coach, Bible counselor, EME, which is emotions, mind, and energy practitioner.
Speaker: She's a public speaker. And now... author of Buried Not Broken, A Memoir of Survival, Sisterhood, and Starting Over. Looking forward to this conversation, and I know that the listeners are as well. We'll be learning a lot about you in this conversation, Mia, so welcome.
Speaker: Thank you so much for having me, Gandra. Thank you for coming and sharing your story and for being so vulnerable about sharing your own in a book. Everybody is just always so scared to start sometimes something new and Even just with this podcast, it's been six years as I'm recording that I've had it and it's going be scary, but yet it's so important because our stories matter and they make a difference in somebody else's life. So thank you for that, Mia. And Mia, right, is how you go by it. Yes, I go by Mia. By Mia.
Speaker: by mia So Mia, let's start with your upbringing. You were brought up in Romania and now live in Knoxville. So share with us this story of this journey and being the youngest of 10 siblings, leaving your home and coming to the US. We'll be talking about that and as well about your sister Mona, who passed away in 2023 of ovarian cancer. So we're kind of just so the listeners kind of have a little bit of an idea of what our conversation is like. So yes share your story. um Thank you so much, Kendra. So I am, like you said, I'm the youngest of 10 children and I grew up in Romania under the communist regime.
Speaker: And a lot of people don't have a full understanding what that meant for us. It was a daily struggle of survival. um Our food was restricted and, um,
Speaker: my parents worked extremely hard to make sure we have enough food for the day to make us, you know, survive until the next one. And that was a daily reality. My father was a manager at a construction company and my mother used to clean trains at night so she can take care of us during the day.
Speaker: But it was extremely, extremely hard. So when I decided to write a book, every single one of my siblings, they said, please don't. Please don't because there is so much darkness and so much secrecy around ah that type of poverty. It's not that ah the people were not working. It's not that my parents were not working.
Speaker: It was just so hard to fight things that they were necessity. And finally, when the book came out, one of my older sister finally just read read it, um my nephew managed to translate it and she cried and she said, this is the first time i feel free.
Speaker: I feel free because you put our story out there and there was no, um we always lead operated out of fear in every single thing we did. So it's been very, very freeing writing that book. um And I um left home when I was 18 years old. This when my my father passed.
Speaker: And at the time, didn't have any tools how to deal with grief. And I unfortunately turned to alcohol and pills and I left home. And there's more to the story how I actually end up here in the United States later on.
Speaker: So because your your book carries that story too of your addiction recovery, all that process as well. So the grief of your father passing, how you didn't have the coping mechanisms. And and that's ah it's still a coping mechanism, it's just not a healthy coping mechanism because you're shutting off really being able to feel. So a lot of times ah people when they go through something and that's why even just having books like yours podcasts like this having resources out there so that people can feel seen and heard in their process i
Speaker: I can imagine as an 18 year old, not many of your peers had already experienced the grief or you know of grieving grieving a parent that had yeah died. So when you left roman when you you left home, did you stay in Romania still at that time, just that you left home or did you leave Romania?
Speaker: and but that Because you came to the US s much later. So where did you go? Where did you go? I actually, so I left when I was 18 and one of the biggest biggest reason I decided to leave um I didn't want to bring shame to my family because i was taking my father's path. And I knew deep down that that was a path I took as far as um addiction. And i left because, like I said, I didn't know how to ask for help.
Speaker: And I was afraid, so afraid of rejection. i didn't know if my family was going to accept me. Of course, I learned later on that my family loved me with all their heart and they would accept me broken, not broken, everything I went through. But as the mind of 18 year old, I said, I got to go. So they would not, um I will not embarrass them. So I moved about 300 miles away at first to go ah work for some um families that they were from America.
Speaker: And I was cleaning homes and I was teaching. And from that, I moved. um And again two years later, I moved like 800 miles away in a village that it was at the border with uk Ukraine. It was actually a Ukrainian village.
