Never Too Late: Embracing the Hard & Holy | Michelle Konson

Hey, Lionesses! Today, I'm joined by my dear friend, Michelle Konson, a powerful voice for women who feel like their stories are too flawed for redemption.

In this conversation, we dive into the incredible power of embracing our past to find profound healing and purpose. Michelle and I share how our journey of uncovering our own stories began at a life-changing workshop. We talk about the beauty and the necessity of doing this difficult work in community, and how our deepest wounds can become the source of our greatest impact. You'll hear Michelle's inspiring story of moving from a place of self-doubt to a confident leader and mentor, all by taking small, courageous steps. This episode is a powerful testament to the idea that it is never too late for redemption, no matter where you are in your journey. We discuss how motherhood, career, and volunteering have all played a vital role in her path, and how every experience—good or bad—is a part of the beautiful story God is writing.

Join us as we explore how a new "hard" can lead to a holy and purposeful life, and why your unique story is the very thing that the world needs you to share.

www.michellekonson.com
www.jenportercoach.com

00:00 Introduction to Lioness Conversations
01:13 Meeting Michelle Konson: A Journey of Healing
03:42 The Importance of Storytelling in Healing
08:04 Vulnerability and Community: The Power of Connection
12:15 Embracing Our Stories: The Path to Redemption
15:08 Michelle's Mission: Encouraging Women to Embrace Their Stories
18:43 The Role of Community in Overcoming Self-Doubt
22:46 Impacting Lives: Michelle's Work with MomCo and LoVE USA
28:00 Seeing God Through the Eyes of the Orphaned
30:52 Compassion Born from Pain: The Transformative Power of Suffering
32:37 The Journey of Motherhood and Faithfulness
37:13 Lessons in Control and Surrender
39:32 It's Never Too Late: Redemption in Parenting
43:52 The Power of Forgiveness and Vulnerability
50:51 Starting the Healing Journey
57:41 Embracing Our Stories for Healing

Creators and Guests

Host

Jen Porter

Corporate leader turned entrepreneur, I created "Lioness Conversations" to amplify the voices of extraordinary women—leaders who have faced fear, overcome challenges, and are now shaping the world with their work. This podcast is a space for courage, truth, and deep inspiration. My mission is to empower women to be brave, leading with confidence and joy, to do the most meaningful work of their lives.

Guest

Michelle Konson

A relentless pursuer of truth and a proud South African, Michelle Konson helps women find hope and redemption by embracing the fullness of their stories. Through her decades of experience as a writer, speaker, mentor, attorney, and mom, she encourages those who feel it's too late for grace to see the beauty in their flawed journeys. She is a dedicated volunteer and advocate for MomCo. and LoVE USA, a nonprofit benefiting AIDS orphans in Southern Africa.

What is Lioness Conversations: Faith-Fueled Stories of Women Leaders & Founders | Leadership rooted in Christ?

Welcome to Lioness Conversations: Faith-Fueled Stories of Women Leaders & Founders — a space where purpose-driven women share how their faith in Christ shapes their leadership, courage, and calling. 🦁

Hosted by Jen Porter, leadership and empowerment coach, this podcast shines a light on women who are leading with wisdom, strength, and grace — in boardrooms, businesses, ministries, and movements around the world.

Through raw, inspiring conversations, we explore how women of faith are building legacies, overcoming fear, and transforming their industries with bold vision and unshakable belief. If you’re ready to rise higher, lead with purpose, and stay rooted in Christ — this is your community.

Faith-Based Leadership | Christian Women in Business | Women of Faith | Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs | Female Founders | Women in Leadership | Christian Podcast for Women | Empowerment for Women | Women in Ministry | Kingdom Leadership | Christ-Centered Business | Women of Influence | Spiritual Growth | Women Entrepreneurs | Authentic Leadership | Women’s Empowerment | Christian Mentorship | Female CEOs | Leadership Development | Women in Marketplace Ministry | Leading for Legacy | Eternal Impact

Jen Porter (00:00)
Hey, Lioness, welcome to the show, Lioness Conversations, where we help women be brave, to lead with confidence and joy, and to find your path to the most meaningful work of your life. I'm your host, Jen Porter, leadership and empowerment coach for ambitious and heart-centered women who are ready to change the world. You can find out more at jenportercoach.com. You can join the Lioness community, and you can also nominate someone else or yourself.

for this podcast through the website. Today we have a very special guest, Michelle Konson Michelle is a relentless pursuer of truth and a proud South African who helps women find hope and redemption by embracing the fullness of their stories. Through her decades of experience as a writer, speaker, mentor, attorney, and mom, she encourages those who feel it's too late for redemption.

and to see the beauty in their own flawed journeys. She's a dedicated volunteer and advocate for MomCo and LoVE USA, a nonprofit benefiting AIDS orphans in Southern Africa. And she is my dear friend. Michelle, welcome to the show.

Michelle Konson (01:13)
Thanks, Jan. It's such a joy to be here. Yeah, just really so grateful to be here and to just be part of what you're doing. It's been a joy to watch, you know, your journey over the years since we met, what was it, almost 10 years ago now ⁓ at the Allender Center Story Workshop in Denver. And yeah, we met there, both living in Northern Virginia at the time and, you know, came back and grew our friendship and it's just, yeah.

Jen Porter (01:27)
Yes.

Yes!

Michelle Konson (01:38)
It's just been an honor to watch you as you've taken your journey on so beautifully and to where you are now.

Jen Porter (01:45)
I mean, we never could have imagined. I was reflecting on that this morning as I was just imagining this conversation that we were gonna have. And you're right. I mean, we met in Denver and we realized that we both lived in, outside of DC in Northern Virginia. And it was like, really? know, cause we connected and then to know that we could continue that relationship, not just virtually, but also in person, at least for the time that I lived there. And then I was thinking this morning, wow.

you were there at the beginning of my own journey of certainly uncovering my own story. The year that we met, call the year of rage. I was undone and I didn't know what to do with all of it. And that's the year that we met. But then the next year, Ken and I are dating and thinking about getting married and trying to...

Michelle Konson (02:24)
Bye.

Jen Porter (02:38)
untangle all of my stuff to be prepared for a healthy relationship and my coaching business that I launched in 2017. thought, wow, you know, we intersected at this really interesting time in our lives. And then what you've been able to do since then is so remarkable. it's thinking about the name of, I mean, what I do on this podcast is telling the stories. And that's literally what brought us together was

Michelle Konson (03:04)
Yes.

Jen Porter (03:05)
discovering our own story through the story workshop at the Allender Center, Dan Allender. Amazing. Well.

