Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Stephanie Tomba is the Intake Coordinator at Traffick911 in Dallas, TX. She has a masters degree in social work, served as a case worker for CPS, and in her current work she mentors At-Risk Teens recovered from sex trafficking. Stephanie is a single mother and shares her experience as a single mom and casts a vision for the church to love single parents. We hope her story inspires you to love the single moms in your community through mentoring their kids and being a needed network of support.
Show Notes
_______________
WELCOME
You Can Mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others.
_______________
SHOW NOTES
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the You Can Mentor podcast. My name is Steven, and I have a special guest, one of my best friends, Stephanie Tamba, on the podcast today. How the heck are you, Stephanie?
Speaker 3:We are making it. It has been quite a week. Super, super thankful for you and Katie though. Y'all are awesome. Thankful thankful to be here.
Speaker 3:Thankful for a washer and dryer. That that has been a lifesaver this week for sure. For sure.
Speaker 2:Amen. You are probably one of the only people that moved during COVID 19 crisis week 1. I I didn't see very many people out there moving.
Speaker 3:Right. Apparently, other people should too, though. You know? You can get really good deals on houses right now. So I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, Stephanie, a little bit about you that I know. You're a single mom, which is one of the main reasons I want to have you on the podcast today. You're also an artist. You're also a caseworker.
Speaker 2:You're also, you also love unicorns. Your favorite color is pink. You have a lot of prescription sunglasses.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's pretty much it. Prescription sunglasses and pink and unicorns pretty much round me out as a person, I would say. That's that really kinda sums it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, I mean, if I were to ask you, who is Stephanie Tamba? Could you paint a picture for our listeners?
Speaker 3:As a self proclaimed 4, I don't like being put in a box, and I don't like labels. So I don't even like the 4 label. However, like you said, single mom is a label that I identify with. I'm also sober, and that is that is one label that I do like. I'm very happy to be sober.
Speaker 3:I'm I'm so grateful for that. I celebrated 9 years of sobriety this past December. Yeah. Yeah. Super excited about that.
Speaker 3:Super just grateful. I love creating art. I was Zuri and I had some creative time today. She used creative time to, what did she do? She did some tap dancing.
Speaker 3:She did a little bit of drawing. It was she was kinda all over the place. We are on spring break, so I'm kind of anti schedule. But for our sanity, I thought, alright. I will give this thing a try.
Speaker 3:And Zuri Zuri is Zuri really likes schedules, so she was a big fan of it.
Speaker 2:It's good. Schedules are good for kids. I do remember one time you and Zuri were you were house sitting for a family that had many animals, and I know that animals are a great way to just kind of give kids activity. You could look after a bunny for, like, 4 hours, and that would be a great task for a child. I know that eventually Zuri lost that bunny.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you'd wanna share that story.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. That would be a great activity for a child until you lose someone else's household pet, and then you do not get invited to house sit.
Speaker 2:Oh, you didn't get the invite anymore? It was done after that?
Speaker 3:Previously, they had scheduled us for another house sitting opportunity, and then they were very, very gracious about it. But they kindly uninvited us to house sit ever again, and I was fine with that because I was ridden with guilt and anxiety over the fact that we lost a
Speaker 2:pet. Do you know the name of the pet? If we could put a plug in in the show notes. It was just a abnormally large bunny.
Speaker 3:It was a freakishly large bunny. They had one named p and one named pod, and I don't know if we lost p or if we lost pod. I feel like it was pod, but it could go either way.
Speaker 2:Tell us about Traffic 911, what what you do with them.
Speaker 3:I was caseworker at at Child Protective Services. Worked there for a little over 2 years. Been with Traffic 911. It'll be 2 years in July. Previously had been an advocate for about a year and a half, so that looked like getting to meet with teenage girls kind of in a mentor advocate role.
Speaker 3:And these are teens who have been sex trafficked or are at a high risk of being sex trafficked. I just came into a new role in January, intake coordinator, and so what that looks like is really working to better understand the girls we serve by creating a more formal intake process so that we can just better help them and get them connected with community resources, what's available in their areas. And then, also, I'm super excited to start doing support groups again. I had led support groups last fall and spring for the girls, and I'm really excited to get those started back up. We just saw a lot of fruit from that.
Speaker 3:We like to go take them to places like the Arboretum, but then also wanna do some, like, just college tours of local colleges, even with support groups, have some different people come in from just different professions to kinda help the girls understand, you know, what does it take to become a nurse, what does it take to become a doctor or a lawyer, because a lot of these girls have, you know, really big dreams of going to college and doing these things, and we wanna help them kinda understand, hey. This is what is, gonna be involved.