Speaker: And I was teaching kids there. So my my life spiraled out of. control there. I went into very abusive relationship, physically abusive. And even to that, i thought that was okay and that was normal because that was what I saw all my life.
Speaker: ah And what got me actually to meet my late husband,
Speaker: through those bad relationships, what came out of it, I have to, in a way, run away. And I moved once again when I was my early 20s and I went to college and that's where I met my first husband. um I was a manager at a children's home. He came for a visit and we fell in love eight months later. um He came to Romania. He was from America.
Speaker: And we got married and I moved with him 2008. I moved to the States. I was 27 years old. um Unfortunately, we had seven years. After seven years, he passed away. He was only 42.
Speaker: um So I had to figure out how to start over once again. But I was 27 years old when life brought me here to the States.
Speaker: Did you and your late... Do you share his name? Yes, his name is Robert. Yes, I share his name. With Robert, did you have children with Robert? We did not for seven years. um i We did got pregnant six months into our marriage, but unfortunately I lost the pregnancy and we tried for seven years um and...
Speaker: We didn't, we were not able to have our own, but we started the paperwork to look into adoption. And a month prior to his passing, he passed away in June 29th of 2008. And we started the paperwork. We started looking into it in May 25th.
Speaker: So, but unfortunately when I lost him, i kind of spiraled out of control. Once again, i did not have the proper tools, didn't know how to deal with grief. And nobody, yeah, there's a lot of books about grief out there. But every single person, and I've learned that the third time when I lost my sister, 2023, everybody grieves different. And it's okay to give them space to do that.
Speaker: And with when I lost my ah husband, what I ended up doing because I was so afraid i'm going to fall back into old patterns.
Speaker: I started working. I had three jobs and I was leaving home sometimes 5.30 a.m. coming back home past 11 p.m. And I was constantly so exhausted that it did not give me any time to look into other. um But no, we... um We do not have children, but I adopted ah my new husband's children.
Speaker: Now they're adults. So yeah, Isaac and Ali. Okay, so we'll go into that part, but I want to ask you more regarding this. So in so at 18, you leave your home and in all of this is in the book. I yeah have not read the book, so i but i for the listeners, all the details that you may want to know will be in the book. But you leave at 18, you then get married 27, somebody American. Had you already started learning English? Was English taught in high school in Romania?
Speaker: Or did you have to learn a language to communicate with robert I had to learn. The funny thing is I knew a few words, maybe 10 words, 15 words. Um, but I bought a dictionary and we wrote a span of eight months, we wrote each other over 800 letters.
Speaker: um and ah There were a lot of ah letters. I felt like every day I was putting another letter. Yes, we didn't have the technology we have now. So I was handwritten letters and sent to him.
Speaker: Those treasures, by the way. We should get back to that too that i part of writing letters. And later through the relationship, I got me my first email address.
Speaker: And I finally started learning how to do that. But I was writing those letters using a dictionary. And it was quite comical. Fast forward 10, 15 years later to read those letters. i was like, I don't know how he understood anything I was saying.
Speaker: But somehow he did Somehow I understood Yeah. But that's how we communicated mostly letters. Language of love. Language of love. Yeah. Language of love. Yeah. And that was in 2007. But again, Romania, it's a different world. It's not like here. I'm sure here there were... Yeah, things are a little bit like behind. More advanced. Yeah, now it's different back then too. Because is Romania, was the end of the communism around like, what year was it again? 1989. 1989 was the end of communism in Romania. Okay.
Speaker: Is it similar? I went to Bulgaria, like I think it might, I think I went in the year 2000 or 2001. So was it around the same time than all those countries around the same time? Or was Bulgaria earlier? Probably earlier, right? Bulgaria was earlier at the end of the time. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I don't But anyway, sorry, I'm like trying to think back. 1999. 1999. And so, yeah, had only been a few. So internet cafes when you first probably started to write emails. Yes. I was actually walking over five miles to go to the city and find an internet cafe to actually... And again, later on through our relationship, we got an older computer with a huge monitor that was typing. But when we first started, yes, I was, yeah, I forgot about the internet.
