Grief is the price we pay for love.

My name is Andrea and this is Ital Child.

Welcome back to Ital Child, where we take a deep dive into the impact of growing up in a dysfunctional family.

Ahoi, my shit shows.

For any new listeners, I'm Andrea, I am a shit show, I'm recovering alcoholic, I'm recovering codependent.

I don't think I've ever actually been in a healthy romantic relationship in my entire life.

However, I am confident that one day I will because of the healing and recovery that we discuss on this podcast.

So today, we are joined by Friend Fellowship Show, Heather Johnson, and we have something for everyone.

We have mommy issues, we have daddy issues, we have toxic relationships, we have alcoholism, we have sobriety, and we have turning our grief into purpose.

So I specifically wanted to have her on to talk about trauma related to fertility issues.

So as you'll soon hear, Heather experienced several miscarriages that were extremely traumatic for her, but those experiences led her to discover her higher calling.

So as you recently launched ILMA, so this is a nonprofit that provides women with spa services and mental health support after a loss or a miscarriage or illness with the goal being to create a safe space for grief and self care during the healing process.

So it's just a really beautiful example of how through great pain comes great change and how through great pain comes greater purpose, which is a message that I am trying to exude in this podcast.

And so I was talking to my mom a week or two ago, and it was right after the shit show retreat, and she was asking me about that, and she told me just how proud she was of me.

And I'm not much of a a cryer, but I got overwhelmed with just this intense feeling of gratitude and love, and I was crying, and I don't cry, I wish I could cry more, but I hardly do.

And what I was saying to her is, you know, I can't believe how about how I just experienced so much pain.

I was in so much fucking pain and I'm blown away at what has come from that.

So if you're going through it, if you are in a lot of pain, can you hold just the tiniest bit of space that through your pain, something really beautiful lies on the other side of that pain.

So let's get the damn show on the road. But first, let's talk about how you need to damn the join Patreon.

So Patreon is a community for us shit shows. I host three weekly Zoom support groups. Y'all, these are some damn good meetings.

Okay, there is a shit load of recovery and healing in this group. So how about you do what these people who I'm about to name did and damn the join Patreon.

So thank you, thank you, thank you to Tracy. Tracy, oh, two Tracy's in a row. So we got Tracy with an i.e.

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