Speaker 2:If there's anyone I know that can speak life and hope into someone's future, like, that's your lane, Stephanie, and exposing people to hope. I think that is something that you do really well. How do you connect with these girls? Like, what what does that look like? Where's where's traffic 911 meet the at risk girl that is in this situation?
Speaker 3:If the girl has been trafficked and recovered, what that looks like, local law enforcement will essentially call they can call our 24 hour crisis hotline, and we go directly to them. So we respond at the police station, and we start working with them from that point. We really believe that in those initial that initial crisis period is really important for us to meet them where they're at in that initial crisis period and beyond that, so we are in the field. We don't have an office space where they come to us. We go to them, so we go visit them at their homes.
Speaker 3:If they are if they end up going to a placement that's a little bit further out, we're gonna go visit them there. And so we start working with them from those referrals from law enforcement, but we also take referrals from detention centers, shelters, and those are gonna be maybe some more of the at risk kids that we talk about that are don't necessarily meet that criteria of confirmed trafficking, but there are definitely some concerns that it's a possibility. Once patrol officers have brought the kids to the detectives headquarters, the offices, that's where we go meet them. But then oftentimes, you know, they're gonna go to the hospital afterwards to get checked out and whatever, and so we'll go with them to the hospital, and then we'll even whatever's next after the hospital, if they're going back home, if they're going to foster care, we wanna be with them each step of the way.
Speaker 2:It sounds like a very, I mean, traumatic experience.
Speaker 3:It is. It's very traumatic, you know, especially right right as they're coming out of trafficking. It's not, trafficking in the United States is very different than trafficking overseas. Not to get like too much in the weeds about it, but they are not always super grateful to be recovered at first. They have been very manipulated, coerced by their trafficker.
Speaker 3:One, that the police should not be trusted, that they want to be doing this, they can leave at any time, and that they're not a victim. They do not believe they don't always believe they're a victim right away because that's what they've been told. And so a lot of times, they're kind of angry about it. And underneath that, I can often see just a lot of fear with with the being questioned with going to a hospital. They're sitting in this with going to a hospital.
Speaker 3:They're sitting in this hospital they've never been in before in a gown, and these 2 police officers are standing outside their door they've never seen before. You know, hospitals in general, being a patient at a hospital, just there's a power dynamic there. In that moment of realizing that power dynamic, we bring them a backpack, we bring them a, like, a happy meal or Whataburger, whatever they want, give them a blanket, give them clothes, you know, just something. We always bring a teddy bear in the backpack and at first I thought that was kind of silly when I started working there. I thought what teenage girl is gonna want a teddy bear, but I have seen so many 16, 17 year old girls just hug that teddy bear so tightly.
Speaker 3:I was able 1 girl I met hospital, she was already at the hospital. She was actually being prepped to go into the operating room because she needed surgery immediately. I just handed her the teddy bear and had to get out. And I remember she just kinda asked me to hand her that teddy bear and just kept it with her the whole time. And it was just such a cool thing to see what that meant to her.
Speaker 3:You know?
Speaker 2:I love what you've been called to and watching you over the last few years, like, single mom finishing school while working at CPS.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That was crazy.
Speaker 2:You are the real MVP. Like, if anyone, I've used to do college ministry. If anyone at SMU was complaining about getting to class and coming to life group or whatever, I'm like, sit down. I know Stephanie Tamba. She has a child, and she works for CPS, and she goes to school.
Speaker 2:Quit it. I don't know. I don't know what it is about single moms, but it it seems like you have unceasing capacity. Obviously, you need rest, but there's something about being a single mom that equips you to be stretched.
Speaker 3:It's a fine line. It's a fine line between having a great capacity and being like, now, Steph, are you do you have good do you have a lot of capacity, but are you using that capacity wisely, or are you trying to, like, work outside of what God has for you? God had gave me so much grace in that season, but I absolutely saw how it affected my health, my well-being for doing what I did in that very small time frame.
Speaker 2:I it was funny I asked you the question, what is it like to be a single mom, and you said, I don't know how to answer that question because that's all I've known.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know because I've never been married. So, I mean, I was raised in a 2 parent household, so I I did see that. I saw that, you know, play out in my childhood. I will say I y'all mentor kids from fatherless homes. That that has gotten harder the older older she's gotten, her not having a dad for sure.