Michelle Konson (03:12)
Yeah. Yeah. I had no

idea. I think when I signed up for it, right, I knew that I was looking for more. I knew I was looking for healing. Um, and I, I, I, I was so desperate at the time to find, you know, to find just wholeness and goodness. And, um, you know, I didn't really know what the story workshop was. It sounded great in the description and I'd heard Dan speak and he'd really, you know,

Jen Porter (03:23)
Yeah.

Michelle Konson (03:42)
Connected with you know where I was in my life and so was like I have to go to this But again also really not knowing I mean we have to write a childhood story You know to work through during the workshop and I'm like well, why like what what purpose is this? I have a really traumatic story from when I'm 17. Can I do that? And they're like no it needs to be younger and I'm like no that was my most traumatic They're really making a mistake by making me not work through that and yet now that I'm here

almost 10 years later, can tell, you know, A, why that childhood story was so important, but B, just the whole process of us going back to our childhood woundings, right? Why that is so important and that we don't really know that we need to do that until somebody points us in that direction.

Jen Porter (04:27)
What do you think opened up for you as a result of diving into your story in that way?

Michelle Konson (04:34)
I think I started seeing things that I'd never seen before. And I started seeing them with other people mirroring back what I was telling them, right? Because we all have our narratives. We all have our stories that we tell ourselves. I mean, that's part of being human, right? We are story beings, we also make stories to make sense, right? And to survive. And I think I had my own stories, but once we got to the workshop,

And then had to relay this childhood story of ours to other people. And for other people to mirror back to me. Michelle, that was... that was crazy. That was not normal. That was not right. That was not good. If we'd be like, well that was really... I had to really work hard to try and find one, right? To find a story that even in my mind remarkably bore like elements of trauma.

Because I was like, well, they really aren't any, right? And so, you know, I picked one that seemed somehow benign. But then when I shared it and I started hearing other people, empathetic listeners, replaying to me what I had just said to them, I was like, my goodness, my eyes were just opened to the possibility of there is just so much here that is uncovered, but it needs to be uncovered. That's covered, that's been hidden.

that I need to work through. you know, and so you, and then you start with that one story and then that story links to another story and links to another story. And then, you know, these stories just start coming back, right? And we know from neuroscience that our, our bodies fragment, right? That's, that's a survival mechanism, right? We fragment to survive because we can't contain and hold the whole trauma of some of these stories.

But then as we get older and we start looking back and start trying to piece together as we remember one fragment, we then are reminded of another and another. It's like bread crumbs. Yeah.

Jen Porter (06:26)
It's interesting

that the impact of telling our story or even discovering our story for the first time with others, because you're right, do, we have our own reflection of memory, how we remember it. I mean, I would say that every woman that I talk to minimizes their story.

Michelle Konson (06:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think, again, that's how we're, that's how we're surviving. That's also how we're conditioned, right? We're like, we're told, just brush it off. That's, that's not a big deal. Just move on. Just be strong. You know, don't cry. Don't fret over that. Leave it in the past. Like, we're told these things, right? Right, right. And it's years and years of hearing that. And eventually we're like, okay, yeah.

Jen Porter (07:00)
Right.

Yeah, don't talk about it.

Michelle Konson (07:14)
That's right, and it becomes a lived experience for us. But Dr. Curt Thompson is huge on the power of telling our story to empathetic listeners and how they can then mirror parts of our story back to us. And if they are regulated and they can feel their emotions by them doing that, it helps us to do the same, right?

And so, you know, that's one of the biggest takeaways I've had on story work is that we cannot do this work alone. We were created by a triune God. And so we were never meant to do any part of our story alone. We were always meant to do it in community. And I, but our society, think pushes us to isolation, right? You're independent, you're strong, you can do it all. Just, you know, you can do whatever you want and you don't need others, right?

Jen Porter (07:51)
Mm-hmm.

Michelle Konson (08:04)
But that's a lie, I believe. we also don't want to be needy, right? Because he wants to be weak, supposedly weak and needy. But that's, again, also a lie. And we need others to help us on this journey. And we need others to walk with us for the hard parts and also the good parts.

Jen Porter (08:10)
Yeah, it feels weak.

Yeah.

friend of mine and I were just talking about how there's even a temptation to want to be strong even when we're in counseling. Or even when we're in, like she's going through grief counseling. Like that's a place to just be messy and be hurt and be sad and be undone. And she's like, but I still have this temptation and want to pull it together for the other person.

Michelle Konson (08:35)
You

Jen Porter (08:52)
And I'm like, this is so true. We want to be strong even when there's space for us to show the true emotions. But it does, I am aware that I have this mindset that there's some weakness. Like if I can't hold it together, then I'm weak. And so it's a lot to push through in order to get to the other side.

Michelle Konson (08:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

It is, and I think part of that too is that we, one of reasons we don't want to be vulnerable and fall apart when we need to, even in spaces that are created for us to do that, like a grief workshop or in counseling, I think is because, A, we're, know, sent these messages and we've grown up this way, but also I think that there are many occasions in our childhood where we were needy and we did need something from someone and it wasn't given to us.

And so our bodies learn it's not safe, right? Like it's not safe to be vulnerable. It's not safe to tell other people what you need. It's not safe to fall apart. You have to hold it together, right? And so, and again, those messages come through decades, right? For those of us, know, at the stage in our lives where we're starting to look back for so long, you know, and to undo decades of messaging and programming and...

know, ruts in our brains. Like it takes a lot of work. We don't just say, this is a safe place. I can fall apart here. Right. When for 50 years we've been holding it together. Right. And so, you know, neuroplasticity is real, which is awesome, but it also takes a lot of time to create those new neural pathways and it takes practice. Right. It takes doing it once and feeling really awkward and like, you know,

Jen Porter (10:44)
Mm-hmm.

Michelle Konson (10:47)
vulnerability hangover, like I failed, I shouldn't have done that, I shared too much. But being like, no, okay, I can do this again, I was okay afterwards, right? And then doing it again and again. And that's how we build those new neural pathways. But it takes practice and it takes time. And so it makes total sense, right? We'd be in those spaces and we'd be like, I want to fall apart, there's space for me to fall apart, but I just can't do it, right?

Jen Porter (11:08)
Great.

Yeah. I can remember being in my group at the story workshop and the leader facilitating the group spoke something just like you heard, you know, he mirrored back what I was telling him and he said it in a way that I couldn't allow myself to see before because of what that meant. The truth of what it meant to see, to see it.

for what it was, but I always remembered that. And it really helped me almost recategorize things in my mind.

