Samantha Richardson shares her powerful testimony of faith through life's struggles. Samantha recounts her story of enduring loss, navigating the challenges of her pregnancies, and witnessing God's hand in her family's life. Despite facing significant hardships, including the loss of a child and her daughter Amelia's rare lung disease, Samantha's unwavering faith in God's promises helped her emerge stronger. She discusses how turning to scripture and maintaining gratitude kept her anchored, and how her relationship with God blossomed through these trials. Samantha also shares her and her husband's recent calling to foster care, adding another layer to their journey of faith and service. This episode emphasizes the power of faith, God's promises, and the impact of leaning on divine strength during trials.

00:00 Introduction to Samantha's Testimony

00:41 Samantha's Early Struggles and Faith Journey

04:19 The Birth of Amelia and Medical Challenges

05:05 Faith and Gratitude Amidst Struggles

10:44 The Birth of Judah and Overcoming Fear

21:11 Fostering and Future Plans

25:16 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Welcome to Small Town, big God.

My name is Michael, and I have another story for you about how

God is at work right here in Rutherford County, North Carolina.

Today you're gonna hear from Samantha Richardson, who has an amazing testimony

of how God can use our struggles to grow our faith and make us more like Christ.

It's all like this long, beautiful story, of how

you end up where God wants you.

So my name is Samantha Richardson.

And what else?

how long have you been in Ruthford County?

My entire life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been in Ruthford County since birth,

Samantha's story has a lot of unexpected struggles, and God has used those

struggles, as I mentioned in the intro, to make Samantha more like Christ.

Okay.

God has done a lot for me in my life, especially within the past 10 years

and even more so in the past six years.

I'm definitely not the same person that I used to be even six years ago.

And I was, pre praying about this a lot, and trying to figure

out, God, where do I start?

And I felt like he was really wanting me to, share with everyone what he's

done for me as far as my pregnancies and, maybe some of your listeners know a

little bit about my daughter's situation and we might have time to get into that.

Maybe we'll have to save it for later.

But I really haven't got the opportunity to we'll tell more people

about the goodness of God and how present he can be in a pregnancy.

Now, if you're a guy or just single and not feeling like you're gonna be able

to relate to a story about pregnancy, I want to encourage you to keep listening.

Don't just turn the show off because there is a lot in Samantha's story

that we can learn about God's promises and what he desires for us, even

when our lives are not going the way that we thought they would go.

One of the things.

That you always hear, especially, as a new mother you hear a lot and

it's overwhelming and most of all, you hear a lot of bad and a negative.

And six years ago when I first got pregnant.

I lost my baby and I was in a completely different, I believed in

God, but my faith wasn't where it was at now, but that was like the

beginning of the train ride for me.

And so when I first lost my baby it was really hard and, I wasn't sure,

why all that happened and after a while I didn't wanna try anymore.

I felt like these feelings of, maybe this is God telling me that.

This is not what he wants from me.

And that was a lie that the devil was.

Trying to get, tell me and make me believe that, oh, it's just not the time

or, maybe I'm not, supposed to be a mom.

So right there, I had started to believe that a little bit.

As I grew in my faith, I realized that is definitely not true at all.

because, you can read the Bible and God loves families, he loves children.

There's just so many verses in the Bible where God loves children and

he wants us to Fill this world.

When things don't turn out how we expect and we encounter pain, the enemy will try

to convince us that God is the one behind that pain, that he doesn't want us to

experience the goodness that we desire.

But what Samantha did when she started to believe these lies is

exactly what we all need to do.

She went to the truth of scripture to see what God's word actually says.

One of the very first lessons in scripture is that God creates

goodness, but this world has gone bad.

It's been corrupted by sin and this pain that we all experience in our lives.

Is not part of God's original design he desires good things for us,

which is why he sent his son to die for us, so that we can get back to

that original design in the garden.

And it's that truth that allows us to move above and transcend the suffering

in our lives and keep growing closer to him, which is exactly what Samantha did

and had to do again almost a year later.

I got pregnant a second time and that was with Amelia.

And,

I was super excited and I just knew that was confirmation.

That 'cause sometimes I still look back and I wonder, why did I go through that?

But.

Now with this being so far down the road and being in a much stronger

relationship with God now, I just think that it was just one of those things that

helped me, God, get to where I am now.

And sometimes we don't always have an answer, or maybe God just

hasn't revealed it to me yet.

Why that specifically had to happen.

But I know that it is.

How I got where I am today.

that pregnancy was good, but it was what came after when she was

born that really made it rocky.

And my Faith still wasn't in a great spot then.