Speaker: That's why I know because when I was there then in that year, that's how we would all go. We'd go into the internet cafe so we could write to our families to let them know where we were we'd have to go and pay and oh my gosh and the amount of smoke I remember being in there and everybody's smoking and this is again this is another country but similar everybody's smoking and everybody's drinking yeah in these little internet yeah yeah and so yeah so interesting and if you're um if you're coined if you're out of time literally you just
Speaker: you You cannot send the letter. So you have to put more money to finish your letter. I love it. It's totally, yeah I know it seems its like a a whole other lifetime ago, all these different things, right? And here we are now talking on video as we're recording something that somebody else is going to hear. It's just changed so much in just our own lifetime.
Speaker: So Mia, would you then come to this country? I want to know about that adapting to this new culture, new language. And how many years later did you go back to Romania to see your family? Yeah.
Speaker: Well, um actually, my mom made my husband at the time promise that he'll bring me home every year. And he said, yeah, sure, sure. And said, no, no, no, no. no I want to know when.
Speaker: So he immediately have to cut had to come up with the dates. And he did, even if he was not able to come with me, I still went home once a year to see my mom.
Speaker: And I'm still trying to do the same now. I've been here 17 years in the States. And I still try to go home every year. During pandemic was a little bit harder. We waited two years on that one. But other than that, once a year, I go see my siblings and my mom.
Speaker: That's great. And all your other siblings are still there? Aside from, of course, your sister Mona. Close to Romania. So I have ah four brothers that live within 10 minutes from my mom and one sister. And then I have a sister that she's missionary in Africa. She's been there close to 30 years.
Speaker: And then two brothers in Portugal. But they they go home often to see my mom. Oh, that's that's so good. Like now that we have that, of course, communication when you're talking about, even if you don't see someone in so many years, it doesn't feel like it's been that long, just like used to be back in the day of just, you know, writing letters. so that But I get to see my mom every day because now she has a smartphone and I get to actually talk to her and see her on my way to work every day. That's wonderful. Which is amazing.
Speaker: So... Mia, let's now transition into talking about your sister, Mona, and then the grief then. So you didn't have the coping skills at 18 when your dad died.
Speaker: Then at 20, not 27, you were 35 when your husband, Robert died. And then you at that point, your way of not kind of spiraling back was working a lot. Again, a way of yes keeping yourself busy to avoid getting back into the habits that you had developed before. So your sister Mona dies in 2023. Tell us the the kind of circumstances around her death and then your own way of grieving them.
Speaker: So um a lot of people... don't know that in Romania we still um we grew up not believing in therapy or canceling or coaching um talking about your emotions even if you lost somebody you love it was a sign of a weakness and it always just we don't talk about it because if God chose it that way then we're not bringing it up that was his will and you do not talk about your emotions how you feel
Speaker: and Fast forward 2023 in January, my sister called me and she told me she thinks she was pregnant. So we were just celebrating and, um but she was taking pregnancy tests and was coming out that she was not.
Speaker: So she went to the doctor because she was extremely nauseated and there were signs of her being pregnant. um But, When she went to the doctor, the doctor said she had multiple tumors in her ovaries. That's why the she was nauseated. And so they scheduled her for emergency surgery.
Speaker: This was January. And my husband and I, you know, She lived in Montana because she married a wonderful man that actually lived in Montana. He was a pastor there and he had four little kids because he lost his previous wife to a tragic, tragic, in a tragic way.
Speaker: So we, we flew to Montana and the doctor said that it's cancer, ovarian cancer. so ah My husband said, which which I will forever be grateful that um God bless me with a husband that he's understanding. He understood the relationship I had with my sister. she and He understood that she was like my lifeline my entire life since I was four or five years old. As far as I remember, she was always there. She was always my first call. Every time I had to decide anything or celebrate anything or cry, or she was always there.