Michelle Konson (11:41)
Mm-hmm.

Jen Porter (11:46)
And so just the impact of that one experience that opened up, I went to there, I went there because I was in the process of writing my story. And I thought, oh, this will help me. And I ended up writing my story. have literally a manuscript, but that's not the story that I'll be sharing publicly. I'm not going to publish that story, but I am publishing the Lioness Rise Up book, which is the telling of 12 Lioness stories.

Michelle Konson (11:50)
Right.

Hmm.

So, yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Jen Porter (12:16)
Which is awesome. So

it's it's amazing. Tell us what is your mission now? What are you focused on in the season?

Michelle Konson (12:24)
Yeah, so I think following my own journey and just realizing the incredible healing that's come and that is still to come and how I long for this to be part of everyone's journey really.

I have a real heart for encouraging women to embrace their stories with courage and curiosity and kindness. You know, again, I think the messages from the world are the opposite. And also there's no time and space really in our busy lives to

Look at ourselves and take time for our own healing and so I am really passionate about encouraging women and men but you know more staying, you know with who I am with women and Looking at the impact of the wounding of their childhood on their current relationships and their lives right now because I think At least my story was I think I try to fix from the outside in right? I try to read the books

you know, get all the advice, listen to friends, mentors, counselors, and then do whatever I needed to do, right? Like I was trying to fix myself because I knew I was broken. We all are. And I was trying to fix it, but I felt like no matter how hard I tried at doing that, I really couldn't make any traction. I would just find myself straight back where I was. And none of those things seemed to really have any impact. And once I started looking,

at woundings that I'd had and survival strategies that I'd built to protect myself from those woundings, it started to make so much sense that I was struggling in the way that I was struggling. And I long for other people to find that freedom of, instead of what's wrong with me, that makes total sense, right? To move from we're all broken, we just are, and there's nothing wrong with that, there's no shame in that.

And that means that we can move to a space of healing if we're just broken And you know, shame would love us to stay in the space of what's wrong with me because that you know paralyzes us it keeps us stuck and It doesn't move us towards actively seeking healing and wholeness

Jen Porter (14:33)
I'm gonna plug Curt Thompson's work. You mentioned him earlier and he wrote a book called The Soul of Shame. And one of my friends is actually reading it for the first time right now. And the Anatomy of the Soul is the other one, correct? Yeah.

Michelle Konson (14:36)
⁓ huh.

Mm-hmm.

Uh-huh. I think he's

written four actually and then the soul of desire and the place. I'm not gonna read the book on suffering. ⁓ Yeah, so there's four and they're all incredible. Yeah.

Jen Porter (14:55)
No.

Wow, and how are you doing this work? I know you love to encourage women and particularly moms. How are you doing that right now?

Michelle Konson (15:08)
Yeah, so I am writing, although I was taking a bit of a backseat. would, I'm working on a book that is, you know, taking time and that's okay. I'm realizing it's all part of the process. And that's where this all started, right? And where you and I actually started working together professionally for a while, right? Is where I was like, I feel like I'm being called to write, to encourage others, but I can't put a sentence on a page. And so writing literally,

Jen Porter (15:32)
Like literally, literally, literally.

Michelle Konson (15:34)
Yeah, like, yeah.

Jen Porter (15:35)
I mean, you knew you were called to write and you, what was happening? You weren't able to write and what was happening?

Michelle Konson (15:37)
Right.

Yeah, I... I...

I think I felt like I couldn't do it. I was being called to do it and I wanted to do it but I felt like I couldn't do it. I had no self-confidence. I had no belief in myself that I could actually do this thing that I felt like I really wanted to and needed to do. Right? And you encouraged me. You're like, okay, this week your homework is to write for five minutes.

Jen Porter (15:48)
Believe that was from one set.

Five minutes.

Michelle Konson (16:10)
And I was like, I was like, I can do five minutes and that sounds terrifying all at the same time, right? And so I just wrote for five minutes because the pressure of I have to write a book was taken off, right? Like, yeah, so big. And it was like, I have to write for five minutes. And I was like, I can do that. I can write for five minutes. And so I would sit down and put my timer on and write for five minutes and writing for five minutes, let me to see that I could write for 10 minutes.

Jen Porter (16:21)
So good.

Yes.

Michelle Konson (16:37)
and

then that I could write for 30 minutes, right? And then I applied for Anne Swindell's writing mastermind called Writing with Grace and was accepted into that, which was just such a sweet open door and got to work with Anne Swindell and a bunch of other incredible Christian writers for a year. And that was like somebody holding my hand through this process of...

Yeah, you can do this. Yeah, you can do this. Yeah.

Jen Porter (17:04)
I want to pause you there because I think

people are going to really resonate with that. mean, how many of us have a deep knowing that there's something important for us to do when you actually know what it is? It might be a little fuzzy because we don't have the full picture of what it is, but there's like this urge, a compulsion to do something, to make a particular impact. And we...

Michelle Konson (17:09)
Hmm.

Thanks

Jen Porter (17:32)
hold ourselves back because of fear. And what you were saying is you had a lot of self-doubt, a lot of insecurity about whether or not you even had what it took to write, to get the thing done. So what shifted or what did you need to believe about yourself in order to make that shift, even just to show up for five minutes for yourself to write?

Michelle Konson (17:41)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so I think, you know, we all know imposter syndrome is huge. But it really has helped me to realize that everybody has it, right? I thought I only I had it right. It was only me that didn't have what it took and was trying to do something she couldn't do. Right. But first of all, realizing, and this is in hindsight, right, that everyone has it and that that shouldn't stand in your way. But I honestly think the key, Jen, was not being alone in it. Again, it was having you.

Jen Porter (18:17)
Yeah.

Michelle Konson (18:20)
initially and then having my mastermind friends and Anne come walk alongside me and There's accountability there But there's also people saying you can do this I believe in you and We need that again We don't want it because we think it's weak not to have it in and of ourselves, but we so desperately need that it is so important

And, so I did that year with Anne and our group still meets. We're actually going on a retreat next month. We now go on an annual retreat together and we have monthly zoom calls. Like, and so we are still in community and we're still encouraging each other through life and through writing. but last year I went to my first writing conference, right to publish. And, I met two, I met lots of wonderful people. but I met two women that,

Jen Porter (18:49)
How?

my god.

Michelle Konson (19:09)
I really believe I was destined to meet there and the three of us have formed a Marco Polo group that we are on constantly, like weekly, multiple times, sometimes multiple times a day. And we have come alongside one another in the creative space. And so while we're all writers, we're all doing a work that we feel like we've been called to a work that's meaningful and purposeful that needs to find its way in the world.

