Let's talk about infertility and adoption. Chances are you or someone you know has walked one or both of these paths. Today’s guest Cat Vandament shares her story of infertility and treatments that led to the birth of her daughter, and then the decision to pursue adoption with their son. Cat’s story is unique in that during fertility treatments, they faced the additional stress and unfortunate timing of her husband’s numerous military deployments. 

Infertility and adoption can be sensitive and hard topics for many. Which is why it’s important to have the conversation and gratefully Cat is willing to help us talk about the emotional journey. No two stories are alike, but as you listen to the conversation you'll hear hope and encouragement. 

Cat speaks with honesty and vulnerability. She shares the struggle of not knowing why her body “wasn’t working the way every other woman’s body works” and how she overcame untrue thoughts like “trying to figure out what I had done wrong.” 

Cat’s story is told through the lens of infertility and adoption. But, it’s also a story of faith and helps us see how we all wrestle with our own worth at times. 

Listen in to learn what NOT to say to a friend or neighbor who is trying to get pregnant. And, stay tuned as Cat reveals the number one way you can love your neighbor through infertility and adoption.

Links/Resources:

Connect with Cat Vandament:

• Watch Cat's Turquoise Table Story
• Shop Noonday with Cat
• Instagram

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Connect with Kristin:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Website
• Book

Join our free online community to continue the conversation at: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com 

Register for Creating Community & Connection: A Workshop with Kristin Schell

In this episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell continues the storytelling series talking with people who are creating community in unique and remarkable ways.

Rachel Jones lives at the crossroads of faith and culture in the Horn of Africa. She is the author of the book Stronger Than Death, and she and her husband founded the International School of Djibouti.

Her story takes us on a beautiful journey from a high rise apartment complex in Minneapolis to a school in The Horn of Africa. Rachel’s story of creating community and connection is one of the most inspiring yet. Relationships that started in her own backyard led her family across the globe to Djibouti. 

When she was just twenty-two years old and a new mother of twins, Rachel received hospitality from complete strangers, her Somali neighbors. Her immigrant neighbors befriended her -- bringing her food and even offering to clean her house while she rested with the twins. Rachel was overwhelmed by their incredible friendship and a curiosity to know more about their home East Africa was born.

What transpires next is remarkable. Rachel and her family move from urban Minneapolis to a rural part of Somalia. Then to Djibouti. Kristin and Rachel talk about what it’s like to be a Christian in a country that is 99% Muslim and the incredible relationships she’s made with her neighbors. Rachel gives us a brief overview of the Muslim religion and piques our curiosity to learn more. After all, loving your Muslim neighbor is the same as loving your non-Muslim neighbor. 

Learn more about Rachel Jones and her work at www.djiboutijones.com.

Purchase Rachel’s book Stronger Than Death

Learn more about the International School of Djibouti

Follow Rachel Pieh Jones:

• Instagram
• Facebook

🌟 Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening!

Connect with Kristin:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Website
• Book
• Creating Community & Connection Workshop

Join our free online community to continue the conversation at: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com 

Register for Creating Community & Connection: A Workshop with Kristin Schell.

In this episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell speaks with Maria Reed, founder of the home improvement television show Moving with the Military. Maria’s mission is to bridge the military-civilian divide through design and community building. Kristin and Maria discuss the unique hardships military families face and how the community can welcome them with open arms. 

To begin, Maria shares her background and her own experiences being in a military family. She was born in Cuba and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She worked for many years in the film industry as a producer. However, during this time she dated long-distance and fell in love with her military husband. To her surprise, soon after they were married her husband deployed, and she found out she was pregnant. 17 years and five moves later, her love for the film industry continued with her. She then formed the idea for her television show, Moving with the Military, from her own life experiences raising a military family.

Maria describes the fear that comes with starting life over every time her family moved. Sometimes, she would barely leave her house and often felt paralyzed. She shares a story of making friends with another military wife.

Now she can find excitement and positive experiences from moving. While there are struggles for military families to build community, Kristin and Maria agree that the Turquoise Table has been a great resource for military families to find a sense of place in their community.

