10CBF: A Podcast for Blended Families
S1-E12: "Acknowledging and Overcoming the Struggle" with Laura Gertz Hernandez
Laura Gertz Hernandez and her husband have ten (yes, TEN) children, a combination of biological and foster children. Laura is a homeschool mom to her biological children, and all four of their foster children have special needs. Laura is also the creator of MamaSystems.net, a website designed to help busy moms bring peace to their homes through putting systems into place that create calm out of chaos. Her website offers online courses, coaching, and a lot of free resources including articles, blog posts, and more.
In this episode, Laura is extremely vulnerable and shares some of the difficulties and struggles that their family has faced, and she also shares how her family has tried to address and overcome the struggles that they have faced. She says, "Gratitude is the key to being able to love on kids when it's hard," and "That's been our journey: learning that it's just different, and that's ok."
Her big tip to help anyone who is struggling is to have great community around you: make friends who either know the same struggles or can help you through yours, who will encourage you and challenge you, and who you can also help and encourage.
No matter what kind of blended family you're in, this interview will help you understand that the difficulties you face are not insurmountable, and that if your blended family is different than others, or different that you expected, that's ok too.
Find out more about Laura and her work at:
https://www.instagram.com/mamasystems/