But we can't do it alone. And honestly, will tell you, Jen, just by being in that group, there's no magic and no one's doing my work for me, right? Like, know, Jenny and Jillian aren't, you know, actually writing anything for me or creating anything for me. But we're coming on that group saying, I feel so lost. This is what I feel like I should be doing. And for some reason I can't do it. And we'll be like, I hear you. I feel that way too. That's so hard.

wonder if it could be related to this that's happening in your life or I wonder if this might be helpful because this helped me a couple of weeks ago or I have no answers and I'm just gonna cry with you or I'm just gonna hold this for you or I'm just gonna pray with you and Just that journey like the past year you asked what am I doing now? So I was writing and I'm speaking and I'm working on creating a platform for women

to find a space where they can start doing this work, right? But, you know, just this past year, I've done so much that I could never have done without their support. And again, also my mastermind support and a few other women that have come alongside me and supported me. And so I will say that I think, find people to walk with you. Because walking, we cannot do this alone and we keep...

We keep thinking we can, right? And it's when I, it's my moments of great, my moments of greatest despair, when I'm like, I can't do this. I have so much to do. There's no way I can do this. And it's because I'm alone in those times. And I need to be like, I, I need my people. I need my people to remind me what's true, to encourage me in this work that I'm And just to not make me feel alone.

Jen Porter (21:22)
Yeah, I have a Marco Polar team too. it's, know, daily, there's this incredible support that is felt. It's like an energetic change that happens when we are with one another in that way, virtually. And I'm sorry, it's actually Voxer. It's not, it's, you know, audio. It's not even video. So there's even less pressure.

Michelle Konson (21:47)
Okay, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jen Porter (21:51)
that has been, we marvel, almost weekly we marvel at how important the group is for each of us and how we didn't know. I felt inspired by God to start the group and I really sat with it for a while because I thought, this just me or am I really being called to this? And I don't know what their circumstances are, but I did it out of just a faith and taking a risk and wow.

We had no idea what would be coming in those months that have passed since we started, I think in October. And we're just so grateful, just so grateful. And you're right, there's something about being buoyed and not feeling alone that is essential. I mean, we're wired that way. We're made for it.

Michelle Konson (22:17)
Right.

Right.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Right?

Right. Correct.

Jen Porter (22:37)
So what have you been doing? Tell me more about the speaking and what you're doing through MomCo and LoveUSM.

Michelle Konson (22:46)
Yeah.

Yeah. So, I, again, I've been speaking, probably for almost a year and a half now, which again, when you said, like, that sounds so short. And, you know, some people have speaking careers, but I'm like, but no, it's a year and a half. And that feels big from, know, where I was last spring where I had not spoken on this ever and didn't feel like I could. And, you know, who would want to hear from me?

And I started finding that as I started sharing my story and, you know, this work that I am just so passionate about others doing that, you know, friends started telling friends and people started telling people and, you know, people just wanted to hear more. And so that's been really encouraging. because I just, again, I love being able to share and encourage others and then to, you know, and then even better is when you hear people come back and be like,

I, you know, listened to that podcast. I took my first step. I started doing this and the impact already has been incredible. And just to know, thank you Lord, that there is just so much goodness in this work and that other people are hearing about it because of small little steps of obedience and faith on my part. So yes, I've been speaking. Um, and I recently in the spring joined the board of momco.

Jen Porter (24:00)
Thanks.

Michelle Konson (24:09)
which is an organization that I've been a part of for the past 23 years since my son Luke was a baby. And, you know, I started and it used to be called MOPs for those that are like, where's mom go? But many of us have heard of MOPs, mothers of preschoolers. And, you know, I went 23 years ago with a, you know, a 20 month old toddler, my oldest daughter and a newborn, my son and...

We had just moved to the DC area and my husband had just been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder that was chronic. And, you know, we were thousands of miles away from any family or home back in South Africa. And so it was a very overwhelming time. And momco again provided the community that I needed. Right. I didn't know it at the time, but I needed people. I needed people to come around me and I needed to come around people. Right.

I needed people. so I, through the years of gone from being that bewildered young mom to being a table leader and then a mentor mom, then a lead mentor mom and now on the board. And it's a mission that I couldn't believe in more. I again, believe in community so strongly, but I also just believe for these young moms, it's such a pivotal time in life, right? Where you're feeling all the things, right? You're feeling, I'm not good enough. I'm a bad mom. There's so much shame.

all these things that we feel when we're, you know, need to start taking care of another human being, right? And we feel so inadequate and inept at what we're doing, but to come alongside and say, this is normal. This is what this process is like. This is natural. You are okay. You are doing a great job and we're here to help you. so yeah, I couldn't believe in the mission of mom code more. so I'm loving my work there. Just loving that I'm able to, you know, have more impact and, yeah, just encourage more moms.

And then my work with Love USA, been doing that for the past 16 years now. So my husband, Mickey and I, before we moved to the US 25 years ago, were supporting out the church we were at was supporting financially just the small hospice that had started up for AIDS orphans. know, moms and dads were dying of AIDS. And these babies were orphaned.

And so there was a nurse that started a hospice to look after these babies until they passed to give them dignity and care and love, you know, in their last few days. And then with the introduction of antiretroviral drugs, these babies started surviving and started becoming children. And, you know, it presented a new problem. Like, what do we do now? And so a children's village called Lily of the Valley was started. And so our church supported them back then. And then we moved to the U.S. and

found out that there was another South African family that had come and that it established a US nonprofit supporting this ministry. And we were like, okay, it's just undeniable that we need to get involved here. And so we started the East Coast chapter, the other family lived on the West Coast. And so we started the East Coast chapter of Love USA and have had fundraisers for the last, we'll have our 16th one in November. And...

It's also just been an incredible joy to be involved in that, to see children thrive from, you know, talk about trauma from the most traumatic circumstances that you could ever imagine. But these children are being loved and cared for and educated and, you know, ushered into adulthood and are finding jobs and community and making a difference.

when they would have just been abandoned and probably, you know, died or, you know, had a terrible life story going forward. So yeah, it's also just a work that I feel extremely passionate about.

Jen Porter (28:00)
I want to ask you about each of those. how has being part of love impacted you? How has it changed you?

Michelle Konson (28:09)
That's a great question. I think it has made me see... It has made me see God with new eyes. Because, again, while we all have trauma and we all have problems and we all have issues day to day, you know, these children have nothing and they have no one. You know, they're orphaned. And to see that...

