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The New Mom Podcast is a Christian motherhood podcast for women navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and early motherhood.
Whether you're a first-time mom, expecting, or in the middle of sleepless nights, this show offers real, honest conversations about motherhood, marriage, identity, and faith. We talk about birth stories, postpartum recovery, relationships, mental health, and trusting God through every stage of motherhood. If you're looking for encouragement, practical advice, and a reminder that you're not alone—this podcast is for you.
Our prayer is that New Mom leaves you feeling seen, strengthened, and a little more equipped for the beautiful calling of motherhood!
New episodes weekly.
Welcome back to New Mom. This week on the show, I got to have an amazing Zoom conversation with my friend, Krista Breilh. She is the founder of Live Salted Ministries based out of Seattle. She's also a mom of two beautiful girls. She's got two under two.
Carrie:And on top of all of it, she just launched her daycare out of her house called Little Lights. She is incredible. Krista is filled with wisdom and, I hope you guys really enjoy this conversation. If you are loving New Mom, take a moment to rate and subscribe to the show and maybe even leave a review. It helps us to get the word out to more moms like you.
Carrie:Thank you for listening. Okay. Well, Krista, hi. Hello.
Krista:It's so good to you again.
Carrie:It's so good to see you. Welcome to New Mom. I like the greenery behind you. It's very very Seattle, like very West Coast looking even just out your window.
Krista:Yes. So much green.
Carrie:Hopefully, flowers. I know. I was gonna say, what's the you're in Seattle. What's the weather going on there? Is it still wintery?
Krista:It's still rainy, but our spring is starting really soon this year. Like, flowers are already coming out of the ground. And if you don't It's so nice. Our familiar, like, Northwest area, we have cherry blossom trees that come out usually like in like March, but they're already blossoming and they just like make the gloominess of the winter just so full of joy. We call them like pink snow.
Krista:It is falling out from the sky. Oh, sounds beautiful. To hear the birds chirping now. The thaws are coming out. We all are, like, defrosting a
Carrie:little bit. We're excited for spring. That's amazing. Yeah. I I think that it's it's interesting because the winter was super super intense a lot of places, but I feel like spring is coming a little early this year, which I'm really down for.
Carrie:Same. Really?
Krista:Very, very much so down for early spring, please.
Carrie:Yes. Well, like I said, thank you so much for being on the show. You are wonderful. I wanted to I wanted to, like, start our conversation by just, like, shouting out Live Salted, but also just kinda like sharing how we met because I think it's I think it's really really cool. At least it is from my end.
Carrie:You probably like hear these stories all the time, but, but we met when I think it was during COVID. And a friend of mine who lived in Nashville, I was living in LA at the time, We were all lonely. We were all bored. We were all anxious. And she messaged me and said, I'm doing this cohort.
Carrie:It's called Live Salted. It's awesome. Think it was like a picture of you and like the Instagram and stuff. And and she was like, do you wanna do it with me? And it was literally, it's so cool, Krista.
Carrie:Because it was like my first looking back God's first little poke into just inviting Him into my life fully as an adult and kind of reinviting just me to follow Him like in my young adulthood. And I said yes, and I was terrified. And I sat in the corner of the Zoom while you talked and like spoke and preached and just were incredible and taught us like just the foundations of faith, which I think I think I've shared this with you before. But I go back to some of those simple conversations so much in those I say simple, but just just the foundations of of all of it and talking about identity and talking about how do we pray and how do we invite God into every moment and just like the simplest most beautiful aspects of our faith. And I just I just think thank you so much for being willing to pour into all of these girls.
Carrie:I know you do it for a living. You do it so you know, so much and it's such a like a big part of your heart and your ministry. But, but genuinely that was like the first spark that then led to like going from going from that bible study. And then a group of us from that SALT cohort ended up starting a book club. And then we started pouring into one another via, I guess, text, I don't know, and Zoom.
Carrie:And then kinda just like my faith grew from there. So just had to give you a shout out for genuinely being a huge part.
Krista:And sure. I just my living, but it never you never get tired of hearing and testimonies of how the Lord actually works through these spaces because you don't know. Like, you lock onto a Zoom call and you have think I I got like 30 people in that Zoom call. Oh, It's large. All these small little boxes in there and you don't know everyone's and you don't have time to talk to people in-depth about their season of life where God's speaking to them.
Krista:So I remember so clearly I was driving downtown for a meeting and I played your audio message and you're just kind of, yeah, encouraging and reaffirming what you've learned through SALT over the years. And I was like, Thank you Jesus. Because again, you're not guaranteed to ever see the fruit of your ministry when you follow Him. You hope to see fruit, hope to hear how the Lord works through you, but it's just you're getting here behind the scenes of God is doing people's hearts, is the best gift to keep running after the Lord's called me to. So thank you for sharing that.
Krista:And look where you're coming from it now. Like, look how cool that seed that was planted in that declaration of a choosing faith to be your own in this adult season of life, and now all that's happened because of that. That's a hope. Ripple effect.
Carrie:Incredible. Yes. Oh my gosh. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Carrie:So tell us a little bit about Salt, and then also give me just give me the lowdown on obviously, it's called New Mom. We're talking about motherhood. Tell me about your family and and all of that.
Krista:I love it. Well yeah, I live in Seattle, Washington, been here for the last eight years. I have two kiddos and I always joke that you can get pregnant again before having a period so make sure you know that. They're fourteen months apart from each other. Two little girls, Blakely just turned two on December 23, and then Piper turned one on February 24.
