I thought I was trying to get away from the little girl, The truth was, I was trying to get away from what happened to her. That realization changed the way I saw my past...And maybe it will change the way you see yours.

In this episode, I share how compassion began replacing shame and why the little girl I once wanted to hide became the reminder that healing doesn't replace our story- it redeems it.

It's when the little girl stop being a reminder of pain and became a reminder of survival.

Children don't process trauma the way adults do.

When life keeps hurting them, they don't ask, "Why is this happening?" They ask, "What did I do wrong?"

By the time I was diagnosed with leukemia, I had already survived years of sexual abuse and physical beatings.

Somewhere along the way, I came to believe that everything bad happening to me was punishment.

So when I heard the word leukemia, I didn't just hear a diagnosis.

I heard confirmation.

I believed God was punishing me.

For three years, I endured chemotherapy, hospital rooms, endless needles, and the uncertainty of whether tomorrow would ever come. But the greatest battle wasn't the one taking place inside my body.

It was the one taking place inside my mind.

In this deeply personal episode of Where Healing Began, I share how childhood trauma distorted the way I saw myself, my suffering, and even God—and how one lie convinced a little girl that tomorrow wasn't worth believing in.

If you've ever mistaken pain for punishment... if you've ever believed your suffering meant God had turned His back on you... or if you've carried shame that was never yours to carry...

This episode is for you.

Because sometimes the deepest healing begins when the truth finally becomes louder than the lie.

Survival isn't just something you go through, sometimes it becomes the way you live.

In this episode, I share how childhood trauma shaped the way I saw pain, relationships, and myself. I talk about what survival taught me, the hidden cost of simply making it through, and why healing begins when we finally tell the truth about our story.

If you've ever wondered why it's so hard to let your guard down, this episode is for you.

Surviving kept me alive...but it was never meant to become my home.

When this podcast began, we started out on milk. We were all new to "THIS" Journey. We talked about survival. We talked about healing. We talked about making it through.

But healing has a way of making us go deeper.

Today, you will be introduced to a little girl.

A little girl who was once happy, joyous and free. A little girl who believed the world was full of possibilities and that she had a place in it. A place with her name on it. A place just waiting for her to arrive and claim it.

She only knew love, so when something that wasn't love entered her world, she didn't have the words to call it anything else.

This episode isn't glorifying abuse. It's about telling the truth about what a child comes to believe when she carries a responsibility that was never hers to carry.

Today we meet that little girl.

And maybe, along the way, you'll meet the parts of yourself too.

Before we go any further, I wanted to take a moment to share the heart behind Where Healing Began.

This episode is a personal look at why this podcast exists, for whom its intended, and the hope behind this journey.

Thank You for listening.

⚡🌳🌹 As a child, there was one tree in the orchard I never forgot.

It had been struck by lightning. Damaged, yet still standing among the other trees.

For years I wondered why I was drawn to that tree and what it was trying to teach me.

In this episode of Where Healing Began, I reflect on scars, identity, survival, and the realization that what happens to us may change our appearance, but it does not change who we are.

Sometimes healing begins when we learn to stand in spite of what struck us.

In this episode of Where Healing Began, I take you back to a pecan orchard from my childhood-a place that became much more than a field of trees. It was a place of imagination, peace, and safety.

As a little girl, I would step through the gate and become Cinderella. The trees stood at attention, the leaves seemed to applaud, and for a few precious hours, I felt completely safe.

Join me as I reflect on childhood memories, the places that help us survive, and the peace we carry with us long after we leave them behind.

“A raw and honest podcast about survival, healing, faith, trauma, restoration, and finding purpose after pain. This is the official trailer for Where Healing Began.”