God takes care of them. They've done nothing, right? To see that, you know, we read in the Bible, right? That God takes care of the sparrows and the lilies. And so why would we, why would we worry about care for ourselves or we do, but to actually see that, like come to life in these children's lives, to see that there is a God who sees them, even if they don't see him, who comes in and he takes care of them.

And he can take care of them through people that live 8,000 miles away, right on the other side of the world. It has just really expanded my view of God. And it reminds me, I didn't do it very effectively, but when I remember to not worry and to trust that God has me. And even through the hard things in my story, right?

that God has a plan and a purpose for those and he allows them for reasons that I don't understand and I may never understand the side of heaven. Right? but you you and I, you and I have spoken about this before that there are so many of my hard parts of my story that I'm like, God, can you just take this away? Like, I don't want this anymore. I just, can you please, you are capable. I know you can just take this away and

I would dearly love if you did that, because this is causing me so much pain and anxiety right now. And most often, almost always, he hasn't taken it away in the way that I wanted him to. But then I can look back and I can be like, of course you didn't take that away. Why would you have? Look what you've done with it. Look what you've done in my life. You've made me start to realize parts of my story that

I never wanted to acknowledge, I never wanted to go back into that pain. Who wants to feel pain, right? But we don't feel pain to feel pain, right? We go back into those painful parts of our story to realize that we are not alone, that there is a God that loves us and cares for us and wants our wholeness and wants us connected to him and wants us to be more like him. And so I think my work through love has really made me see that in ways that I wouldn't see that.

my own life. Right? Because my own life looks very different to the children in the villages. But I can so clearly see God there. So clearly. And it's a real gift.

Jen Porter (30:52)
I'm thinking about the compassion and the generosity that comes from going through things. That if we, I guess it's if we allow ourselves to move through it and find some level of healing and not get stuck in it, then it actually transforms us and we're able to give out of the places where we were comforted.

Michelle Konson (30:59)
Hmm.

Yeah, totally.

Jen Porter (31:19)
Right?

Like I think about that with you being a young mom and what you received through that, you are now giving out of having received. And then with these orphans, you you understand what pain feels like. You understand what it feels like to be lost, abandoned, bewildered, uncertain, insecure. And you're, I can only imagine that your experiences

Michelle Konson (31:25)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Jen Porter (31:46)
or why you want to give, why your heart is compelled to want to care for these little ones and big ones, you know, as they age.

Michelle Konson (31:49)
Hmm.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's, I think there's a lot of truth in that. And I, I think that, yeah, we, can't just get compassion, right? It's not just something that we purchase or obtain, right? Yeah. It goes against every grain of our bodies, right? Cause as much as we need community, we also want for ourselves, right? And there is a survival element in that, right?

Jen Porter (32:06)
Right.

It's not natural.

Michelle Konson (32:22)
But yeah, compassion is not something that we are, think, in a fallen world naturally wired for. ⁓ But it is something that suffering and struggle and pain allow us to have.

Jen Porter (32:29)
Yeah.

I'm also thinking about you as a young mom. I guess you said it was, how old were you when you had your first child?

Michelle Konson (32:49)
I was

26 when I had my first, so was 28 when I joined Mark.

Jen Porter (32:54)
Yeah, okay.

And understanding the state that you would have been in at that time, know, lost, wondering how to care for these little kids. And you probably never could have believed or even imagined that you would be on the other side of that helping young moms at that time, being a mentor, being a leader, now being on the board. And it just, makes me think about...

Michelle Konson (33:11)
Easy.

Jen Porter (33:18)
that the long journey of faithfulness that we never know where it's going to lead us but wow it can be a really beautiful opening of what we never expected.

Michelle Konson (33:32)
Yeah, totally. mean, I don't think I could, I mean, you're right. I could never have imagined that, you know, over two decades later that this would be where I was. Right? Yeah. I mean, what a, what an honor. And yeah, it was just, just totally not on my radar. Right. and I mean, a, because I didn't think that I would ever be able to do that. Right. We'll get to that point.

Jen Porter (33:43)
Something on the board?

Michelle Konson (33:57)
But also, B, I just think I was so lost. And I really was just trying to survive at the time. Right? And it is interesting to look back, you know, in times where you felt like you were struggling so badly and you felt like the world was going to end or you were never going to make it, or you were going to make a total hash of whatever you were in, right? To look back at those times and be like, oh wow.

God carried me through. I walked through that part of my story, not in ways that I thought I would, but in ways that were so much better. And I think as that young mom, control was a big survival strategy for me. If I could just control what was in my little world, I would be okay. So as a young mom, think I was like, if I can just gain control over my kids.

And and and this mothering thing right if I could just make it comfortable or if I could just have a handle on it if I could understand it enough to be doing a good enough job then then I'm gonna be okay right and so that was my goal at the time right was to just be a good mom or a surviving mom first and then a good mom if I could you know if I could try that but I but the ways I was trying to do that were not the ways that I needed to and

And I think if I had just been given a manual and told, okay, you need to do X, Y, Z, I would have done X, Y, Z and checked off the boxes and just carried on. But instead I had to learn the hard way, right? I had to learn because things were painful. I had to learn that you cannot control your children. You cannot control anyone in this world, right? I had to learn those hard lessons that when things felt so out of control,

When there is a baby that's crying for seemingly no reason for hours and hours on end in the middle of the night when you haven't slept for months Like there is no control there at all Right and it's realizing from those times like I needed to go through those though to realize that God was there for me That I was gonna be okay And that this was not the end of the world I could survive this

and you know walk with this community albeit tired and bewildered and overwhelmed but that taking those steps day by day I got to the point where I was like okay yeah I'm I'm progressing on this journey and I don't have I'm not the perfect mom and I don't have the perfect kids and we're not the perfect family but that that's not the goal right I mean I think I really needed to learn too that my

goals were all wrong too, right? I was striving for the wrong things. And I wanted God just to give me what I needed and to answer my prayers as I wanted them answered so that I could just move on to the next thing. I don't even know what that next thing was, right? But I just needed to master the stage and get through it and then we would all be okay. But that's not how it works, right? We all know that and it's the process that has been the most incredible right where I have.

grown the most, learned the most, become more compassionate, become kinder, become more humble, realize how sinful I am, learn to ask for forgiveness, all those things, right? Those were the really important things. I didn't know it at the time.

Jen Porter (37:14)
What is the goal if it's not to survive and to control others?