Krista:I was confused. Like 23 like the dates are like '23 and '24, and the year '22 and '20 just so many twenties. I just get so confused by their dates at the birthdays, I get lost.
Carrie:I think that's really fair. Okay. So are they considered are they considered Irish twins? What's that?
Krista:Just over Irish twins. Irish twins are under 12. So but we had we had two under two for ten months. So very much so in that same camp.
Carrie:Okay. Incredible. And you also you and your husband also were working during that time of having, like, both of them. Have you ever taken, like, a chunk of time off or are you, like, steam full ahead with all the ministries?
Krista:I had maternity leave for three months, both of them, which is great. He had four or five, six weeks max. I can't remember exactly. But yeah. So I ran Live Salted, which is what you asked me to talk about.
Krista:So ten years ago, which is wild, I was a senior in college. And I really do believe that when God puts dreams in your heart, like, the seeds were there for them, like, years beforehand. And so when I went down to school at a non Christian school for college in California, I felt so alone in my faith and just had this hunger to build community around people who also wanted to know who Jesus was and, like, actually run after him, not be like, I'm a Christian. Go into heaven. But, like, truly, like, hungry to see the Lord work through your life and experience the supernatural and, like, experience His pursuit in ways that makes no sense and you're like, God, you're so real and you're so good and you're so kind and you know me.
Krista:So my senior year of college ended up launching a ministry called Live Salted. We have a little like salt at hand that we do. A little silent like affirmation.
Carrie:I need to get back into doing that, actually. It's kind of the best. But a little salt. It's the best. It's so good.
Krista:My little girl's salting it now too. Blakely will go like this,
Carrie:and Yeah. It's That just so is honestly so beautiful. Man,
Krista:so sad. Yeah. So we we now it's become more structured. I can say early on when starting the ministry, it was like, would I have the holy spirit put on my heart? I would just kind of run and do it.
Krista:But that was single Krista and not married Krista and not mom Krista. Now I'm married and we have kids and we have a house and life is crazier and busier. There's more things that are involved with it so we have created more of a structure around ministry but we love the greater Seattle area. We want to see this place transformed by Jesus And so we love local churches. We host an annual conference.
Krista:We host a quarterly gathering. We bring women who are in ministry from across the Greater Seattle area together on a Thursday morning just to pray. And like wild testimonies happen through just becoming friends first and foremost and then through that doing ministry. And so I just feel so gifted to be able to be building spaces of connection and belonging and being known. And my husband does things similar to that but with the athletes at University of Washington through FCA, which is a sports ministry.
Krista:So, yeah, we just love bringing people together and not feeling alone in the season that you're traveling through because loneliness is hard. In motherhood, like, you feel you'll feel lonely regardless because you're in your house a lot more than not. But me and the people who are in it with you, which is why I'm so thankful you're doing this new moms podcast because wow. So many times, like, does anyone else get me?
Carrie:Does anyone understand? Yeah. Yeah. Like, everyone who has kids went through little, so they
Krista:have to get it. But to be in the actual same season changes everything versus, like, a friend who has, like, a seven year old who's like, I remember those days versus, like, I remember yesterday when I didn't sleep at all when I'm exhausted and I need help.
Carrie:Yes. That is so that's so good, Krista. That's literally like one of the big reasons I started it because you're right. There's so much there's there are incredible things about moms that are like, hey, you'll get through it. Like, so needed.
Carrie:Right? But also, I feel like I was blessed because I do have mom friends that are in it with me. But I've also heard a lot of friends that say, there's no one in it with me. I don't know anybody else that's breastfeeding right now. I don't know anybody else that's pregnant right now.
Carrie:I don't know any And and so it's just so nice to like get to put these conversations out there for moms that do feel like they're sitting alone at home right now, maybe with friends that are far away or just like not having that rich community and feeling like they can amen and salt, you know, what we're saying. And be like, I feel you. I'm not crazy. I'm not alone. Yes.
Carrie:Wow. Well, thank you for sharing about your heart for ministry and all of that. So yeah, I guess like on that note, you have two beautiful adorable daughters. What has it been like transitioning to like ministry mom? What what is that?
Carrie:What does that look like especially with I'm curious if it looked different with just having Blakely like with one and then how you've transitioned to two and especially two under two like little ones. How has that been? Like, share some of what God has been teaching you in that.
Krista:Oh, man. Why? There's so many days when I'm like, if I had the ambition and, like, the awareness of time as a mom, I could have changed the freaking world when I had no kids. Like That's so true. What I can do with two hours and no kids is wild.
Krista:Thinking about when I had hours on my head.
Carrie:You're like, what was I doing? Wasting time. Could have done everything. Could have built yeah. Oh my gosh.
Carrie:So many things.
Krista:Yeah. A lot has changed. And I think what is interesting is it has made me I remember talking to her about this, like, probably with Blakely, but it has made me way more and this doesn't apply to everyone. I understand it's a privilege in saying what I'm about to say. But having a kid has made me all the more convicted that I love my job because it means that I'm not with her.
Krista:So it's like if I'm gonna choose to, like, make space to not be with my kids, I love that I get to do what I'm called to do. I also know there's moms out there who have to work a really tough job still and don't love their job because financially and I have to work too. Living in Seattle, we have to have double incomes to be able to live here and have kids. But it's just a beautiful gift that I feel the Lord has given me in a season where, like, running a ministry is is not a walk in the park, but I look forward to doing it because of what the Lord has shown me. It happens to building community.