Before we get into the details of Samantha's second pregnancy and the

struggles that came along with that, I want to pause for just a moment and

make sure that you notice something in every story that Samantha shares of

a painful moment or time in her life.

She will always bring it back to talking about how good God is and how grateful

she is for his work in her life, and it's important that you pay attention to that.

Because it's gratitude that keeps us from falling into the anxiety and

despair that often tries to creep in, in those moments of, of struggle.

Um.

From the moment, that Amelia was born, God had his hand on the situation.

And I know it because when she was born and they did all their normal tests she

passed everything, everything was fine.

And I had her in the early afternoon.

So we spent all day, friends and family coming over and I'll never

forget it 'cause I told the nurses, I was like, I don't want y'all

to take her for her hearing test.

I want to wait until the next day.

'cause I wanted to rest.

It was getting nighttime.

And so we all went to And I remember waking, being woke up in the middle of

the night and the nurses were trying to take her out to do her or some kind of

test, I think it was hearing or something.

And instead of saying no I let take her.

But I, as I laid there, I remember laying there in the bed and I

was like, something's wrong.

Like she's been gone too long, blah, blah, blah.

And.

It turned out that she was turn, she was turning blue.

She was almost all blue because she couldn't breathe.

And so if they never would've came in there to take her out,

then she wouldn't be here with us.

But I know for a fact that God had those nurses come in there, even though

they knew it was against my wishes.

And they're like, Hey, we're just gonna take her out, make sure she's good.

There was no reason for them to do that.

Other than God, like he, had his hand on her

And was protecting her.

And what was the problem?

Why wasn't she able to breathe?

So after about like three to four months of being in the hospital, they

diagnosed her with a rare lung disease.

And it's called NEHI, knee high

they had

to put a G-tube in 'cause they were worried about, 'cause she was on

a high flow oxygen and they were worried about if she tried to eat

normally, that it would she'd aspirate it and it would go into her lungs.

She was already having problems with her lungs, so that was

the last thing they wanted.

So she had that surgery and.

Another one to do with her stomach and to help with reflux.

'cause she had extreme GERD is what it's called.

Which is just really bad reflux for a baby.

So we went, she went through a lot in those first four months and then when she

finally came home, she was on oxygen 24 7.

Yeah.

But every single year since then, I mean she has shedded something like, she came

off a lot, she was on a lot of medications too, and it's every year she would lose.

Something, whether it be medicine or a machine.

The type of machine.

'cause she used to be on high flow oxygen, which required this special

machine and then she went to regular room like regular flow oxygen,

which is just like a normal cannula.

And so a lot of changes.

And so for, she's six now.

And they're there for about the fi first five years she was on and off of oxygen.

And this year is the first year that I mean she was on it a

little bit earlier this year, but then she had another surgery.

And she's been fine ever since, we are seeing the answer to our prayers.

Now after six years, she's healed and we've always been saying that,

but we just haven't gotten to it yet.

Like we just, kept praying over and just believing that no matter what

happens, no matter how long it takes.

That was gonna be the end result, that she was gonna be healed.

And here she is, like she's not used any oxygen in months.

And I'm even to the point where, and I never thought I'd ever feel this

way she has a monitor that she's been slept with her entire life.

And it just, it tracks her heart rate and her O2 saturations.

And for the first time, like she has went without it and I have no fear.

Yeah.

No anxiety about it at all.

And it is an amazing feeling and I'm just so thankful.

And I love that, like God is so good and.

Sometimes I used to think why?

Why did it take this long?

But it's almost like sweeter, like he, of course he could have healed her when we

first started praying, like immediately.

But I don't think I would be where I'm at right now if he would've, 'cause I

was constantly having to go back to him.

I was having to lean on him.

And it's just like one of those stepping

Stones that just got me to where I am today.

And my faith In my walk with him.

Oh man, that is it right there.

Let me pause and lemme just replay what Samantha just said in case you missed it.

Sometimes I used to think why?

Why did it take this long?

But it's almost like sweeter, like he, of course he could have healed her when we

first started praying, like immediately.

But I don't think I would be where I'm at right now if he would've, 'cause I

was constantly having to go back to him.

I was having to lean on him.

What God desires for us is that we would have intimacy with him, and there are

a lot of things that we want in life.

A lot of pain that we wish would go away, and God does not desire

for us to experience pain.

He will, however, use the suffering that exists because of the sin in

the world to bring us closer to him because intimacy with God is better

than the alleviation of our suffering.

God used the struggles in Samantha's life to grow her faith

and make her more like Christ.