Michelle Konson (37:20)
Yeah, I think the goal as a believer is to be To become more like God to become more like Jesus to let him do his work in us to be connected to him in a very deep vulnerable honest way And to pour out from from those places right and to be obedient to what he calls us to

to trust that he has us. And so I think the overflow of staying close to him and of trusting that whatever comes our way, right, is part of his plan for us and that we're going to be okay through it. And I think that, I think the goal is to trust him, to become more like him, to stay close to him. And again, I think I had it the wrong way around. Yeah.

Jen Porter (38:03)
Yeah.

It's sort of

the opposite of what we do. try to control when it actually requires surrendering. I am very clear that there is only one who is worthy of surrendering to, and that is God.

Michelle Konson (38:11)
Yep. Totally correct.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jen Porter (38:24)
there's

anyone who's worthy of our full trust and that is him. I think sometimes women can get it a little twisted where we can surrender, submit to everybody around us and lose ourselves. And really, it's God that we are ultimately to obey and surrender to and ultimately listen to. And it's always better than our own plan anyway.

Michelle Konson (38:27)
Right, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Right.

Always better. Always better. Not necessarily more comfortable or less painful or prettier, but always better.

Jen Porter (38:56)
No. But

way more pregnant with purpose. Right.

Michelle Konson (39:04)
right, right. And again, I don't think that we, well, not I don't think, I know we don't succeed on the side of heaven, right? It's a process that continues until our time is up. And we all know how much work there's still to do in each one of us, right? It's, yeah, real baby steps. ⁓

Jen Porter (39:20)
So what would you tell

moms to encourage them in whatever season they are in, whatever age they are and whatever age their kids are? What would you want them to know?

Michelle Konson (39:32)
One of the main things that I have really learned and long to communicate with other moms is that it's never too late. You know, and I think that comes out of part of my story where my kids were in their teens when I started doing this work, right? And so I now have three young adults and I still have one child at home. But I felt like, oh, I totally missed it, right? Like my kids are teens when I'm starting this work. So by the time I, you know,

made any traction or there is any benefit to this healing work that I've done, they've left home. And then it's too late, right? Because their time at home is done. And I failed. And I felt that very deeply. And I still do at times, there's still regret times. But I'm learning to steer that regret and that guilt to God as redemption.

you know, no matter where we are in our lives. And it is never too late because what it's meant in my story is as I've discovered things, I'm now able to go back to my grown kids and to say, Hey, I have realized that this is something that I did when you were growing up. And I am so sorry. Will you forgive me? And again, I don't do this perfectly. I don't do it all the time. I don't do it, you know, when I should sometimes, but I'm doing it more and

And that's okay. And that's goodness, right? Is to be able to still go back. I just listened to, I was part of a webinar on Saturday with Dan Allender and Adam Young, are two of the best voices in story work right now. And both of them were just sharing, right? You continue this work with your kids. There's no, your kids have left the house. Like it's just your...

parenting just transitions to a different form, right? And you still have great influence. I firmly believe and trust that even in these actions now where my kids have left home, that it still has impact. Because I've seen some of my children come back to me and start saying things to me like, hey, I want to tell you this thing that I did.

Jen Porter (41:38)
Yeah.

Michelle Konson (41:49)
that I felt like I couldn't tell you at the time. But I want to tell you now and I'm really sorry will you forgive me. And it's moments like that where I'm like okay like perfection is not the goal and I didn't even want it anymore because the beauty that comes through moments like that is so much better and sweeter than having done it right the first time.

Jen Porter (42:02)
Mmm.

Michelle Konson (42:10)
Because I can actually again just like the children of love I can see God's hand in it right because none of that would be possible without him Right because that's that's God working right because where else do you get to mess up so miraculously right? Just so fully and then have something good come out of it Right that's just that's just not the economy of the world. That's not how it works right you mess up and you get failure That's how near that's the economy of the world and so

Jen Porter (42:27)
Right?

No. No.

Michelle Konson (42:38)
It's allowed me to see God so much more clearly and then also to see him as my parent Through moments like that. Um It's just really been a sweet journey. So I really long for moms to know that it's never too late So if you have a two-year-old and you're like, oh my goodness those first two years of formative development I failed at and now like i'm i'm all lost Nope, not too late at that point. And if you have an 18 year old And they've left home. It's not too late and you have if you have a 40 year old

Jen Porter (43:03)
tonight.

Michelle Konson (43:08)
And you're like, it's too late. It is not too late. Because God is in the work of redemption. It's what he does. It's who he is. He can't do anything but that. It's what he does. And so I just encourage you. Yeah.

Jen Porter (43:21)
Is this, is it rare?

What you're describing sounds rare to me, that where there is this kind of dialogue between parents and children about forgiveness, about admitting wrongs, taking responsibility, being accountable once it's realized. Because most of us, I think the tendency is to just bury it. We don't want to feel it. We don't want to expose ourselves anymore.

I just do you find that that moms are are doing this?

Michelle Konson (43:52)
Yeah, I think, I don't think it's common. But I guess since I started doing this work and I'm in these circles more, I do hear it happening. And it's beautiful. And it is hard. Like it's not natural. You know, we spoke about compassion not being natural. Saying that we're wrong and asking for forgiveness. And not just once, but over and over again.

That's not natural either, right? It's not what we want to do. But I think, know, we were speaking earlier about what the goal is. If the goal is to become more like Jesus, and we are becoming more like Him, then this becomes easier. And I don't know that it'll ever be easy, but it becomes easier. The first time is really hard. Like really hard. I remember a few years ago over the Easter table at our house.

Jen Porter (44:17)
Yeah.

Michelle Konson (44:43)
I felt like God was, you know, was really when I was, you know, just starting to bear some of the fruit and realizing some of what this story work would take of me. And I felt like God was calling me to ask forgiveness of my children for things that I had done that had hurt them growing up. And I didn't want to do that. He wants to do that, you know.

Couple of my kids were in college at the time and they were gonna be home for Easter. So they weren't home that often. So this was the time, right? Cause I didn't have everyone around the table all the time anymore. And so this was gonna be the time and you know, leading up to it, was like, no, I don't need to do it. That's okay. I don't need to do it. You know, these mental wars that we play. I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm off the hook. That's okay. I feel good for about five minutes. And then I'd be like, no, I really need to do this. And just like that weight of.

Jen Porter (45:21)
Right.