Speaker 3:Before she was born, her dad, I was just like, you know what? I just need him out of the picture. I just need this to stop. Just kind of angry and done with it. And then after she was born, it really hit me, like, this is a little girl who doesn't have a dad.
Speaker 3:And I see just the brokenness, and I see what sin does to somebody, and that's hard to reconcile. It's hard to see that I played a part in that, a big part, but also just being able to take that to Jesus, knowing that God redeems all things and that God takes our brokenness and just makes all things new. What it's like being a single mom is knowing that no matter what I'm never gonna measure up and but being okay with that, you know. I remember being in actually at World Mandate few a few years ago and we were listening we were singing the song, Good Good Father and just thinking about, like, I am never gonna be enough Missouri because I can't be a dad and a mom and thinking I'm just never gonna be enough. And God just really speaking to me in that moment saying, you're right.
Speaker 3:You are never gonna be enough because I'm her enough. It's okay. I am the only one who is going to be enough for her and that that that's not your role to fill. Your role is to be her mother and guide her but my role is to be her enough. I just have never forgotten that moment that was like 5 years ago, because it just brought me into a new place of peace and of worth and not hustling for, I think, Brene Brown of hustling for our worthiness.
Speaker 3:For me it's not about trying to fill both shoes or anything like that. I'm not trying to be her mom and dad. I'm just trying to be her mom and point her to Jesus because he's fine enough and he's gonna be and I hope one day that he is her enough.
Speaker 2:What hurdles do single moms face that most people don't naturally think about?
Speaker 3:Obviously, like, yeah, there's big ones. We just talked about that. But I remember a conversation I had with you and Katie several months back that I don't think y'all realize this. We're on the phone and I said, look y'all. Zuri's bedtime is, like, 7, 7:30.
Speaker 3:Do y'all realize that means at 7, 7:30, I can't leave the house? There is no grocery shopping that happens when Zuri is in bed. I mean, it sounds so silly, but it is kind of a hurdle. And, you know, we gotta stop judging those moms at the grocery store at 10 o'clock at night with their 3 year old babies. I have absolutely done it, and I need to check myself.
Speaker 3:Because if I didn't have the people in my life who can come over and babysit or when I need to go out at night to do something or to, you know, pick up medicine, pick up food. But it it can be hard because it is hard to get everything done during the workday when you're trying to work, also buy groceries, also do, you know, whatever you it it is you need to do and still manage to get a child to bed on time at a decent hour. And I get at some point, you know, she'll be able to stay by herself at home, you know, probably when she's 18, although I'm being totally serious. I really don't think she'll, like, ever be okay with staying at home by herself. That's okay.
Speaker 3:You know, it's it's there's, like, some little things like that that are a little exhausting, other hurdles.
Speaker 2:I I would say, like, drilling things into the wall, I feel like, has been a hurdle for you personally.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. I'm not super handy.
Speaker 2:Gen general man things that our society has has deemed as manly power drills and stuff. Though I've seen you carry a power drill.
Speaker 3:I can use I am getting better at using a power drill. I mean, it kind of offends me because, you know, I do feel like women can do things, do anything men do. I am not one of those women, so it's a little disappointing. There have been a few times where I'm like, yeah. I could I could use a man around to do some of these jobs.
Speaker 3:Only a few times.
Speaker 2:Okay. Only only a few situations.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We we really aren't that useful. But, I want our mentors to understand more clearly the experience of a single mom and how it's different from their own experience of getting a babysitter to come once a week and going out on date nights. Like, I don't think you're going out on date nights once a week. You're just trying to spend time with a friend once a week. Like like, what?
Speaker 3:And I'm trying to spend time with friends, like, once a month. Kinda my I realized literally on January 30th, I realized I was like, oh, shoot. It's January 30th. I have not hung out with friends this month, so I better get out of the house. I had I had I had taken a work I had done a work retreat, so I'd spent 2 days away from Missouri.
Speaker 3:And then at the beginning of the month, I had helped a friend move across the country, so that was another 2 days. So I'd spent 4 days total away from Missouri, kind of like a week apart, so it had felt like a lot of time. And because of that, the other weekends, I didn't I didn't wanna leave her because if I'm gonna go out if I'm gonna go hang out with friends on a weekend night, that means I'm gonna have I'm gonna ask my parents if she can spend the night at their house as opposed to just getting a babysitter because, as all parents know, babysitters are expensive. I used to be a babysitter and have a lot more compassion for all parents because I'm like, oh my gosh. This is crazy.