Speaker: And my husband said, look, stay here in Montana and we're going to make it work. We're going to figure it out a way. So fast forward for 11 months, I was her main caretaker. Her husband was also there, but he was working during the day. And like I said, four little kids. And um through that journey was one of the hardest journey in my entire life to see somebody you love slowly, slowly.
Speaker: dying, um when you know, you know that they fought with their, she fought with everything she's got until the last moment. She made me promise that I'm going to fight with her and I'm going to believe she's going to kill.
Speaker: And when she passed 2023, she passed in November, I got home and I remember I was so shattered that I told my husband, I love you with all my heart and I love the kids, but I don't know where to go from here.
Speaker: I know alcohol and pills. I know that's not an option for me because I tried it. It numbed the pain, but it did not help me. I i am so drained emotionally and mentally that i said, I love you, but I am done. I have no purpose in this world. And and I hit the rock bottom in a way that I've never hit before.
Speaker: So my husband talked to our pastor and they encouraged me to go see a therapist. You got to keep in mind, I did not believe in therapy. um so I remember that day i was sitting across from the therapist and I was like, what am I even doing here?
Speaker: Because she's not going able to help me. She doesn't know my heart. She doesn't know my pain. She doesn't know the secrets that my sister had to take to the grave. and And we promised each other when we were kids that we're never going to talk about those. I said, I have nobody in the world that understands it.
Speaker: And fast forward with the help of my therapist. um She encouraged me to start writing in a journal, which at first I thought it was the most ridiculous idea. i said, i'm I'm not going to put my thoughts into the journal. ah Fast forward about three months into it, she asked me if she can read um a few pages in my journal ah with a little of fighting from my side, you know, but I finally gave it to her and she said, you need to publish this.
Speaker: And The book, Buried Not Broken, it's actually, it started from me writing in the journal. And yeah also there's stories that my sister was always encouraged me to put down on paper. And while she was still alive, we were writing some of those stories together.
Speaker: So when it was time and I finally said, you know what, I'm going to put it out there for the world. You're right, AIDS out was absolutely terrifying because that is my life, my sister's life, my family life. um But it was extremely healing.
Speaker: So the way I coped in the past, um completely different. This time, I just decided to put myself out there. i didn't decide. It was a lot of work, a lot of internal work um to be vulnerable. I said, if our story can help one person,
Speaker: one person, um then it will be worth it. So that's how I cope the second the third time around. third time A lot of help from my therapist and writing.
Speaker: Thank you so much for sharing that, Mia. So a lot of times people think that they have to go back to doing the same way that they've done. And it's so hard to retrain sometimes something and the behavior, a way of thinking, and we think we just have to be doing it the way we used to. And here you are proving that that is not the case. You made a choice. to shift what you were doing to completely change your story this time in the way that you grieved your sister. So kudos to you for accepting those nudges because, yes, it took a while, you know, your husband to tell you. Remind me your husband's, your current husband's name? Kenny.
Speaker: Kenny. Kenny Godfrey. So kenny it's for Kenny nudging you to go see the therapist and you know and you being able to follow through with something she suggested because yes, journaling is not, maybe writing it was not your go-to. Although no I, you know, but it's like at the same time,
Speaker: Writing, if you were to even write as you're writing to Mona, for example, like Dear Mona, which is how I started. That's how I would journal when I was grieving my sister was that way. Dear Zorana, this is that what I did today. you know And just writing that way was at least a ah gateway. And it was my own instinctively at 21, that was my way of of navigating grief then, but everybody just has a different way in which they instinctively do. So kudos to you for that.
Speaker: You mentioned the part of when she died, it's the only other person you, what's your difference in ages? Is she 13 months? She was older than me. So you guys, and yeah, it's like twins basically.