Michelle Konson (45:31)
Yeah, this is a good thing. This is right. This is what you need to do. And so I played that, you know, for weeks in my head. And then that Easter, Easter day came and we were having lunch and I was like, yeah, I need to do, I need to, and I also want to do this. Right. I need to, and there's a part of me that really wants to do this. And that's what I was saying. I think it's that part that is becoming more like Jesus. Right. I'm like,

I actually think I really want to do this because when I said to them I was like, guys I would like to tell you something and of course everyone is hushed around the table because what's mom gonna tell them now, right? Are we gonna go on like some family bonding experience? Are we gonna, you know, cook up some new dessert together to again bond and be together because we're not together that much and I was just like I need to ask forgiveness for ways that I've hurt you.

And my husband protectively looked at me and was like, you don't need to do this. And I was like, I know. I want to do this. And so I went from, you know, one child to the other and I was like, I recognize that I really wounded you and hurt you. You know, for my son, for example, by not letting you be who you are. I always wanted you to be this neat, tidy guy.

I wanted you to dress in khakis and polo shirts and have a neat haircut. you know Luke, he's the most incredible guy who has tattoos and wears these fishing gear and is really rugged and loves the outdoors and has these long hair. And that's who God made Luke to be. That is Luke being honest to who he was created to be.

Jen Porter (47:00)
a little bit more rugged.

Michelle Konson (47:14)
But that didn't make me feel comfortable, right? That was not a way that I felt in control. And so I kept trying to shape him into somebody else and I asked him to forgive me for that. it was a few sentences, but I mean, the impact of what I was asking him to forgive me of his entire life. it's things that I'm gonna have to go back to over and over again, right? Little moments over and over again.

But you know, I finished saying that to all my kids and I had tears in my eyes. It was one of the hardest things they've ever done. It was one of the most glorious things I've ever done. And I really, I wish I could have bottled that up. Again, because there I was admitting how I had failed. And yet it was beautiful. Right?

Jen Porter (47:52)
Mm.

How did they respond?

Well, I remember you describing this. Like I can see you around the table. ⁓

Michelle Konson (48:01)
Yeah,

they were they gracious, you know, they were each in their own way. They were like, that's okay. Or, you know, and and again, these wounds are deep. So it's not like, hey, I'm sorry, I nudged you walking over to the table. that's okay. Right? Like, that's an easy that's okay. Right? These were big things. And these were things that again, I'm going to have to be doing repay work on for a long time, if not forever on the side of heaven, right?

And so I couldn't have them just be like, that's great, mom. Thank you so much. We're good, right? Like I wasn't looking for that. But it was the first step. Right. It was the first step in saying, I acknowledge that I have deeply hurt you and that that has impacted you. I am so sorry for that. Will you forgive me? And we will keep coming back to this again and again. And I didn't say that part right. But I hope that they know that.

Jen Porter (48:54)
Yeah.

Michelle Konson (48:57)
And have seen that since. But yeah, you know, again, they were all gracious to forgive me. That day. And you know, I think it was a bit of a shock. No one knew it was coming, right? I knew it was coming. I'd been preparing for weeks. But they didn't know it was coming. Yeah, so again, you ask, is it normal? I, you know, I don't think everyone's doing this, but I do believe, because God is working, that this is happening.

Jen Porter (49:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Michelle Konson (49:21)
And I firmly believe that, again, like I said, I was trying to read the books and do everything from the outside and control and try to get to be this great mom and have these great kids. And that was not the way to get there, right? Realizing the way to get there was to start working through my own pain and realize that because of my own pain, I had inflicted a lot of pain on my own kids.

Jen Porter (49:46)
I'm realizing too that you had to do your own work first before you had the capacity to be there for your kids in a new way.

Michelle Konson (49:51)
Mm-hmm.

correct.

Yeah, totally. Yeah, I mean, the airplane oxygen mask analogy, it's vital. I mean, we can't give from what we don't have. You know, we're not able to, as much as we want to, right? And we may see other people do it. may hear other people do it. You may hear this today and be like, I want to do that. And that is incredible. But don't, I think it's unfair to yourself to be like, I'm going to do this tomorrow. And maybe you can.

Jen Porter (50:03)
Yeah.

Exactly.

cry on own stream.

Michelle Konson (50:25)
Maybe you have done the work and you need to take that next step, right, of asking your kids for forgiveness. But probably you need to do this deep work in yourself first so that you have the overflow to start giving from.

Jen Porter (50:41)
is that so so women are listening and like yep I've got more work to do which we all do where do they start what do you where do they do this work

Michelle Konson (50:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. It reminded me of your question reminded me of a question I someone asked when I was speaking once and they were like, so how long does this work take? And I was like, I so wish I could answer you. I wish I could tell you it's two years and then you will be done, you know, or even it's five years and then you can check that box and you will be done. But there is again, there is no there is no time limit, right? This work is I think a way of life that we start.

Jen Porter (51:03)
Yeah

You

Michelle Konson (51:17)
And so I don't think there's an end point, but there are certainly like beautiful markers along the way of healing. And it's not like you have to do all the work and then only you reap some of the rewards and the benefits, right? I think it happens all the way through. And so how do you start? I think you start acknowledging that you have pain and that you have been wounded. And we live in a world that again, you know,

mitigating pain is a billion dollar industry, right? That's what, you know, that's where people make a lot of money. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're hurt here, take this. You're hurting here, take this. You don't have to look at that part, take this, right? So I think it's acknowledging actually I have wounding and I have pain and that's okay. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with me. That doesn't mean I failed. So I think the first step is acknowledging that you have pain.

And believe it or not, that is a huge step because we've spent so long trying to stuff and numb and push aside this pain and say, I'm okay. Pull up my bootstraps, on my big girl panties. I'm going to be okay. I can survive this. So acknowledging your pain, think is the first step. And I think the second step is finding community. And that'll look different for everyone. Whether that means you find a counselor.

Or you find a mentor or a pastor or a group of friends where you're like, we're going to start doing this work together. We don't know what this is, but we know that it's worthy, holy work and we need to do it. There are multiple good books and podcasts that you can find on my website. You know, that point you to where do I start? You know, how do I even find out more about what this journey of embracing my own story looks like? So I think you start reading.

And again, you know, I think reading is a tool in this space, but it's not reading to fix. It's reading to move along on this journey. and you you have to do it with kindness and compassion to yourself. And you spoke about compassion earlier. We don't naturally have it. And one of the main people we don't naturally have it for is ourselves, right? If we were to listen to our self talk, we would see that very quickly. I'm so stupid.

Jen Porter (53:18)
Mm-hmm.

Michelle Konson (53:26)
How did I do that again? Why can't I learn? Look at me do it again. I'm never gonna make it. Like there's no hope for me, right? If we start listening, we realize that there's very little self-compassion. And so we need to start having compassion for ourselves. And a big way to do that is in community, right? Where we see other people have compassion for us. And then we can start being like, that makes so much sense. Like this part of me that I hated.