Speaker 3:So, you know, it it's hard and, I mean, weeknights are kinda just out of the question. She's I I I can't bring her to my parents on a weeknight. She's gotta be up for school and at school at 7:15 in the morning, so it's hard to manage. And I wanna be with her on the weekends because I pick her up after work maybe maybe 5:30 some days, maybe 6:30 some days, and her bedtime is 7, 7:30. So there's just not a lot of time during the weekdays.
Speaker 2:What does it look like for you when you dream for Zuri? Because I'm sure when you look at her, sometimes you have these moments where just like her as an adult, her as, grown individual, like, what is the dream that that you see when you think about Zuri when she's 18? I know obviously you said you don't want her to be stuck at your house afraid of the dark, but are there any are there any things that God's put on your heart to see Zuri become?
Speaker 3:Okay. Well, that question was not on the list, so you are kind of calling me for a loop here. But, ma'am, my my prayer for Zuri, I just pray over her. I just want her to know how much she's loved by God. I want her to know how much she's loved by me, but more importantly, just how much God loves her.
Speaker 3:I don't even think I realized how much God loves me until Zuri was born. I want Zuri to know how much she's loved before that because I've I really believe that if somebody knows beyond a shadow of a doubt how much Jesus loves them, the rest will fall into place. There's not gonna be all this searching. There's not gonna be a whole identity crisis. We won't be filled with, are we enough?
Speaker 3:Are we worthy? Because I feel like so much of my struggles were born out of that that deep longing of I'm not enough. I don't feel loved. I'm worthless. And so my hope for her is just she knows I'm loved.
Speaker 3:And not just by her mom, but by God. And I know my role I have a role in that. I have a role to show God's love to her, but I know that it it's gotta come from God. You know?
Speaker 2:I think that'd be a good question for every mentor to ask the the parent of the kid they're mentoring is, like, hey. What's what is your dream for your child? And, like, to connect to I don't know. Because I I imagine the bond that you have with Zuri is so much stronger, than I I think many parents who maybe feel like they're competing for, I don't know, relationship with their child of, like, I don't I don't know. Good cop, bad cop.
Speaker 2:You're both of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But but just, like, how much more do single moms have dreams for their kids and, like, desires for, yeah, just who they will become, and I think that's beautiful. Okay, Steph. Wanna ask you about single moms and the church. In the United States, there are 15,000,000 single moms. 67% of those single moms are not actively attending a local church.
Speaker 2:And I even heard that less than 1% of churches in the United States have a a program or an outreach to single parents. So that's interesting just to think about, but what's keeping single moms from being a part of a local church?
Speaker 3:I think it is hard for single moms to be a part of a local church when there is such a stigma around being a single mom. I think the stigma is lessening, but I think it is still there. I think I can't speak for everybody, but I can speak for me. I still feel it, whether that is, you know, just something inside of me, or that's, you know, some small things people are doing. I can I can still feel it?
Speaker 3:And like you said, even in the the fact that there's less than 1 percent that has programs, that says something to me that there are 15,000,000 single moms and yet only 1% programs for us. Where where you're putting your money and your resources and your time says what you value. So if none of your money, your resources, your time are going to single moms, to me it says you're not really valuing single moms. And that's kind of like a big statement, but it's just just to over oversimplify it, that's kind of what it says from that, you know, one statistic. But, also, even for me, growing up in church and in that whole purity culture, especially in the Bible Belt in the South, we were all taught, you know, sex outside of marriage is one of probably the worst things you can do.
Speaker 3:Getting pregnant outside of marriage is just really, really, really the worst thing in your life that can happen, probably more so more so than just having sex outside of marriage. Getting pregnant is the big problem. It's not just about having sex. It's about people knowing it happened. It's about people seeing the sin, not the sin happening.
Speaker 3:Now I'm not saying that wasn't the message that was spoken, but that was the message I internalized. And so having to, have the message I internalized become true in my life, was really hard, and I had to deal with that. And I had to bring that to God and release that back to him, and I did, you know, ask forgiveness for that because I had messed up big, and, I I I saw that the mess I created, really had is gonna have huge lasting effects on another person's life. But, again, trusting God that he is bigger than my mistakes, and he is gonna make all things new. It can be really hard getting plugged in at church as a single mom.