With the growing number of military families living outside military bases, Maria saw a need for home makeovers and her television show. Maria is in charge of the difficult task of choosing a military family for a makeover through the submission of stories and nominations. From backyards to bedrooms, the show has completed 27 makeovers in three years. With the work of her show, she encourages civilians to be a part of the lives of military families that live around them. Maria also describes the purpose of DIY nights within the communities and is coming out with a cookbook, The Military Melting Pot, as a way to meld families together.

Her biggest tip to civilians is to reach out to military families in their neighborhood and be in community with one another. 

Links/Resources:

Learn more about Maria Reed and Moving with the Military on her website.

Submit a nomination of a military family for a Moving with the Military home makeover.

Follow Moving with the Military:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

🌟 Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening!

Connect with Kristin:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Website
• Book
• Creating Community & Connection Workshop

Join our free online community to continue the conversation at: theturquoisetablecommunity.com 

What Do You Need? A simple question inspires The Turquoise Cart Program at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

In this episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell speaks with Kim Muench, a volunteer program coordinator at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Kim began her Turquoise Table journey by placing her own Turquoise Table in her front yard. Unfortunately, this was met with resistance by her Homeowners Association, and, despite Kim’s efforts to convince them otherwise, they would not allow her to keep her table in the front yard. Still determined to create community in her neighborhood, Kim began a tradition of bringing her Turquoise Table from the back yard to the front yard one Friday night per month. Each month, between three and seven families join hers to play games on the street and socialize. Kim hopes that even more families will join them, and that her community will continue to grow.

However, bringing out her Turquoise Table once a month wasn’t enough for Kim. She brought the idea of placing a table at Cook Children’s Hospital to her boss, who told her it wasn’t feasible. However, Kim and her boss came up with the idea of turquoise carts: rolling hospitality carts that go from room to room serving parents. When children are in the hospital, parents often forget to take care of themselves. The children receive constant attention, but parents often lose themselves in the care of their children. Kim wanted to start The turquoise Cart Project to serve and uplift these parents. To jumpstart the project, Kim asked all the parents who had children in the hospital: “what do you need?” This simple but powerful question rendered all the information she needed to pursue her idea of the turquoise carts. 

Kim is grateful for the impact the project has already made, and encourages listeners to create their own Turquoise Table missions wherever they are. The Turquoise Table calling is not limited to a front yard picnic table. As Kim has proven, it can be manifested anywhere that there are people to be served and community to be created.

For full show notes, discussion guide, Suppers for Sharing recipe, and Conversation Starter, visit www.theturquoisetable.com/podcast, or join us in our FREE online community, The Turquoise Table Community.

Connect with Kristin:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• The Turquoise Table

Connect with Kim Muench:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook

🌟 Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening! 🌟

This week on The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell chats with Shauna Pilgreen, author of Love Where You Live. A small-town native, Shauna grew up on a farm in South Georgia, and then moved to rural Missouri with her husband to do ministry. Ten years ago, the Lord stirred in their hearts a desire to plant a church in a place far outside their comfort zones: San Francisco, California. Love Where You Live chronicles the struggles and blessings of Shauna’s move to the big city, and learning how to invest long-term in the place she lives. 

In the title Love Where You Live, “love” is a verb — Shauna actively loves the local people with whom she comes into contact. She offers a few simple ideas on how others can too; her first suggestion is to take walks. Instead of taking the train or her minivan, Shauna often chooses to walk to her kids’ school, to the grocery store, or around her neighborhood. She prays that God would use her with whomever she encounters each day and intentionally makes time for those interactions. She also suggests sitting down with family members to discuss how you as a team can make a difference. One night, Shauna and her family walked the streets of their neighborhood handing out free pizza, water bottles, and cookies. Simple acts of kindness create a ripple effect in the community, and Shauna continues to share her heart and to love her neighbors well in her now-beloved home of San Francisco.

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening!