And the faith that God has brought Samantha into became even more evident

with the birth of her son, Judah.

I really appreciate this opportunity to just share what God

has done for me and to glorify him.

My only hope is that when your listeners hear this, that when they hear my

testimony and what God has done for me, that it gives them hope too and

I guess like a spark or just God uses it because, when I got pregnant with

Judah, there was a scary moment that I had and I told you, I lost a baby.

And.

Like one of the first signs of that was bleeding.

And that's not always a bad thing, but for me it was.

So that was a fear.

So when I got pregnant with Judah, I think I, it was late in my first

trimester, like almost, I would think I was going into my second trimester.

I had started bleeding.

And so when that happened for me, fear tried to just take over completely.

I remember like in my room bawling like almost to the fact where I was

ready to accept what was happening.

I thought it was, I was gonna lose the baby.

And what, and it wasn't a Bible verse that popped in my head.

You know what it was a testimony, it was someone else's

testimony that I had remembered.

It's it just popped up in my head.

It was about this girl that I had known.

She struggled.

Drugs and she had OD'ed and while all that was going on and like they were

trying to bring her back I had heard that her mom, was rushing to go over

there, and by the time her mom got there.

She was gone.

They had already given up, but her mom said, no, you are not.

Try again.

She told those paramedics to try again and she was praying over them and she's alive.

She's alive today.

That is the testimony that when all that was happening and I started bleeding,

that popped in my head and that.

Something clicked and I was like, you know what?

If God can bring back a girl that they had already given up and said she was dead?

If God can do that for her, then he can say, my baby, and I'm not, excuse

me, I get so emotional, but that testimony is what I remembered and.

And I was okay.

Like I, I remember I was standing there and I was like, all right,

God, you did that for her.

And it was that testimony.

That in that moment that made that fear go away and I wasn't gonna let it take over.

And I, proclaim God, you are, can control this pregnancy.

Like this baby is healthy and it's gonna, everything's gonna be fine.

And it was, and and throughout that whole pregnancy.

It's funny, like the devil still, even though I had faith, I had, I kept my

faith and everything was fine, but he still tried because the doctors would be

like, oh, you're a high risk pregnancy.

They kept saying, you need to take this medicine 'cause your blood pressure.

They were going off my past pregnancy, not looking at the numbers that were good.

Like they wanted to treat me.

And I was like, no, I'm not.

This is, I am healthy.

This baby's healthy, everything's gonna be fine.

And they're like, my doctors would fuss at me because I wouldn't listen, but I

knew because I wasn't gonna let accept anything other than God's promise.

And the whole time they're like, oh, just talking to me about, I'm

at risk and the baby's at risk.

And

even

the, up to the,

just because of the

pregnancy?

Yes.

Just because Of the prev pre.

which I think that's normal.

I think that's normal for them to be like, oh, if this was, this was

your past, then this is likely,

okay.

I think that's normal procedure, but I was like.

What

does God say?

in the past I didn't have that relationship that, strong,

close relationship with God.

I let the world, and I'm not discrediting what doctors say.

If you, it's, I think you should trust your doctors,

But in my case and

you know, what God was doing for me

In that moment I was

taking

his word and I was speaking over my life.

and I didn't wanna, I didn't choose to believe anything else in that moment.

And there was this book, they took bible verses, straight from the Bible.

They took God's word and what they were saying was that they believe

that pregnancy, it doesn't have to be a scary thing, it doesn't

have to be a painful thing.

And they use a bible verses a backup while they thi, while they thought that.

They even put in the book how, even when they shared this with people

that they still didn't believe it.

That, childbirth is meant to be painful, but I am living proof that God, to me,

I fully believe it because my childbirth experience was not painful at all.

I did not use any pain meds.

It was beautiful.

And I repeat that day in a heartbeat.

Like when I think back on when my son was born.

It was so beautiful and I would do it over and over again like

that, but it took a lot of faith.

And before, I was, I didn't have that kind of faith at all.

I but I just know that.

It helped me get to where I am today and it helped strengthen my faith in God.

And then having that book as a resource, these people that experience themselves

saying that, this is what the world says.

Childbirth is painful, pregnancy is painful.

And they said no.

What does God say?

And that to me, not only just in my pregnancy, but in my life, it's like.

From now on, this is what the world says, but what does God say?

And digging into the word and grasping, what is his promises and holding onto

them and repeating them over myself.

Mm-hmm.

So there's a lot of people that when they experience.

Pain and suffering and bad and sickness and everything.

It doesn't motivate them to draw closer to God.

They tend to turn away from him.

What do you think was the difference?

