The Woman of Courage Returns: Beginning Again with Faith, Home, and Stewardship (Ep. 1)

I don't know about you, but I am so excited for this. Welcome back to season two of the Woman of Courage podcast. I am excited to be sitting here recording this because even though this podcast has been around for a while, this season feels really new. It feels like a fresh start, But also it's like coming home to what this podcast was always meant to be. So if this is your first time listening, I am Samantha Welch, but you can call me Sam. I'm wife to Justin. We've been married for 14 years as of last month. I'm mom to three daughters and together we live on a 40 acre farm homestead in central Arkansas. I I homeschool my girls, and also my niece joins in with us too, so there are four girls in our class. We try every day to do the best to steward well the gifts that God has given us and to build a legacy and an inheritance for our children that neither my husband nor I have. Some things that I love are t-shirts that perfectly say what I think. I've also been known to emotionally buy t-shirts depending on the season of life, which is kind of a problem. Sunflowers, love sunflowers. I grow them every year. And most of all, I love deep conversations. Some of the best conversations I've ever had was on the porch over coffee. And that is exactly how I want this podcast to feel to you. I wanted to feel like you and I are sitting on the porch having a cup of coffee just chatting about those important topics that make up life. No small talk. Let's just get down to the nitty gritty of what actually makes up this life that we live. So last season of the podcast, I spent a lot of time interviewing and listening to some incredible women tell their stories. And those episodes are still here because I believe those stories matter and they still should have a place. But somewhere along the way, I realized that I also kind of stepped away from sharing my own story, especially the ongoing one. The story of what God has been doing in my life, in my family, and in the work that we're building together. This past year has been really hard. There was some major burnout. There's a lot been a lot of heartbreak. There was a lot of loss. We lost some really We lost some relationships we lost family members Either by estrangement or death Honestly the loss of expectation of what certain seasons would look like has been really hard too and then the mill of all that my husband I had to slow down and And ask some really hard questions like what are we doing? What are we building? What are the callings that God has placed on us individually? But together because we're a team and out of those conversations and lots and lots of prayer I feel like that's where this new season of the woman of courage podcast was born So I kept the name the woman of courage very intentionally Because I really do believe that it takes courage to do this kind of work It takes courage to change direction. It takes courage to tell the truth about hard seasons. It takes courage to serve God. It takes courage to steward what he has given you instead of wishing your life looked different. It takes courage to build something that your children can stand on one day. So this podcast is becoming a place where I can pour my heart out more freely about what we're going through, what we've experienced, how God is showing up in the story that we have now and that we're still creating. So a lot of what I'll be sharing is going to be very practical as we're growing our homestead farm. I don't know what we are homestead farm, wherever or all of it. We're growing our home, our life. I want to talk about the real everyday things that actually make this life work. So I'll be talking about practical tools. Like I'll be talking about time management, how we use tools like even AI on the farm in order to save my sanity daily. I'll be sharing about our homeschooling, like what it actually looks like when it comes to teaching our children, not just the academic side, but like real life skills. Like we don't just wanna be checking boxes. We want our children to be well-rounded. I'll also be talking about resources and programs that we use like systems that help Keep everything from falling apart. I'll share about business tools I'll also share about my own business like how I built my photography business how it's actually Like growing and helping support our farm and what that looks like There will also be space for a lot of the deeper parts of our story too, like how I can see where my mother- brother and sister passed away 25 years ago from my porch. Like from my front porch. And how that actually is such a work of God. God's redemption is written all over this land. It's written all over our lives. And I want to talk honestly about that. I want to talk about how God redeems places, stories, and generations. I'll also be sharing about really fun things like Things that we use every day that literally makes our farm life so much better, like our freeze dryer. You're probably gonna hear a lot about our freeze dryer, because it's literally like one of the best things that we have on the farm. But that's the everyday thing that makes this life possible. I'll also be talking about just home, community, building relationships, opening your home and your farm up, even when it feels like it's imperfect, inconvenient, and you're still in the middle of a bunch of messy projects. All of these conversations, I want to lead to a bigger picture, and that is learning to steward what God has given us. and how to build a life that doesn't end with us. We're not talking about a perfect life. We're not talking about an easy life. I'm talking about one where we faithfully take one step after another to do the very best we can with what God has given us. So this podcast is where I'm gonna be sharing all of that journey and I am so, so glad that you're here. So I'm not gonna end this podcast with some fancy outro music. I just don't, I gotta keep things simple. I want this to be like a chat and in real life we don't end with music and like a formal greeting. I just want this to end with a simple invitation that I hope you will subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. Leave a review if you're excited about what's next, and if you want to see us in real life, like little snippet video format, go over and follow me on TikTok. ⁓ yes, I know, TikTok. Okay, if you know me in real life, you probably know that I said I would not be on TikTok, but here I am. Apparently that's where my people are. Anyway, yes, if you'd like to see that, go follow us on TikTok. TikTok.com/woc_samanthawelch

And I can't wait for our next chat.