For full show notes and links, please visit: www.theturquoisetable.com/podcast

Join our free online community to continue the conversation at: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com 

Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

You can connect with Shauna through:

• Her website

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Her book: Love Where You Live

Celebrate #LoveWhereYouLiveDay and nominate a friend for the Love Where You Live Award.

Host Kristin Schell interviews chef and best-selling author Melissa d’Arabian. Melissa is an expert on affordable family cooking, and author of the book Tasting Grace. In this episode they discuss how Melissa’s career got started, her new book, and how her faith influences her approach to food. Melissa first realized her connection to food, growing up in a single family home where money was tight. While she often experienced hunger at school, she saw the sacrifices her mom made to welcome others into their home with hospitality.

Melissa and Kristin discuss the problems with the way that our society approaches food. While we are as disconnected from the source of our food as we’ve ever been, we are also food obsessed; We have celebrity chefs, and we constantly post images of our food on the internet. There are some serious misconceptions about food in a world where we won’t eat a tomato because of the sugar content but we’ll drink an artificially colored and sweetened sports drink. To develop a better philosophy and theology of food, Melissa looked to the Bible where she couldn’t find any of the guilt language our society has about food. Instead, all the language around food was about loving, welcoming, and celebrating. It was observing these tensions in our food culture and this journey in the Bible that led Melissa to write Tasting Grace.

Links/Resources:

🌟 Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening! 

Sunday Supper recipe: 

BBQ Beer Pulled Chicken Tacos from Half Baked Harvest

Conversation Starter: 

What are two of your happiest childhood memories? What is one of your most embarrassing memories?

Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

• Follow Kristin Schell on Instagram.
• SALE! 50% off: The Turquoise Table: Finding Community and Connection in Your Own Front Yard. (at time of podcast publication on 1/8/2020)
• Check out Tasting Grace by Melissa d’Arabian.
• Learn more about Melissa on Food Network’s site.
• Follow Melissa d’Arabian on Instagram.
• Join our free online community to continue the conversation at: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com

In this week’s episode host Kristin Schell interviews singer-songwriter Christa Wells. An award winning songwriter, Christa has collaborated with Nashville artists to write hit songs such as “Held” (Natlie Grant) and “Red Sea Road” (Ellie Holcomb). Christa is currently working on her 5th album and she shares behind the scenes look into the process.

Join Kristin and Christa for a conversation about the importance of community. Christa shares how even though she’s in a season of having little to offer, she’s even more committed to opening up her home to friends and has found great joy and community in doing so. We are all called to be agents of hospitality and Christa gives practical ways to share in any season of life.

Connect with Christa:

Instagram

Facebook

Website

Patreon

Be sure to check out our FREE online community for:

• full show notes and links
• podcast episode discussion guide
• journal prompts

Join us: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com

🌟 Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening!

In this episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell welcomes author, blogger, and parent, Tricia Goyer to discuss her book The Grumble-Free Year: Twelve Months, Eleven Family Members, and One Impossible Goal. As a mother of 10 kids (seven of whom still live in the house), being married 29 years, and having authored over 75 books, Tricia has become Kristin’s go-to authority on all things parenting. Tricia shares how she keeps the family, even the kids living outside of the home, and her 90-year-old mother with dementia, communicating and sharing with each other. 

The Grumble-Free Year was based on Tricia’s unique experience. There is an underlying grumbling and discontent that children and parents both express. She and her husband thought, “what if we could go a year without grumbling?” She knew it’d take a while to undo certain habits, but she was tired not only of hearing her kids grumble, but saw it spilling over into her relationship with her husband. What happened in the Goyer's Grumble-Free Year experiment? Listen in and find out.

Links:

Connect with Tricia Goyer:

• The Grumble-Free Year: Twelve Months, Eleven Family Members and One Impossible Goal
• Tricia's website 
• Follow Tricia Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Join our FREE online community for:

• full show notes and links
• podcast episode discussion guide
• journal prompts
• Tricia's Pork & Hominy Pozole recipe

 Join us: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com

🌟 Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening!

Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

(🌟 Today's conversation is a hard one. I want you to know that while it is full of hope, friendship, and a powerful story of community, it begins with the tragedy of suicide.)

In today’s episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell interviews Becky Powell and Katherine Reay. Katherine is an award-winning author of novels, including Lizzy and Jane and The Printed Leather Bookshop. Katherine recently wrote her first non-fiction book with Becky called Awful Beautiful Life: When God Shows up in the Midst of Tragedy.

On May 13, 2013, Becky faced the unthinkable: she learned her husband had taken his own life and had borrowed millions of dollars over the years from friends and colleagues. While grieving her husband’s death, she became the focus of FBI, SEC and Department of Justice investigations. Today’s episode is a gripping story filled with grace, faith, and community.

Links:

Join our free online community to continue the conversation at: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com 

🎁 Check out our 2019 Holiday Gift Guide

Two of my favorite novels by Katherine:

Lizzy and Jane

The Printed Letter Bookshop

Becky’s story, written by Katherine, is available on Amazon:

Awful Beautiful Life: When God Shows up in the Midst of Tragedy

The playlist for the book’s chapters is available at:

www.awfulbeautifullifethebook.com

Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

In today’s episode of The Turquoise Table Podcast, host Kristin Schell interviews Jessica Honegger about the joy that comes when you are cornered by courage and gather women for a purpose. Jessica is a wife, mother of three, founder and CEO of Noonday Collection, and bestselling author of Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared. Noonday creates meaningful opportunities in fashion for vulnerable communities to sell their beautiful handmade goods and empower them to flourish. Ambassadors of Noonday Collection are women in America that host trunk shows to create economic opportunity for the artisans and themselves.

Noonday Collection is the world’s largest fair-trade jewelry company, and they rally women just like you to sustain dignified jobs for over 4,500 Artisans around the world. Ambassadors are purposeful, passionate women who own their own businesses and gather women in their own communities to make an impact in communities across the globe. If this sounds like you, head over to noondaycollection.com and click “Become an Ambassador.”

🌟When you mention The Turquoise Table during sign-up, you’ll receive a special gift exclusively for Turquoise Table listeners to get you started.

This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart, and I think you’ll feel the same.

Links:

Check out Jessica Honegger’s book, Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared

Learn more about Noonday Collection:

• https://www.noondaycollection.com
• Instagram @noondaycollection
• Follow Jessica @jessicahonegger

Don’t forget to join us in theturquoisetablecommunity.com for FREE bonuses, like:

• Discussion Guide
• Journal Prompts
• Recipes

Share, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening!

Affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.

In today’s episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell interviews Bailey T. Hurley, who is committed to small community settings with her husband and two children. Kristin and Bailey discuss small groups: how to find one, how to join one, and even how to start one. Kristin shares how she and Tony are in the process of starting their own small group in their church community. Bailey gives tangible tips on how you can invite people into community in your life, as well as how you can sustain community.

While Bailey is committed to lifelong friendships, she explains how you can start slowly and easily, as well as how to maintain high-quality friendships when you live far apart. In her neighborhood, Bailey builds friendships across generations. When Bailey arranges play dates, sets up the book club meeting or invites someone over, it’s a lot of work. However, she gets quality time, the conversations she needed, and the chance to he heard in her circle of friends. On the other hand, when you experience hospitality fatigue, it is important to take breaks and know your boundaries. It’s equally important to make sure that what you choose to do in community is something you love, so if you love reading, have a book club, and if you love cooking, invite people over for dinner.

Links:

Join our free online community to continue the conversation, get tips on how to host your own Pizza and Podcast Party, and find discussion and journal prompts from this episode at: www.theturquoisetablecommunity.com

Recommended Podcasts:

Revisionist History with Malcolm Galdwell

The 36 Questions Podcast

Recommended Cookbook:

Magnolia Cookbook: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering by Joanna Gaines

You can find Bailey T. Hurley online: website, on Instagram (@bailey.t.hurley) and Facebook.