Why did the things that you went through bring you closer to God

instead of pushing you away?

I think because I had ran away.

before, I've always believed in God my entire life, but there's been in

moments when my faith is so weak that I'm like, will he will he show up?

I know you're there.

I know you're alive, what are you gonna do it?

Is this your will?

Mm-hmm.

And for me.

I just, I don't know.

I, my praying started being, instead of asking, I would, proclaim God's word.

I know I'm learning in my walk with him.

Continuously, what are his promises?

Instead of asking them for them, I'm just claiming them.

I'm like, I know this is already a promise.

That's what I'm gonna speak over myself.

I'm gonna wait for it to happen because God wants to give this to me.

So that's what the difference

Has been for me.

. Be careful not to misunderstand what Samantha is saying here.

She isn't talking about using God as a way to make things go

the way she wants them to go.

She's talking about having complete faith that God is going to do

what he says he's going to do.

That the promises given to us in scripture are true and

applicable for our lives today.

You know, this reminds me of something that I learned recently, which was

that the Greek word that's translated as hope in the New Testament

doesn't mean hope, like you hope the Panthers make the playoffs this year.

It's more of an expectation.

Like you hope that the sun is gonna rise again.

It's not wishful thinking.

It's looking forward to something that is guaranteed that you know is coming.

And that's the sort of hope that we have in Christ.

I.

How old is Judah?

Judah

is one and a

half.

That's right.

I thought he was very little.

he's Almost two.

Yeah, he's doing great too.

That's great.

He's been healthy.

Exactly.

You know what?

I spoke over him even before he was conceived.

How is Amelia ? I mean, I'm sure she's thrilled to be off of

Oh

Oh I'm as a 6-year-old, what is her, like, how much does

she understand of her whole.

Situation and

like everything that she's gone through.

And does she felt different than other kids you think?

That's a really good question.

If she has, she hasn't really shown it.

Yeah.

I know that she's very happy to not have to like.

'cause when we used to go places, we'd have to take oxygen tanks

around and there for a while.

Like we didn't even go on our first vacation with her until she was five.

because that was like where we just got to the point where she could go off oxygen

for several hours at a time so we could go to the beach, and she could experience it.

I think, it definitely impacted her and she probably noticed it a little bit, but

as she's continued to get better and be more like other kids it was very easy for

her to just accept that now, like this is how things used to be, but now it's not.

And we've always told her like you are healed.

And before, like when she was still wearing, like if she had to

wear oxygen and her monitors on her feet, she'd be like, mama, why

are you making me wear this if I'm healed, like you said, I'm healed.

And I was like, baby, I was like, you're healing, you are healed in Jesus' name.

I was like.

And we're just waiting to see that.

I was like, but these numbers right now are showing that you

need this, and that's okay.

That doesn't mean you're not healed.

I was like, for whatever reason, you just need this oxygen right now.

I was like, but you are healed, and one day you're not gonna need these things.

And now she's seeing that, and because now she's mama, are you gonna hook me up?

I'm like, no, baby.

Like you're good.

And she was like, okay.

And now she's not even really asking anymore.

when she goes on sleepovers, like they wanna hook her up still, and that's okay.

And like, she'll be like, why are you doing this?

Like, I'm healed.

Like, I don't need this anymore.

Because she's

a very sassy and very strong minded.

She's just like, she's just like me.

it's really crazy.

I think she would, I don't think Amelia was like learned my attitude.

I think she was just born with it.

She is.

Replica of me,

Like attitude wise.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Sometimes I'm like, woo Lord.

My mom laughs.

She's like, now you get to know what me and your dad put up.

with.

And I was like yeah, I guess I do like you had a lot.

But It's great.

She's very strong.

God has used Samantha's struggles to build her faith and make her more like Christ,

and he didn't do that for no reason.

He has big plans for the future of Samantha and her family,

and they're starting to get a glimpse of what their next step

So within the past six months.

My husband and I, we really felt like God was laying in our heart to

foster and, but we didn't know how.

Like how to get into that.

We knew absolutely nothing.

We just was like, are we sure?

Is this really where, God was leading us.

And then come August like it happened and it was, it's crazy.

Lemme just backtrack just a little bit.

So God laid this on us, on our heart like six months to a year

ago, and we're like, okay, God.

And we started looking to getting a license and getting your

license to be a foster parent.

It takes a lot of, it's a lot of book work and a lot of time.

And we were like, how do we do this?

Because, we both worked full-time jobs.

We already have four kids and he also is in school full-time.

So we're like, how do we make this work?

And then back in June we saw a Facebook post about some family on

his side that was in a bad situation.

