Where I've been & a new thing

Introducing Hey Friend, It's Talitha & sharing my life on my own terms.

I wrote the post below several weeks ago and had no idea how even dearer everyone on substack would be in light of a devastating loss my husband and I just had. We are currently going through another miscarriage (the first was almost exactly two years ago) and I’ve had a fair amount of time to think, pray, and to start some things I’ve wanted to start for a while. It’s just time.

I debated whether to share about this loss as it was happening but came to the decision that I want to continue to share the lows, not just the highs. I want to share the sorrows and joys on my own terms because if God can use me to help bring comfort or joy to just one person, I’ll be the happiest woman. I don’t share a lot of my life (honestly a lot of my life is on the internet already) but what I do, please know that it is with prayer and hope that it will be used beyond just me and my immediate circle. May God use me in whatever way he sees fit.

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I didn't mean to go radio silent on this platform but I've genuinely been enjoying reading and engaging without posting my own pieces. I read a post usually at my daughter's 3 am feeding, bleary eyed from being woken up with an eight month old's yells. I find myself often in tears by the raw and real way people write on this platform. It's my favorite social media for that reason alone.

One reason I've been quieter and posting less than I'd like is that I want to be intentional on here. I left Twitter about three years ago, Instagram a year ago or so, and I'm still hanging on to Facebook simply for the connection with those who live farther away. Substack IS the place, the only place, I write intentionally. I don't want to just jot something down because I've gotten a taste of what people are juggling in their lives.

Infertility, miscarriage, pregnancy after loss, marriage struggles, wayward children, health crisis, cancer.

Weighty things to be on shoulders that already feel like they're breaking from watching the world spin around in insanity.

I want to bring hope & humor, my story of grief and grace, a honest and real place so that readers can feel how I feel when I sit and hold my daughter in the middle of the night needing some encouragement. A place you feel seen. Heard. Understood.

So I want to introduce the new direction I'm going with this Substack...

"Hey Friend, It's Talitha."

The one where I write as if I've just texted or messaged you to find out how you are, to have a real and honest conversation about life, grief, faith, about you and about me.

A space for you to feel like you're not alone in your struggle. I may not understand every struggle or every detail of your struggle (even if we're in something similar!) but I'm here to be a friend. Even an internet friend halfway across the world. To talk to you how I reach out to my friends and hope that I help them feel a little less alone in this life. I want to remind how ultimately that even my best laid efforts to see you and love you are enveloped and overshadowed in the best way by the God of the universe who sees you and loves you more than you can imagine.

So, let's be friends and see where this journey takes us.