Krista:And on the same part of that, I get so excited to have, like, my little girls come with me now and have them be around all these amazing women that we get to do life with. And I have a dream actually launching of I really hope to launch a Live Salted Girls in the future and have a good middle school, high school ministry.
Carrie:Oh my gosh. You so should do that. Especially having two girls. Like, are
Krista:you But kidding me? It's how's life changed just having kids working in ministry? Yeah. It has been with Blakely, it seemed a little bit more with the word not doable. Child help.
Krista:Like, I need help with child care. My my kiddo sleep super great, which is awesome, but, like, there's no way I could do my job without having child care help. And I think early on, I had friends who've gone before me, and they're like, you just need to pray about child care. It's gonna feel overwhelming and impossible to find the people that you need to have watch your kids. Like, if you pray about it, he will bring who you need.
Krista:And so my sister and I both got pregnant, like it's actually this is a funny story. If we're just talking off the cuff and having fun. Please. JJ and I were not trying to have kids. When we got pregnant, this is actually a hilarious story.
Krista:Okay. So we were house parents for 30 some odd college athletes at this old sorority house on Greek Row, basically, in U District. Like, we were in this we were in the basement that was kinda like the main floor of a basement. And right
Carrie:outside You were of living there.
Krista:Right? You were living there. Yeah. It was like You doing a mean, like, living there? Living and work yeah.
Krista:Living in the space. It's a 200 square foot room that had a bathroom but no kitchen. And so there are some days you have an Instapot, like, on the bathroom countertop with, like, a hot plate next to it, like, cooking in the bathroom. Like, just the funniest season. And then the window in our room would look out to where everyone pre gamed, like, before the football games, and our windows would rattle.
Krista:It'd be, like, solo cups everywhere. It was just such a funny vibe and such a funny season of life.
Carrie:Like newly married?
Krista:Yeah. We were married for like I think that was a year or two. But I was feeling in my heart that I really needed to like have a new me. Like I was just like there's just like this growing pain of like I just need something new. And so I had told JJ I wanted to buy butterfly like caterpillars and watch them hatch into butterflies.
Krista:And so I know I'm really weird but like it's a
Carrie:huge No. I love it. I love it. We got
Krista:a little butterfly cage and then we looked back at all the dates and stuff and the day that we got our caterpillars, we put them into the cage. We got pregnant that day, which we weren't at all expecting to be pregnant whatsoever. And then the day they hatched, like, they actually grew their wings, came out of their cocoons and stuff, was the day we found out we were pregnant, which is just so funny to me.
Carrie:That's crazy. That God is in the details. That's nuts.
Krista:In the sense of humor. He's like, great for a new you. And I'm like
Carrie:It's about to hatch.
Krista:Not not like this, though.
Carrie:Not this way. Not this major.
Krista:And the other funny part of the story is that I'm not a diet person. Like, I probably maybe should watch my food more than I do, but I just am not. But living in that house, the kitchen was like this massive commercial kitchen on the Main Floor, and they always had Costco stuff. I could package Costco food or like the pre made meals. My diet was just getting really bad.
Krista:And so the month we found out we were getting pregnant, I started to go on keto because I needed a really tough change to my dad's. I want to eat all the packaged food, you know, like this bad season. Oh,
Carrie:Got to cut it out.
Krista:And so I missed my period. Was like, Oh, I'm just in ketosis. Like my period just all like wonky and stuff. We were not trying to get pregnant, whatever. There was like not even a thought in our head that we were getting pregnant.
Krista:And then I was like, JJ, should you take a test that says it's a joke to see if we're pregnant or not? And he's like, No, you're being silly. Just wait a few days. I'm like, Okay, okay. And long story short, got a test, and it was positive, and we were just dumbfounded.
Krista:We're like,
Carrie:what? Wow. That's crazy. I did not know that. I did not know that that was so Yeah.
Carrie:Unexpected. Wow. Because, I mean, I guess it makes sense because you're doing the college thing, and you're literally living there. And, like, that's completely where you're at at that time.
Krista:Yeah. We were, like, from home, I've been there another year too.
Carrie:I was just gonna say, do you feel like you guys were, like, a year out from having a family? Was it just not even on your radar yet? Like, where were you?
Krista:We were close. Like, I think we talked about being married for, like, two years and, like, considering trying, we and were probably like six months earlier than what we were thinking about doing it for. Cool. Okay. But just even the timing of like the caterpillar, like caterpillars.
Krista:Just the whole thing was so funny. I love
Carrie:I love God stories like in the in the little details like that. Like I had a friend who told me she had a dream. I think it's like I was pregnant maybe, but I hadn't told anybody I was pregnant. And she was like, I have a dream. I had a dream that you were pregnant and you were just barely pregnant.
Carrie:Yeah. But you were gonna give birth in the spring to ministry. And I was like, okay. And then like two days later I found out I was pregnant. I was like, don't think I'm giving birth to ministry.
Carrie:I think I'm giving birth to like a child. I think she had this dream. And then later she laughed because she was like, that's exactly what it was. But she just thought it was like a different context. But I look back now, I'm like, it's so crazy the different little winks.