Jen Porter (53:42)
Yeah.

Yes.

Michelle Konson (53:51)
it's there because it needed to protect something so painful and other people are helping me see that that thing was so big that now I'm able to have compassion for myself in that space right so find community and then you start going into specific stories right because we all have a you know 60,000 foot view where we're able to look down on our lives and be like yes this was my family growing up I you know

alcoholic father and you know my mom died and this happened and so you know we tell those kind of stories you know the big overview aerial view stories all the time but we're not really connected emotionally to that huge overview story but when we start telling stories and this is what you know that story workshop in Denver did all those years ago right you start telling the small stories where you start remembering like

I remember the shoes I was wearing. I loved those shoes. You start feeling that love for those shoes. And as you start feeling that love for those shoes, you remember I was wearing those shoes the day that X happened or, you know, the uncountable time that my dad did X, right? And so you start connecting emotionally. And that's when you start, you know, touching the pain and touching those parts that you've stopped for so long.

And then you, you know, it's just, it's, it's a cycle. You know, you keep going through that process with people around you. and the work, the work happens.

Jen Porter (55:24)
There's, I've been thinking about the pain and how we, when we feel the emotional pain, we tend to distract ourselves, right? We want to move to something else, be productive, something that can grab our attention so that we can move along and not have to deal with the pain. to, my recommendation would be to stay with the pain.

Michelle Konson (55:42)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Jen Porter (55:49)
be present with our own emotions and get curious about them. What is this that's hurting? What is that? Where is that coming from? What triggered that? How would I name this emotion? Is this sadness? Is this anger? Is this insecurity? this what, you know, being able to name our emotions is a great start.

Michelle Konson (55:53)
Right, totally.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Right. Why does this feel familiar? Yeah.

Totally.

Totally. And I will say, I think we need other people. And that feels very scary. But, you know, we have been pushing these emotions down for so long ⁓ that they are sometimes unrecognizable to us. Right? We can't even recognize that, that is anger. Like, I had a right to be angry at my dad because he was so narcissistic and he gaslit us.

Jen Porter (56:20)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Michelle Konson (56:42)
Like I, that is anger, but I was never allowed to feel anger. So I don't know what anger is. I don't know that that, that pain is anger, right? And that anger needs to come out, right? Our bodies store it, even though our brains are very sophisticated and can numb pain to help us survive. Our bodies remember. There's a great book by Bessel von der Kolk called The Body Keeps the Score. Our bodies remember.

Jen Porter (56:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Michelle Konson (57:11)
And we need to work through that, It's because our bodies remember that we keep getting triggered, that we feel like we have the same patterns over and over again, right? There's a reason that we can't just behavior modify from the outside in, right? Why we have to go from the inside out, right? Why we have to work it out from the inside, why we have to realize where the knots are and start entangling them and tracing the threads.

Jen Porter (57:24)
Right, right, try as we

Yeah.

When you're speaking, what is your message? You have a theme.

Michelle Konson (57:41)
My message is,

yeah, my message is there is hope and there is healing and it comes from embracing our stories and I encourage you to do this work and that I have found just great healing and wholeness and connectedness through embracing my story and not through continuing to stuff it. So yeah, it's really encouraging, encouraging women and those that I speak to to.

Jen Porter (58:02)
right.

Michelle Konson (58:07)
start doing this work because it is, I believe it's vital and it's just so good. It's hard work. You know, not, you know, not gonna let anyone think, okay, yeah, let me just embark on this process and we'll just fix everything. Like it's, it's hard work, but it's good work. And you know, one very wise counselor told me once, you're already doing hard, you know.

Jen Porter (58:23)
It is.

Michelle Konson (58:32)
We don't realize that you're already doing hard by stuffing, by trying to manage the triggers, by trying to survive, by feeling depressed. So you're already doing hard by trying to manage what your body is trying to contain. So you're really just trading for a new hard, right? It's like, can you choose a new hard? Yes, it's going to be uncomfortable because it's not familiar to you. ⁓ It's going to be hard because you have to start those new neural pathways. It's going to be awkward. Yes, all the things, but...

Jen Porter (58:44)
Choose your hard

Yeah.

Michelle Konson (59:01)
It's just a new hard and that new hard's destination is so much better than the old hard that you're currently doing.

Jen Porter (59:08)
Wow, a friend of mine calls this work the hard and the holy. You use that language too, that's hard and it's holy, it's holy work, it's worthy work. You know, this is the lioness in you that's doing this work and has done this work. It's the courage, the bravery, the resiliency, the faithfulness to the journey, the commitment. That's your lioness energy showing up for yourself and for your family.

Michelle Konson (59:12)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely.

Mm.

Jen Porter (59:37)
and all of these people that you're serving through your volunteer work.

Michelle Konson (59:42)
Thanks, Jen. ⁓

Jen Porter (59:43)
Yeah.

So how can people find you and learn more about your own story and ⁓ these resources that you have on the website?

Michelle Konson (59:49)
Yeah.

Yeah, so you can find my website. It's michelleconson.com. Very easy. Helps when you have an unusual last name. So yeah, head to my website and you can find those resources there. You can also sign up for my newsletter and then you can find me on Instagram and Facebook at Michelle Konson. It's K-O-N-S-O-N. But yeah, that's where I am. And you can also request me to come and speak to your group over there.

I would love to do that.

Jen Porter (1:00:17)
Yeah, beautiful. Keep doing the work. I can't wait to read your book, Michelle. And we're on the journey together, right? We're taking each brave step. Every day, there's something that requires us to have courage and commitment to, know there's more on the other side of this and to persevere through it. So you're doing great work.

Michelle Konson (1:00:27)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, thanks, Jen. Yeah, thank you. And

yeah, it's really, you know, for us to be able to reflect on how we met and just where we are almost 10 years later and to see the fruits of that work. ⁓ How beautiful, right? None of us could ever have imagined this at the time. And there's more, right? Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Jen Porter (1:00:47)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

No, and there's more, there's more. That's the exciting part is like we're just getting started. We've come

so far and yet there's always more that God has for us.

Michelle Konson (1:01:08)
Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there is.

Jen Porter (1:01:12)
There's always hope.

Thank you for sharing, Michelle.

Michelle Konson (1:01:17)
Yeah, of course, Jen it's been a real honor and pleasure.

Jen Porter (1:01:19)
Well until the next time, the lioness in me sees the lioness in you.