152 From Their Perspective: Losing a Dad and Life with a Stepdad with Davis & Campbell Faulkner
What’s it like to be a teenager in a blended family? How do you manage the confusing emotions of your childhood and teenage years while also adjusting to new family dynamics? Davis and Campbell Faulkner lost their dad in a traffic accident when they were very young. Their mom remarried and they’ve navigated feelings of loss, fear, anxiety, grief, abandonment, and more as they’ve adjusted to a new stepdad and life in a blended family. Listen to their insightful conversation with Ron Deal and learn how they’ve coped and found gratitude for their current journey in the midst of loss.
Welcome to our podcast
FamilyLife Blended® provides timeless wisdom and practical help and hope for blended families and those who love them. Join Ron L. Deal, LMFT, LPC as he and his guests discuss a wide variety of marriage, family, and relationship topics related to blended families.
Meet The Ron Deal
Ron Deal is Director of FamilyLife Blended® for FamilyLife® and President of Smart Stepfamilies™. He is a family ministry consultant and conducts marriage and family seminars around the country; he specializes in marriage education and stepfamily enrichment. He is one of the most widely read authors on stepfamily living in the country.
Latest Episodes
What’s it like to be a teenager in a blended family? Ron Deal talks with Davis and Campbell Faulkner about adjusting to a stepdad after their dad passed away and how they’ve navigated loss and grief and found gratitude for their current journey.
Gratitude doesn’t always happen naturally in blended families, but it can move us toward unity in our relationships. Ron Deal and Gayla Grace talk about intentional ways to posture ourselves toward a heart full of gratitude, even in hard seasons.
Foster care & adoption present difficult issues with similarities to stepfamilies. How do you help a child cope with ambiguous loss or connect as a parent when children act out from prior wounds? Listen to Ron Deal’s conversation with Jenni Lord for help.
Laura Husband, daughter of Columbia astronaut Rick Husband, was 12 years old when she endured her dad’s very public death. Laura shares with Ron Deal her layers of grief that followed and her experience growing up blended after her mom’s remarriage.
How do you identify narcissism or cope with a narcissist? Ron Deal talks with counselor Laurel Slade-Waggoner about strategies in a relationship when someone seeks to control, manipulate, shift blame, gaslight, or behave in other narcissistic ways.
Does your family have a designated Sabbath? How do you spend that day? Kathi Lipp shares with Ron Deal her suggestions for reimagining Christian Sabbath that is a meaningful day with the Lord and one another as you prioritize rest & share a meal together.
The intersection of marriage & parenting often creates tension for stepcouples. Listen to Ron Deal & Gayla Grace give input on how to become a parenting team as you face guilt, fear, ambiguity, different parenting styles, co-parent struggles, and more.
Stepfamily couples can experience sexual pitfalls that bring additional stress. Ron Deal & Gayla Grace talk about how to build trust & emotional safety to overcome the comparison trap, fear & insecurity, & other lingering messages that affect intimacy.
Blended family life can bring hopelessness. Dr. Lee Warren, a neurosurgeon who has faced personal trauma, talks with Ron Deal about how to transform our thoughts and consider our feelings against the Truth of God’s Word to find hope for a better tomorrow.
Ghosts of marriage past—triggers from past hurt—leave a residue on our heart that creates hypersensitivity to being hurt again. Ron Deal speaks with Gayla Grace about dealing with relationship baggage, moving past fear, & building trust in relationships.