Carrie:I also had a friend text me a year before I had my son like his birthday, but a year before. So I wasn't obviously pregnant yet. And she said, had a dream. You were pregnant. Anything you wanna tell me?
Carrie:And I screenshotted it because we were trying and that's now his birthday. So there's just like this Yes. Cool Wow. Like a a year later and I was not going in. I was like thirty nine weeks when we had him and the labor was not coming.
Carrie:And then I looked and I saw that text again and I was like, I know his birthday. It's gonna be the twenty first. Like, that's when we're gonna have him. And we did. That's when I went into labor.
Carrie:So anyway, I love I love those stories where God just gives you little winks with your with your pregnancy timing and stuff like that.
Krista:Okay. But Carrie, you did birth a ministry. What are you doing right now? You're having a whole podcast called New Mom. You literally birth a ministry from it.
Carrie:Okay. Well, that's what I was gonna say is if we wanna get into the nitty gritty, I think that that dream is crazier now because I had like, this was this was not on my radar. But then because I had my son, the Lord birthed the ministry of motherhood, like, in my heart. So really that dream was twofold, which shouldn't even be surprising, but you're totally right. That's crazy, man.
Krista:That's the Lord works. Literally, the more you ask Him to reveal Himself, detail. Like Mhmm. He knows everything, and we can trust him with the timing behind everything. Even for those maybe watching this who aren't pregnant yet or wanna be a mom one day, like Mhmm.
Krista:His timing is perfect. And even though sometimes timing sucks, it makes no sense. And you're angry and you're frustrated and you're confused and you wanna just, like, shake the Lord and be like, do what I'm asking you to do. Why aren't you doing this in my timeline? This, like, he has a plan.
Krista:And Mhmm. Sometimes you have to learn that the hard way.
Carrie:Yeah.
Krista:But he has a plan.
Carrie:How do you feel like you've learned that being a mom to two girls? Like, are you I don't know. Just, like, on the day to day, do you feel like what do you feel like the Lord teaching you right now in motherhood?
Krista:For sure. I also didn't finish my sister's timing story. Should do that one real quick?
Carrie:Do it. Do it. Do it.
Krista:Okay. And that was I asked a question. Basically, long story short, I got pregnant. I was told my sister that I was pregnant when I got the first ultrasound at eight weeks or whatever. So I bought a pair of these little green shoes, like, little cute green dinosaur shoes.
Krista:We get pregnant. And so I go to her house one day because she's hey. A present for you. My birthday is around the time that they got, like, we were getting pregnant. I go to her house.
Krista:I sit down, and she's like, here's a present for you. And I open up this box, and it has those exact same green shoes in it. And I literally, like, couldn't comprehend what was going on. And then usually your friend's like, I'm pregnant. You're like, I'm so excited for you.
Krista:Like, big hugs, all this, like, like, emotions. And we're looking at her, and she'd be like, are you okay? And I was like, I'm pregnant too. And I bought the exact same shoes to tell you that I was pregnant.
Carrie:What? Okay. That is the same shoes? Is that like a okay. That's crazy.
Carrie:Is that a typical you and your sister thing? Like, do you guys have? No. That's even crazier.
Krista:I know.
Carrie:That would be very out of body. She's like, wait. No. I was supposed to that would make you freeze. I I would yeah.
Carrie:I wouldn't have, like, the reaction either. I'd be like, that's hard to process. Yeah.
Krista:Then we
Carrie:hugged crazy.
Krista:And then we had our babies exactly month apart from each other. So Blakely's both born on December 23 and Kit's born on January 23. That is, like, the same. So watching them grow up together has been, like, the absolute gift.
Carrie:That is so precious. Oh my gosh.
Krista:The best part is is lately calls Kit because she can't say her k. She calls her dick. It's quite. That's so precious.
Carrie:There's nothing cuter than the toddler talk. Like, whatever they say, 10 out of 10 precious at all times.
Krista:It's amazing. Yeah.
Carrie:I love it.
Krista:Okay. But your question, what am I learning right now about motherhood? My I can tell you this. I am learning this lesson in the most beautiful and refining and challenging ways. But I believe at first, I was asking the question of, like, god, why does everything happen at one time?
Krista:Like, why is it that it's, like, there's a sleep regression or they're teething when, like, I'm also sick or work's really busy or feel, like, a headache or, like, my husband. Like, there's always this question of, like, why does everything, like, compound at the exact same time? And what I think I'm choosing to believe when all that happens at one time is that the Lord is constantly after us getting to the end of ourselves to actually trust Him. And I think people who are mothers and fathers have to learn how to be high capacity individuals because you're operating on little sleep or you're trying to figure out how to hold in your mind like what your kid needs, what your husband needs, what you need, what your job needs, what your household needs, like all this stuff. Where it becomes really easy to want be self reliant.
Krista:And I also think that we live in a world, the enemy has made it be like, if you are self reliant, you are succeeding in life. If you don't need to ask your friends for help, you are succeeding in life. You don't need to reach out to your mom to help watch your kids, you're succeeding in life. If you need to ask for help, you are failing at life. That's how the enemy has created our whole world to operate.
Krista:And if you don't believe me, just check your own
Carrie:heart. If you're sleeping That's so true.
Krista:Of, like, I'm so tired. I need to take a nap. And if you're not willing to call your mom or ask your neighbor or call a friend because you're worried about being a burden to them, you're believing that lie that you need to be self reliant to be good. And what? This is just Solve.