Speaker: yeah So with when somebody dies, not only do we miss the person, but we miss also a part of us that died with them, which in your case is the only other person that has the same memories of certain things and the secrets that you kept, right? That only the two of you know that now you have no one else to to share with. So in that process, do you feel that the writing, were there certain things that then that were just the secrets between the two of you that you then shared in the book as well now?
Speaker: Yes, it was extremely healing because I remember when I was five, when I was six, when I was 11, every time something happened, she was always talking to me. was like, look,
Speaker: We cannot tell anybody because our family is going to pay the price and they're going to get hurt. And so we have to take that to the grave with us. Well, during her sickness, she said, look, we made a lot of promises we should have never made. And I don't want you to carry them alone.
Speaker: I said, I want you to start talking about them, which at at first that was absolutely terrifying. I said, I i can't share those stories with the world. i can't. But i I wanted to honor her wish and we start putting things together. She was writing in her journal as well, which I have. And a lot of, I took things from her journal also and put it in the book. um And she she was right. I thought through this journey, I was honoring my sister, died my her dying wish. And I thought I was,
Speaker: fulfilling and continue her legacy. But she knew deep down, actually, if I follow through with it, it's going to bring healing to me and it's going to bring healing to my family. And I did not know that at first. I say, how can that bring healing when there is so much hurt through the pages?
Speaker: But it truly did. it truly did because have so many people. i had somebody last week that called me from um Switzerland.
Speaker: and said, I read your book and I saw myself through every single page and said, I want to write a book. Thank you. I had few people from Romania. I have people that I haven't been in contact with for over 30 years that reached out and they said, thank you for putting yourself out there. And that is something that I did not expect that. And that's not the reason I wrote the book. I was just trying to free myself and heal myself.
Speaker: And I love that Mona was actually then part of your starting. So because the two of you then had started that, then you go to therapy when she dies and then your therapist tells you to write in journal. So it's like your sister had already given you that initial nudge for,
Speaker: to write and to share your story. And then you' then you get validation from your therapist by your therapist reading your journal and being like, wow, this has to be published. So I i love that. A lot of times we get validated by others in our journey and we don't end up still seeing that as a sign that we should move forward.
Speaker: You followed it. You followed it. So kudos again to you. Mia, you mentioned a lot about your faith. Your faith has been a big part of your journey because it is through through your faith that you were able to find your therapist and things like that you too, right? Your pastor is the one yeah that then recommended that you go and find therapy.
Speaker: In your process of your grief journey, how has faith and either shifted, either faltered, or how has it been strengthened in that process? Or has it been a seesaw of emotions?
Speaker: my my mom was known as a prayer warrior in our neighborhood. And I remember even through the hardest times of our life, she always said, hey, we're going to take some time. I'm going to pray about it.
Speaker: And um she always used to say that God always has the best interest and God always going to come through. and And when I experienced so much loss, there were times that I was like, God, but but if you love me and I'm your daughter, why is this happening to me? And I couldn't understand that right there in the moment. But now when I look back, every single thing that I went through since I was a little girl got orchestrated and He protected and he sharpened me and and everything I went through. It brought me to this moment here where I can actually stay on the stage and talk about his love, talk about his goodness and talk about even when you're in the darkest moment, he is there and he's going you're going be stronger on the other side. But all of that
Speaker: It's only through his God's grace and his goodness that he helped me get to the other side. And I'm not saying that bad things will never happen from here on or everything is just going to be just broken.
Speaker: butterflies and rainbows from here on. But what I'm saying that when you trust God and his timing, no matter what you're going through, he's going to lead you through it. He's going to be through with you every single step of the way. You just got to trust him.
Speaker: and And I feel like I'm a completely different person after every single grief I, people expect or I got comments like, well, you just changed a lot. Yes, grief will change you.
Speaker: And a you will be somebody else on the other side. And a lot of mistakes that we're doing, we're fighting and trying to be who we used to be. But that's not by design.