And they had a toddler was involved.

That's what the Facebook Post said.

And Brent and I, we were like.

We should see if this is family and see if we can help somehow.

And it turned out we were able to help and God showed us, this is definitely

where I want you to be, because now we are fostering a little boy.

And it's been, God is just showing us so much more.

I don't even know exactly where it's gonna lead us.

Like we, like sometimes we're like, okay, let's get another one.

Let's go ahead and get another kid.

And then sometimes oh God, we're crazy.

No we couldn't handle this.

And then, it's just like all this rush of emotions.

But I know where exactly, where God wants us to be.

And I definitely see my future moving in some way to do with

helping kids in the foster system.

I don't know how yet.

I don't know what that means.

We'll be, continuously adopt, helping, being a foster family.

I don't know if that means like me getting a career in it.

Because both Brett and I have talked about it and we like took

This, it's called I think, TBRI training.

Second Baptist,

Emily Wood.

The best class

ever.

It's amazing.

Everyone should take

it.

Yeah.

like, even if you're not a foster

I've done it several times.

Not with second Baptists or mosaic Hope, but through, I a long story,

but I work for another ministry that actually does three day TBRI training

for camp directors it's great.

You should everybody.

I don't know if I'm gonna leave myself in, I'll say something about

it, but people should go and take it.

I try to share it every time they're doing another training.

'cause

I

do too.

Yeah, And It's I only took it was just a one day, four hours, hour,

hour course and it, it wasn't enough.

Nowhere near, yeah.

Like they actually have a longer, I think like six or eight week class

coming up at the beginning of the year, and Brent and I are doing it.

it really changes like how you think about

things.

If you work around people at

all unless you're sitting under a rock, maybe working on like at home and you

don't see anybody then maybe Okay.

But no, like anyone.

Any job.

You don't have to just work with kids.

It's,

it

helps you understand pe the what's going

on in people's head when they're having a

a hard

time.

Exactly.

Because everyone experiences some type of trauma at least once in their life.

Yeah.

And how it impacts you and changes your brain and makes you think differently.

Like, I just didn't realize until I took that class.

it's great.

Great information.

Obviously Samantha and I are big fans of TBRI training.

I think I've mentioned that training on this podcast before, but if you aren't

familiar with it, it basically teaches you how trauma impacts people and how

you can help kids and really anyone in your life work through that trauma,

i'm gonna include a link in the description to the Mosaic Hope

Facebook page where they always post about any upcoming TBRI trainings,

so you can go check that out.

If you're interested in joining that, I definitely encourage you to do so.

Now, it's almost time that we wrap this episode up, but before we do

that, there's one question that we still have to ask Samantha, the one

question that I ask every guest.

Okay.

If you could say one thing to everybody in Rutherford

County, what would it be?

If

I could say one thing, I think it would be

if for no other reason to get into God's word to learn what his promises are.

For your life, because I spent most of my life, my prayer

life, asking God for things.

And then I realized that these things God already wants to give me.

And it just, instead of like coming to him asking, feeling like I'm

begging in my prayers, like I, I just, that is not what God wants for us.

Like He, he loves us, he's our father.

Do you have to beg your mom and dad

for,

to feed you, to clothe you to do fun things with you?

No.

No.

You, I

mean, you, if you're, a godly mom and dad, you don't have to do

that.

Yeah.

So we don't have to do that with God.

We like, so to get in the word

and

just figure out what his promises are and to claim them of your life.

and, and Don't put a timeline on it.

Mm-hmm.

Um, 'cause you know, God is gonna reveal these things in his time,

not ours, but to just continuously speak those things over your life.

'cause just like with Amelia's healing, for six years we claimed

over her that she was healed.

And it's not until, she's six now that

like she's,

everything is gone.

Like all of the oxygen, all of her needs, all of that, having

to rely on,

machine or medicine to get what she needs.

All that's gone

now.

Mm-hmm.

we

knew it was gonna happen and we just continued to put claim over your life.

So that's what I would say to people, like,

even if

you don't see what you're praying for on your life, just continue to believe

and

trust God for it.

And don't feel like you have to beg in your prayers because.

You don't, he wants these things for us,

Thank you for listening to Small Town, big God.

I really hope you enjoyed this episode.

If you made it this far, that means a lot to me.

Um, I apologize that it takes so long to get these episodes out to you guys.

I'm hope, hopefully in the future there'll be a day when, when I have less

going on and I can, I can focus more on the making this show 'cause I love it.

Love Rutherford County.

Thank you for being a part of Small Town Friendly.