Krista:Solve it?
Carrie:It's alright. It's like preaching to me right now. We've we're in a crazy season. I'm like, Krista, I needed this conversation. We can record it.
Carrie:Sure. But, like, I just this is great. Thank you. Continue.
Krista:And so I've been on this kick because our conference scene this last year just happened early February is the idea of receiving. And there's so much scripture in the bible about how, like, asking you shall receive. Like, God gives good gifts. Like, if you're if you're a father, you give good gifts. Why isn't your father in heaven give even better greater gifts than give yourself?
Krista:And it's this idea that I've learned of, like, god wants to enter in. Like, he asks us to take care of you. And yet somehow, in this twisted way the enemy has worked, he's made us believe a theologist based on earning and receiving of, like, if you don't have thirteen nights of no sleep, you can't ask for help versus, like, hey. I'm really tired today. It's been one hard night.
Krista:Like, can I have a friend watch my kid for an hour so I can take a nap? Like, it's just this and there is a balance. You have to work hard, obviously, but there's this understanding that we have to earn and, like, strive and, like, make this certain level in our head before we can actually ask for help. And the Lord is constantly saying, hey. I wanna help you.
Krista:Hey. I wanna help you. Have you heard of the book, Risen Motherhood?
Carrie:Yes. Yes. I have.
Krista:Have you gone through it all?
Carrie:No. I haven't.
Krista:Obsessed. We at Live Salta, we host, like, small groups. And so after Blakely and Piper, I hosted a new mom small group and went through that book. So I've read through it twice. And each time I read it, just new things come out of it.
Krista:So I had Piper, aka I had another baby. I'm looking at pictures for her birthday, and I'm like, I had a baby, and I had a baby. Like, I had a literally dead. Babies in my house.
Carrie:Full on babies.
Krista:And there's a there's a line in there that I read that I was so convicted by. I think looking back now, it kind of, like, triggered this, like, thought process I've been having. But the question was, do you believe that god can do more for you than an app? And I was like, absolutely not. I was like, Nope.
Krista:Baps are way more important than Jesus right now, and I think it now can do a lot more for my brain and my body than God can. It was this question they posed of like, Do you think the gospel changes everything? And I had to ponder this question to this group of ladies in my house of like, Okay, I think the gospel changed everything when I said yes to him however many years ago. I was raised in a Christian household, so like close to twenty years ago, twenty five years ago. But the question of like, does God does the gospel change everything for me right now?
Krista:If I actually believe that the gospel changes everything, then I should be able to trust that he's more for me than an app. And it started this like I don't know, like this curiosity in my heart of being like, what can you do for me? Like if you're better than me for than a nap like how can I actually rely on God to support me and all this stuff? And it's not like a genie of like God's going to take care of all my needs and my like whatever but there's understanding that I was actually able to invite him into things more practically. Yeah.
Krista:And so as an example of this is with having two kids, very close in age, different of ages, the nap times are just wonky. Like, there's a season there where Piper would sleep from nine to eleven, Blakely from, like, twelve to two. Oh gosh. Piper from, like, one to four. And I'm like, I can't leave my house.
Krista:I'm living in my house all the time. I can't go outside. I can't go on a walk. Like, I just can't leave. And and then there's times, like, I needed to nap, but the announcement overlapping or I needed to work, but they weren't all these things.
Krista:Right? Mhmm. And so I remember praying and asked the Lord like, hey, Jesus. Like, need your help. I'm gonna actually believe that you are the God of time, that you're the God of my schedule, that you, I believe, have still called me to live salted, and I'm in a busy season.
Krista:So you know what I have to get done more than I do. You know what I can actually not get done, but you will still get done for me if I trust you with that. And just this, like, crazy resolve in my heart of knowing that God is good, and God is on my plate to get done, and God is advocating for me. I've been thinking that a lot how the Holy Spirit's the advocate. Right?
Krista:God gave us advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be in our lives, to be with us when Christ is in heaven until he comes back. Right? I'm like, if you're the advocate, then what are you gonna advocate for me for? Well, things that I ask for, also things that you are advocating I don't even know about yet. This is another side note, but one time I had a friend and she's like, have you ever pictured, like, holy spirit and Jesus and god having, like, holy gossip about you?
Krista:And I was like, no.
Carrie:She's like I've pictured that. That's amazing.
Krista:Picture the holy spirit, god, and Jesus being like, what do we want Krista to learn right now? Or how can we love her really well? How can we pursue her right now? And then all three of them working in cahoots to, like, pursue me as their daughter together. Wild thought.
Carrie:Crazy picture.
Krista:That's a cute picture, though. Right?
Carrie:It's beautiful. Yes. And thank very loved.
Krista:Yes. And they are the yeah. They are love. Right? So there was days when the key Jesus, I need you to take care of my of their nap schedule so I can get my stuff done.
Krista:And there was days when the naps would overlap for like three and a half hours and I would just bust out stuff or I'd have like an hour long nap myself and then bust out stuff. And then there was days when they didn't and I was awake the entire day and so was a kid. Got nothing done but then somehow like the to do list item that I had to get done got accomplished with someone else. Like it was just like this really weird thing about actually just trusting him because I kept asking this question of like what's the better way? Like I don't think Jesus died on a cross for me to be so stressed out every single day
Carrie:Striding.