Speaker: Everything we went through, God is going to use it to his glory if we allow them to. So I couldn't have done it without him. Without that faith, but also with taking actions and that, because a lot of times too, if we just think that, you know, one, there's sayings like things happen for a reason, and those could be very, those are platitudes when we're going through something so hard. And somebody says that in that moment, we really do not want to hear those words. Right. So if somebody right now is great early stages of their grief, early start of their grief, and it's fresh,
Speaker: this hearing somebody say, oh, it, you know, everything happens for a reason. It's going to get better. Those kinds of things can it be so hard, right? Because you don't see it. You don't see the perspective when you're in the thick of it. And even, even, even with years ahead, sometimes people still don't see it. And that's, that's okay. Because again, just like you said before, everybody's journey is different. And what works for some people may not work for someone else. If somebody doesn't believe in in God and that's not what they're going to be attaching themselves to, they're going to have to find different tools to help them navigate that that grief. So I love that you're sharing your story of what helped you and holding on to your faith was one of these tools.
Speaker: that allowed you to stick through the hardest parts of your yeah life and stay on this planet. Cause as you said, you were really not even seeing why you were even here and anymore. Right. And you stuck through. So that, that, um, that is so important to validate and to both your own experience as well as somebody else that may just have a completely different, yeah different story.
Speaker: Yeah, if I could give one piece of advice to anybody who's grieving or anybody who's trying to help somebody who's grieving, you have to give space.
Speaker: Let them grieve the way they want to grieve. And somebody has well, I don't know what to say. And I end up saying something that is not appropriate. Well, don't say nothing. how about you just just love them where they're at and meet them right there because um there's not always a need for an advice.
Speaker: Sometimes somebody just needs a hug or just needs somebody to be there for them. I had a friend that I was standing to shut the world and push people away during grief. And I have one friend that for months and months, She used to come into her seat behind me because she knew i didn't like to be hugged or touched. And she used to just throw napkins over my shoulder. And they used to fall on my lap because I i was crying. and it always happened. I couldn't find my napkins. And next thing you know, a napkin fell on my lap. And I just took it. There was no words. She didn't say a word.
Speaker: Just drop a napkin. And she knew i used it, put it in my pocket. But she's done that for months until I was ready to sit down with her and talk. And sometimes that's all we need. we don't need like more Bible verses. We don't need more like you have to do X, Y, and Z. How about just love me and allow me to grieve my own way because it's different for every person.
Speaker: and And I know like, you know, if they don't believe in God, you can still pray, Lord, just give them the strength and the grace and the peace that they need for this moment. But I don't constantly need to preach that to them. God is going to give you grace. God is going to give you grace. now Give them space.
Speaker: Show them love. And pray. Pray with everything you've got that the Lord will heal their heart. Yeah, it's so important what you just said, because a lot of times we try to support people by the things that we that are supportive for us and the language that maybe we use for ourselves, but meet people where they are at, not where you are at. And as you said, if you're but if you believe in God, but the person that is grieving does not, you can You can do your own praying on your own. You don't have to go and you know sit down with them to pray because that's not their that's not their journey, right? You could do it on your own and give them the strength and you could just be the one throwing the napkins or thehoux you know for the for them and just showing up in a way that is meaningful to to them. And in this this culture of trying to fix grief, there's nothing to...
Speaker: fix in grief, right? It's not something to be fixed. It's something to be lived and experienced. Yes. I have one of my mentors. He always says, in this society, when we go through so much hardship, sometimes we look ourselves as being broken.
Speaker: But she always says, like we're not broken. We are whole. God created us to be whole. Maybe we are buried, and that's part of my book. Maybe we feel buried right now, but even under all that the soil when we're buried, allow those roots to keep growing because you are not broken.
Speaker: You are whole. And the society sometimes allows us to look at ourselves as I'm broken and I will never be able to recover from this.