Speaker 3:Again, like we talked about earlier, finding the time in your schedule, I mean, with anybody. I get it. Like, if you're in school and working as a parent and then you're looking at, you know, the life group, the connect group, community groups, whatever they call it because you look and they've got groups for married people, and they've got groups for families, and they've got groups for singles. And you're like, well, which group of those do I fall into? Because I don't know if I really I can't really go to the singles group that meets at 8 PM on Wednesday nights, and I can't go to the mom's play date groups that meet at 11 AM on Tuesdays, and I can't go to the married group.
Speaker 3:And I don't know if I can go to the family's group because I don't have a husband. And so, you know, I I I I do love it when they have, like, ones for everybody because I love I don't I was in a single mom's group for a season, and then we, we didn't have it anymore, and that was such a bummer because I I really, really love that. But I also love being in a group with all different kinds of people because I want to get to know married people, and I wanna get to know families, and I wanna get to know people older than me and younger than me and single people. Like, I love learning from people who have different experiences than me. And so I love that, and I want that diversity and that community.
Speaker 3:I think that struggle of churches and wanting people to be so with other like minded people in similar life situations, and I get that. But at the same time, it puts everybody in boxes that people with different situations kinda feel very excluded. And even with trying to make friends, I meet, you know, a lady, and I wanna get to know her and be her friend, but, oh, she's married or she has a family. So it feels like I can't really hang out with her family or her and her husband. It's gotta be, like, we've gotta do coffee or she's gotta make some, like, special time for me.
Speaker 3:I can't just be in we can't just do life together, which is disappointing because I feel like I'm missing out on that. Like, I've been so grateful for my friendship with you and Katie because I I'm just I'm grateful to be able to do life with y'all and see y'all's marriage because I I mean, I haven't seen I don't have a lot of married couple friends, and it's such a blessing to be able to witness a healthy marriage because obviously, I am not married, and I want to know what that looks like. I want to see what it looks like for a man to serve his wife and to love her well. I also want Zuri to see that. I don't I don't really always think about, like, Zuri having a father figure in her life.
Speaker 3:Although my dad does play a huge role in her life and is with her all the time, but he he fills the grandfather role very well. And so I'm glad that she has men in her life who are great men, but I think she is well aware that they're, you know, they're not they're not fathers. But I do want her to see good men in her life, and so, I want to be friends with the whole family and not just the women in the family. And so that's something that I want from a church that I don't always feel like I can can get. I love to talk about, like, what the people of churches have done for me in a way, like, God has used the church to provide for us because I mean, I have just been blown away by the generosity of the church.
Speaker 3:I mean, they've been absolutely amazing since, even before Zuri was born.
Speaker 2:Can you share some stories of church wins in the single mom category? Where you're just like, way to go, church.
Speaker 3:I would love to. Thanks for asking. So I showed up. I have been living in Chicago. I showed back up at my parents' church when I was 8 months pregnant.
Speaker 3:I was so nervous. I was weirdly more nervous about my tattoos than I was about being 8 months pregnant.
Speaker 2:I
Speaker 3:remember talking with my mom, like, oh my gosh. I have to wear a cardigan. I can't let people see my tattoos. Like, don't worry about the fact that, like, you know, I'm pregnant and I'm married, but, you know, whatever. So I I really felt like in the past when I had struggled, there had been times where I come to people in the church, and I needed some, like, some real practical help, and I kinda been let down.
Speaker 3:And that is not what happened. Jesus's people just showed up with diapers, with beautiful dresses, like, not just the practicals, with, like, beautiful, like, quilts, like handmade quilts. My love language is gifts, and God just, like, spoke to me with the most beautiful things. Jesus just poured out in the most beautiful ways through his people. People brought us meals.
Speaker 3:I remember we were getting all these awesome gifts and like, even before she was born, and I had just gotten a bill from my doctor's office and I had thought like, man, I'm so grateful for all these gifts, but, like, right now, I really, like, need some cash to pay this doctor's bill. A couple days later, a bible study gave me a Visa gift card, and it was just more than what the doctor's bill was. And God, I felt like, just spoke to me throughout that whole time. Hey. I am going to provide for you.
Speaker 3:And before that, I kinda had this picture of what single motherhood would look like. I'm gonna be struggling. I'm just gonna work these minimum wage jobs that, don't really matter to me. You know, we're just this is what life is gonna look like. It's just gonna be a struggle, and I'm just gonna do what I have to do.