Krista:To get stuff done. I don't think he died on a cross for me to not be loving my husband because my job is taking a priority and then my kids are not like, they're more a nuisance and a distraction than than actually loving them for who they are. Right? And so this question is like, hey, God, if there's a better way, what is it? And I just have had this radical resolve of like, you're the better way.
Krista:You will make a way that makes no sense. Like, you will make a way in all of this. And we're sure y'all share and then I'll let you talk or share your thoughts or whatever.
Carrie:Yeah. But are you kidding me? You're preaching. I'm loving it. Take your time.
Krista:So Lips Alted is a fully self fundraised ministry. We have to fundraise for all that we do. My girl that I love and work with Rochelle went on maternity leave on September. Okay? So she's gone the last three months of the year.
Krista:We're hosting a conference, hosting a retreat in Canada, which anyone should come to. You're all invited.
Carrie:Looks amazing. Show notes. I'm just gonna say I'm gonna plug that in the show notes for sure.
Krista:And then fundraising, end of the year fundraising. I have two kids, and my husband was going through a hard season himself, both medically, physically, and then also mentally. I was exhausted, utterly exhausted. I had set out to call, like, these twenty, thirty people to ask them all to give, like, 1 to $200 to cover some cost for conference to get us to conference in February. But at the same time, I was picturing calling these people and thinking it probably would take, like, hours, like, call like, text, call, follow-up, like, give them give get an answer from them.
Krista:It's all a lot of, like, back and forth time.
Carrie:Yeah.
Krista:My family was just not the priority, and, like, my heart was hurting. My husband was feeling super unseen. He was feeling overlooked. My kids were more of that nuisance than it was the enjoyment of being around them. And I remember being just like, God, this isn't what you died for.
Krista:You didn't die for me to feel this way. So can help me? And so I was utterly exhausted this day, and I ended up saying, I'm going to take a nap. I'm just like, ten minute nap. I'm just going to close my eyes real quick and just power nap and get up and go.
Krista:I lay down. Five minutes into my nap, I forgot I put on do not disturb. I get a phone call. And the phone call is someone who gives usually in the past, and she usually gives, like, around a thousand dollars a year. I'm like, okay.
Krista:I just answer this phone call and, like, see what she's up to because I just got to call her anyways. She's calling me. This is a gift in itself. So I answer the phone call, and I'm, like, I'm five minutes of my nap. I'm kind of groggy and stuff.
Krista:And she's like, hey. The Lord's asked me to give you five times more money this year than last year. I wanna give you a $5,000 check. And it was wild because when I was resting that the Lord had this person call, but then what has it, like, actually has, like, truly changed my heart around how the Lord works is that he gave me that money, I think, not just to cross off, like, the to do list of taking care of that money, but he wanted to give me back twenty hours because that money came through. I didn't even go call all those twenty
Carrie:thirty to do it.
Krista:For money, and I can use that time for my family. And it was just, like, crazy way of just witnessing the holy spirit's pursuit. He's like, I want you to put your family first. And because I know you have an actual need of money to do this thing that I called you to do of hosting a conference, I'm taking care of all of it, give you your time back, and give you the money because I'm God. I can do all these things.
Krista:And so I would say, like, having two kids and being a young mom has just made me, like, have to actually trust that in my weakness, God is strong. If I choose to actually admit weakness and actually choose to say, God, you need to fill this gap. Like, not always in my way, like, show me your creative way, the way that I can even think about my head.
Carrie:That's really beautiful. And it kind of inspired my heart to think about the way we've been living right now because I've shared a little bit. But we we moved from LA and we moved in with sweet friends in Nashville and we've been we obviously have a nine month old. And so we are without our belongings and without a home yet. You know, we're gonna find a home hopefully, like God willing in the next few months.
Carrie:And we've just been in this really big in between not having our space, trying to launch a podcast, doing other work things, you know, being between income and work in a lot of ways because we're moving to a new city. And it has been very challenging. And then on top of that, we've been traveling a lot and just like seeing family and doing all the things while we're trying to work. And this weekend in particular, like we've just had the last maybe five or six days has just been like I feel like the last month has been the gauntlet since we moved specifically last week. And we were driving here to see family.
Carrie:We're in Ohio right now. And we were driving here knowing we're gonna have to do a lot of work and we're gonna have to also take care of our child, you know, who we adore. And I think there's just a level of you know when you start something and you're pre tired, especially as a parent? Yes. You're like, it's Monday and I'm I'm going to bed Sunday night and I'm pretired about the week.
Carrie:Like, so I'm not gonna sleep tonight because I'm pretired. And I kinda had a similar moment to you where I I was like, the only thing I can do is literally pray like, Lord, get me through each one of these moments and get me through it with joy. Like not just get me through it, but I don't know how it's all gonna work. There's so much to be done. There's so like, we're, you know, we don't have like similar to what you're saying about when you were in the FCA house.
Carrie:Like, we don't have a kitchen sink right now on our Airbnb. All those things, you know, I'm doing dishes like up and down the stairs to like the stairs. And so it's like, I'm downstairs with the baby. And then I'm like, I need to do a load of dishes. I'm gonna carry him.
Carrie:He's so heavy. And I'm gonna try to carry these dishes and like they'll topple over. I've And just had this moment like, I don't know how I'm gonna get it all done. Like, I just don't know how it's gonna get done. But I know that specifically this week going into it being pre tired tired, I I have prayed differently.