Speaker: but you need to give yourself grace and time to heal. And then in that, in that, what what you do with that time will be also extremely, extremely necessary in order to help you in that process of feeling like you're getting those roots in so that you can now come back out and blossom like this beautiful flower that you are after everything that you've been through, you know, buried under this soil, you'll get the roots and then you'll blossom. So, which you have, and now you're sharing your, your, your story. So, Mia, how can people get your book? What are the best ways that you would like people to, and and I'll share the website in the show notes, what's the best way people can get your book?
Speaker: So i added my I have my website, but um also it's on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, So there's there's everywhere online. If you put buried, not broken, we also have it Kindle and we also have it on Audible if you don't like to read. So um Amazon is the the fastest way, unless you like to go into a store and then Bards Nobles and libraries.
Speaker: So that, yeah, then that way you can support, if you wanted to support Barnes and Noble and do that. But if you want to, love listening to audio books when I'm walking my dogs. So that's usually my go-to there. And in this process of writing, is there more, when you write, sometimes it's so hard to like just share parts of the story.
Speaker: Do you see but other books that are coming in the future now? Actually, i submitted the second book. It's a, currently with the editor and they're working on the cover.
Speaker: I'm working on the third one and I'm starting to writing ideas down for the fourth. So yeah, the next couple of years I should have, um the goal is to have four.
Speaker: That is fantastic. And the themes of these other ones, you just is it possible to know a little bit what the themes are? Absolutely. So the second one I'm co-writing with my current husband and it's it's um a collection of stories from his point of view in his singleness and then a collection of stories from my life as a single widow ah Lady and how God brought us together.
Speaker: And key takes away and lessons we learned through the process and where we're at today in our marriage. So this is geared more towards couples and blended family.
Speaker: ah The third one, it's more around finding your identity and stepping in who God created you to be. No matter what you went through in your life, God still has a plan for you it has a lot of practical lessons how you can discover um your identity and what God has for your life.
Speaker: And the fourth one, I'm still working on a few ideas. so That is incredible. i Look at this this. This is from the lady that didn't even want to want to write in her own journal. And then all of a sudden now here from 2023 till now, as we're recording 2026, already one book out, one already in the editor and two more about to be, you know,
Speaker: brought to this world. So amazing. Congratulations for that, Mia. Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for bringing those gifts and for stepping into your own identity and discovering who you are in order to bring these gifts to the world. Because again, it is something so valuable and people can be seen in other people's stories. And for those of you listening, your stories matter and your story can change somebody else's life as well.
Speaker: Mia, as we wrap up, I always like to ask my guests if there is something I have not asked you that you want to make sure you share with the audience. ah You actually just touched on that. I wanted to share with the audience that your story matters.
Speaker: Your story matters. And everything you went through in your life, they're very unique um experiences, but others can also relate. So you never know in your journey, if you decide to put it on paper, you never know whose life you're going to change and you never know whose life you're going to save. So I strongly encourage you, if you want to write, you don't have to find a publisher tomorrow, but you can start by writing in your journal and you never know where that is going to turn out. But your story matters.
Speaker: And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Mia. Again, this was Mia Godfrey, Buried, Not Broken. and you can find her book everywhere that you can see, Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And again, on your website as well. And to have you as a speaker, you're just a beautiful a storyteller and you share your story so beautifully. So thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing it with us. Thank you. Thank you so much for having Kendra. Thank you.
Speaker: thank you again so much for choosing to listen today. I hope that you can take away a few nuggets from today's episode that can bring you comfort in your times of grief.
Speaker: If so, it would mean so much to me if you would rate and comment on this episode. And if you feel inspired in some way to share it with someone who may need to hear this, please do so.
Speaker: Also, if you or someone you know has a story of grief and gratitude that should be shared so that others can be inspired as well, please reach out to me.
Speaker: And thanks once again for tuning in to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray In Between podcast. Have a beautiful day.