Speaker 3:And God just was, like, had a whole other plan for us. And Zurich got these gifts that were just completely impractical, like, a Tiffany's piggy bank, which is just the most useless gift for an infant. But I just think that is just kind of in this this way of, like, Jesus speaking to me of, like, I wanna shower you above and beyond. Like, I'm giving you what you don't even deserve. Okay?
Speaker 3:Happy it's not about what you did. It's about how much I love you. I love you so so much that I just wanna bless you abundantly. In June of that year, when we did the parent child dedication, I remember I was standing at the end of the line. There's, you know, probably 7 couples in front of me, all couples, and I'm just standing there in front of the entire church feeling very uncomfortable being just me up there.
Speaker 3:And as it gets to my turn, the pastor who, you know, also happened to be my dad at Northwest, got to me and each time he, prays for somebody they asked people to stand up who came to support them. He got I, you know, I'm thinking okay a bunch of people know me, there's gonna be some people standing for me. When he got to me he asked you know if anyone came to support Stephanie and Zuri please stand up. I look up and the entire congregation stood up. And for me that was just this moment where God said, you may be a single mom but you're not doing this alone.
Speaker 3:And I just never forgot that moment. I just thought what would it look like? What would it look like if this is how the church responded to every single mom, to every pregnant woman who walked through their doors? It's really not complicated. We're just asking people to love like Jesus does, to just stand up, you know, to just stand up.
Speaker 3:People have blessed me with free childcare so much. There's a family still from Northwest who watches Zuri twice a week after school. I remember when I was finishing my undergrad, I had to do an internship. So for 3 months, I wasn't getting paid, and I honestly was like, I don't know how I'm going to pay rent. My rent was $695, and I was having a graduation party.
Speaker 3:And I thought I really didn't expect people to bring gifts to my graduation party. And I thought if I could just but maybe if I if I get $695 for rent, I'll be golden. I I guess it's tacky to talk about money. I like to talk about money because I love to hear how God moves. Well, I was shocked.
Speaker 3:Again, I don't know why I keep being shocked. People showed up to my graduation party. And I really I invited a lot of people because there were so many people who had got me through that my undergrad that I really was just bringing these people together to celebrate what he had done. I people had given me double that. And, again, it was just like God was and I had been really worried.
Speaker 3:I've been like, I don't know how I'm gonna pay my rent next month. And, again, God was just like, no. It's gonna be okay. I'm going to provide for you. Again, last I mean, even up from, like, a year and a half ago, I or 2 years ago when my car got totaled and I was trying to figure out how to get a new car.
Speaker 3:And I got it I got a car and found out somebody had helped me with that. I mean, God just is always just showing up saying, hey. I'm gonna provide. And in in big ways like that, but also in ways like how we are in the middle of a crazy world crisis. And so I've got kinda small problems right now, but kind of big for us.
Speaker 3:I, Missouri needed medication last night and had a really good friend named Stephen Murray who dropped off medication at our door because I'm not supposed to leave my house. And people calling me and checking up, and I I talked with another with a mom friend last night who said, you know what? You really need to make a schedule. And so today, I made a schedule, and she talked about, like, you really need to push screen time back as far as possible. And I wanted to tell her, look.
Speaker 3:We're just trying to get through the day. But it's like, no. This is a good word. And we did that, and we pushed screen time back, and we didn't have screen time all day long. So it's like, you know, we're gonna do more.
Speaker 3:We're gonna this is gonna be okay, but, like, just so many, there's just been so many people from the church community who have supported us, loved us, encouraged us, whether that is babysitting or rent or, you know, food, all the things in between. And, again, it's just so cool, and I'm so grateful to be on this side of, to be on the side of this and say, wow. Look how God, look how God provides, and God just keeps providing through his people.
Speaker 2:Stephanie loved having you on the podcast. We'll put Stephanie's social media and email in the show notes so you can connect with her later. Steph, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You're welcome.
Speaker 2:Steph, who is your favorite mentor in a movie and why?
Speaker 3:I feel like coach Herman Boone. I mean
Speaker 2:Remember the titans. Let's go.
Speaker 3:I mean, how can you not name him? I mean, what a guy. I that was one of our favorite movies when I think it came out on that. Maybe I was in like 5th or 6th grade and I re I watched that again recently and I just started bawling in the opening credits. I mean, I just cried throughout the whole movie.
Speaker 3:That guy's amazing. However, I mean, Danny Ocean, the way he mentored, I'm blanking on his name.
Speaker 2:George Clooney?
Speaker 3:Who's the guy?
Speaker 2:I was real Matt Damon?
Speaker 3:Matt Damon.