Carrie:And and so when you said that, it just kind of, I guess, made me realize I'm you kinda put words to how I've been praying. It's really cool of just inviting him into every moment. Not just that you'd get through it and it'd get to be a checklist. But like you said, he gives things back. He's the he's the giver of good gifts.
Carrie:And so it's not just that you'll get through it, but you'll get through it with surprise blessings and you'll get through it with surprising energy or he'll give you time back. Like how kind is that? It's kind of like the promise with Sabbath. Hey, if you rest, you will still have food. You will still have the provision you need or whatever it is.
Carrie:So anyway, thank you for sharing that. Yeah. It just really speaks to me. I also wanted you to share, gosh, just everything with Little Lights. That's what it's called.
Carrie:Right? Amazing. Yeah. Let's like wrap it up with this because I think it's I think it's so cool. I've only seen it on socials.
Carrie:I've only seen it from a distance. We haven't really gotten to talk about it. But share your heart with this and yeah. What prompted you to to dive into this?
Krista:Such a funny story. So yeah. We were running a daycare now in our basement. Our third ministry, I guess our fourth outside of our family. Yeah.
Krista:So when we ended up buying our house, again, buying a home in Seattle, similar to LA or probably Nashville at this point too, is just so Mhmm. It's so expensive. Like, it's just absurd that a starter house is so much money. And so I wasn't really ever thinking we'd get a house, but we ended up buying this house, and it has two units. So it's our unit upstairs we live in, and it has a fully down stair downstairs, like, unit with the kitchen sink.
Krista:Don't worry. And so we had tenants in there when we first moved in for the first, like, two years. But as Blakely got older, she got louder. And we had this is, like, this anxiety around, like, don't throw it on the ground. Like, be quiet.
Krista:And it's just this weird thing of, like, again, our kids became this almost like a problem for our tenants downstairs. And, like, a kid's a kid. They're gonna make noise. They're gonna yell. They're gonna drop things.
Krista:It's how they learn. Right? Mhmm. And it was kind of this serendipitous way to think the Lord how he worked where it was my sister one day, and we're like, you know what's such a funny idea if our basement was a daycare? Like, we have a backyard.
Krista:It's fenced in now. It's, like, a pretty layout for a daycare. Totally we're joking because if our nanny was leaving us, and we just needed to figure out a solution, was like, let's do it ourselves. Total joke. And then, like, a week later or two weeks later, our tenants just goes to the property.
Krista:Like, they just they were just gone, and they never came back, and we haven't heard from them since. What? We're now like, okay. We we're down money from what they are covering for our mortgage. We also were feeling this anxiety of, like, people always being downstairs in our house, like, our kids being loud or just being kids.
Krista:And Mhmm. We're like, we shouldn't just look into this. And there's other cool god stories, like, where our kids were going to go to a day care. It flooded, so, potentially, that person's gonna run her day care at our day care. She walked around to this.
Krista:This is perfect. It totally would work out, but she ended up using her day care the basement of her daughter's house instead. But all these pieces made us, like, be able to think about it and, like, see how it actually could work together. And so we started the process back in September, and we are now open, which is wild.
Carrie:So the so cool. I didn't realize you were open yet. Congrats.
Krista:It started on Monday. It's gonna be a slow roll in terms of getting people through the door, and we're gonna definitely be in the hall these first couple months because we are guaranteeing our head teacher salary. But it like so yeah. So we're our the essence is called little lights. We wanna raise little lights who love God with passion and people on purpose.
Krista:And have you heard about the belonging book or book of belonging? No. A really good read that kind of takes the old and new testament and looks at these biblical stories all through the lens of these three things, I think, are just, like, core to raising a kid that we're gonna, like, adopt for a whole family. But it's you belong, you are beloved, and you are delighted in. And that's like kind of the core idea of the gospel that like you belong in God's kingdom, you are beloved by God more than anything else, and you are a delight to be around.
Krista:And so those are kind of the core like messages that we're gonna be, like, pouring into our kids downstairs and also in our actual household up here. But, yeah, four months to five, six years, like, preschool age, and you'll have 12 kids max. We're gonna have probably three staffers, three to five staffers. I
Carrie:didn't realize it was gonna be in your house. That's incredible.
Krista:It's downstairs. We actually have two kiddos there right now. Yeah. So it's just really beautiful, and I I really hope that, like, when we're looking for our own child care, it's like, people listen to this, childcare is so stressful because one, it's a ton of money. So you're like, I don't know how it's natural.
Krista:It's of freaking money in Seattle. It's like another mortgage on a house to have childcare.
Carrie:I feel like it is everywhere now, sadly.
Krista:It's just wild. And Mhmm. Like I said earlier, I have to work. Like, it's this hard balance where I say, I'd love to be a stay at home mom. We just don't have that privilege right now in the season of life to do that.
Krista:And so we were, like, looking at our childcare options in Seattle. There was only one Christian childcare we could find, and they're, like, basically full. And so we should build that ourselves. And so now our hope is to have this, like, absolutely incredible space that's, like, top of the line in terms of how we care for their families. And I have a dream of literally having like families who just live like two houses down who aren't Christian yet, but like I can't deny this is a great place I can walk here in four minutes.
Krista:And then them finding Jesus through little lights and then their kiddos like walking back. It's like I can see how the Lord might take this space and fully change generations of families down the road. It's a really cool place to have outreach. So that's the other thing we're working on right now, and I'm really excited for it and hopeful for it. We just still need a lot of families and more teachers.
Krista:That's been a place to hold a trigger to, like, god, you know what we need. Like, this is actually a crazy story, and then I'll stop talking. But we had a person who said yes to us. So there's a few things of, like, when you launch a dream or idea, probably somewhere to New Mom, it's like, have this idea. I wanna do it.
Krista:At some point, you gotta just make the jump. It's like, okay. I don't have all the things, but I need to buy the buy the mic or I need to do whatever it is. For us, it was selling all of our furniture because it a it was a fully furnished rental downstairs. And so we had a friend of mine who's like, I'll I'll run the day care for you.
Krista:I can do this. So her yes gave us the permission to sell all the furniture downstairs to, like, just, like, clear house and go find free stuff and closing down day cares to make it happen. And then she pulled out, and I was like, uh-oh. Like, you need to have a teacher
Carrie:He already took the
Krista:lead. Care. Right?
Carrie:Mhmm.
Krista:But it was a season, like, during these last six months where I was like, okay, Lord. I don't have time to worry about this. Like, I felt you invited us into this whole thing. So, like, you find us a teacher. Like, I I have to distrust you with this.
Krista:And it was just total resolve. Like, he was gonna take care of it, and he did. And a few months later with some stress and some prayers, a lady reached out from a friend of a friend, and she has ten years of early ed experience, like seven years being in an actual corporate daycare. And she wanted to leave corporate daycare because they don't care about the kids. Care about the bottom dollar more so than the actual children.
Krista:And so now she's our head teacher, and she's literally perfect, and we could not do it without her. And it's just it's just so cool how when it is of the Lord's doing and you trust him again, if it's the Lord's doing, it's not always gonna be easy or make sense, and it will take risk. Like, we are still financially, like, out beyond ourselves as we launch a business. Like, following god does not mean risk and, like, total comfort of, like, security is gonna be great.
Carrie:Yes. For sure.
Krista:And so we're just trusting that however long we need to be sustaining ourselves, like, through our savings until we get enough kids, that he's gonna provide for that space. So
Carrie:yeah. That's amazing, Krista. I'm so I'm so encouraged by you guys, honestly. It's it's very inspiring. And just even the fact that it's in your home, I think there's a beautiful picture there of I don't know.
Carrie:When you first have the girls, it's like, okay. Be quiet because there's people down there because we need to charge because we. And then to take the leap and do something that's so honoring to to the Lord. There's I don't think there's anything he values more than us. Right?
Carrie:And it's like as children, like we all need to be like the children and and love him that way. And so I just think that's so inspiring and encouraging. And I pray that little lights spreads like, you know, mustard seed. Me too. Man, that's so awesome.
Carrie:Well, I could continue talking to you. You're so wonderful. I will let you go because I know you're very busy. But thank you so much. Genuinely, you are just have so much wisdom.
Carrie:And I also wanna again plug the is it a retreat that it's called that you're doing? Mhmm. Okay. I will put that in the show notes for anybody who's interested and that you can be from anywhere. Right?
Carrie:Like people can just fly in and be a part of it? Okay.
Krista:Fly in to Vancouver.
Carrie:Sounds amazing.
Krista:Is that a camp? Like, a life camp up in Canada? And it's, like, the most pristine camp. You feel like you're literally in heaven when you pop out three hours later off this ferry into this camp with no roads around you, no other people, like, no cell service. It is just the best place ever.
Carrie:Wow. It sounds so good. Okay. One more question that I feel like I should ask is what is one piece of advice that comes to mind that you would have for a new mom? Like, it's bringing a baby home today.
Krista:Oh my gosh. New baby mama. This is not my advice, but I was given it, and I think it's so good. Brene Brown has a terminology called called FFTs, and it stands for effing first times. And my friend told me this, more so from a business perspective, but as applied to us so much in parenting, that there are so many things you're gonna do for the first time.
Krista:And so don't expect to know what you're doing because you don't as an FFT. And so, like, just laugh at yourself. Give yourself grace. And, like, I'm already I'm only two years out from my first kid, and there's so many like, I don't believe you're gonna go through a season that has so many firsts with so much joy. You might have, like, first through, like, seasons of grief or hardship, but, like, to bring home a baby for the very first time, like, there's so much new.
Krista:And you're gonna be utterly exhausted and probably forget a lot of things. It's okay. But, like, as much as you possibly can, like, document all these feelings of first because there's just, like you feel so alive and so dead because you're so tired, but, like, there's just, I don't think, another season of life that's gonna have so much newness for the first time. Like, the first laugh, the first smile, the first crawl, the first eating, the first really funny poop, the first, like, poop post having food for the first time, the first, like everything is just new. And, like, it just what season of life do you have so much newness that's such, like, pure, innocent like, not bliss.
Krista:It's hard, but, like, is that doesn't happen in life. Like, even now having two kids
Carrie:is beautiful. Yeah.
Krista:I miss a bunch of pipers first because you have another one running around. That's that's just how it goes. Like, I don't have to have some remorse, but also this is another reality of when you have two kids, three kids, four kids. Like, that first that you have with your first is just a wild, beautiful season, and I would go back and soak in more if I even could.
Carrie:So good. So good. Amazing. Well, Krista, thank you so much again. And, yeah.
Carrie:Good luck with everything. I'm I'm reading you on.
Krista:Thanks, Carrie.
Carrie:Yeah. Appreciate it. Bye.