Amy Ledin delves into the complexities of her family's significant move back to Canada, shedding light on the emotional and logistical challenges faced together. From tackling immigration hurdles to confronting the difficulties of reuniting their family across borders, Amy shares the story of their journey with honesty and vulnerability. This episode is a powerful reflection on the strength of family bonds, the resilience required to navigate life's transitions, and the unexpected opportunities for healing and growth from such experiences.
Key Takeaways:
- The power of new beginnings and family unity.
- How to overcome adversity with faith.
- Upcoming episodes to explore mental health.
“Because us getting back here, the timing, again, just even us finding the home here, and then having the timing of us at least being able to be back here for her passing was nothing more than nothing, it was nothing less than knowing for a fact that God's hand and God's timing, just had a part of it.” - Amy Ledin
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Transcription:
Amy Ledin 0:00
I have never been shy to not share everything here. And you know, part of that with my affair and just the remnants of that, the consequences long term to some of the mistakes I've made. And that's hard. It's hard to hear certain things. It's hard to not want to just curl into a ball and not show up for myself during those times. But I'm hoping that I can be as raw and vulnerable and helpful to those of you that are either, one, for the first time listening in, or you've been with me through this road. Like, you guys are awesome, y'all. And I hope that I can just share as much of me with you over this next season just to really help you level up as I'm doing myself.
Amy Ledin 0:43
What are you doing to create your dream life or your best self? Why do we see some thrive through challenges while others struggle? Welcome to F* It!, a podcast where I talk about the main Fs in my life that have helped me in creating my best self: faith, family, forgiveness, food, fitness, and formula. Hi, my name is Amy Ledin and most would say that I've had my fair share of struggles, whether it was placing my baby for adoption at 18, facing my marriage-ending affair, or battling stage four cancer for almost seven years, it's safe to say that I've been through a lot. Join me as I take you through my story, my journeys, and share with you the tactical strategies every single week that will help you thrive and overcome anything you face. That's right, I'm going to show you how to create a future self that you'll be proud of. So buckle up, get ready for the ride as I take you through my story and bring other guests on that have helped me along the way.
Amy Ledin 1:36
We are back in Canada. Yes, you heard that right, we are back, meaning my family, myself, we are back in Canada. So what better time to kind of break the ice, no pun intended, although I am freezing, to launch a new season, call it a new chapter. And you know, those of you that do follow me on social, you know that we have moved back to Canada. So what better place then to come here to those of you that have followed me through this journey? And if you haven't, if this is day one, and you're like, I want to just get the scoop on what's going on. Awesome. But we, to give you a little bit of a recap, okay, I will consider the first chapter, that first season, you know, was when I launched this podcast, back during COVID, I didn't have a clue about podcasting. I was in the middle of battling cancer, but I just knew that I had a bigger purpose, a bigger mission. And I just wanted to share all of that with you when we were just so many of us feeling so out of control during that time.
Amy Ledin 2:41
And then, of course, if you did follow along, we moved to Florida, lived there for about two and a half years, with it being me and my two daughters, Kamele and Leilani. And just doing that with them for six months and the impact it had on me, our family was torn apart during that time, it was, it was some hard times, but at the same time, there were so many blessings that came out of being in Florida. And, this was a time that when we came back, I wanted to kind of explain because when we went down to Florida, again, if you followed along, I was going down for lung surgery, by way of miracle ended up not needing to have lung surgery after already prepping and being there for it. And going through that then moving to the West Palm Beach area, we lived in Palm City at first and then moving to Loxahatchee, living out in the country and I'm sure if people look at your highlight reel, it looks like it's amazing. And while there were so many blessings, and I'm definitely missing Florida, by living there, you know our family was torn apart. My oldest son, Kainoa, was still up here in Canada. And you know what, maybe, people don't see on the outside, again, this is where these highlight reels can be so deceiving is everything looks great. But you know, meanwhile, it was really, really hard to not have our family altogether. And I had come up to Canada at one point and Kai expressed that to me. And then I started to reimagine, like his viewpoint of us leaving Canada and what that does to someone and you know, I felt like maybe he kind of felt like we were abandoning him, like just in our small seven-year-old self like you could maybe deal with some abandonment issues and knowing also the history there with Kai I have shared on here his first love first girlfriend from high school had committed suicide a few months after they were already broken up. But nonetheless, you know, he was so closed and devastated by that. So I knew he'd had a series of, you know, things that have come up that I wanted to, if possible, make that happen and all of us be together as a family again.
Amy Ledin 5:05
And then coupled with immigration issues. I mean, let's just be real here, I never want to not address that. But with Erik being Canadian and me American, we were wanting to have him get his visa and do that, and the process is much longer and much more in-depth than we have expected. And in the process, and this gets cut, there's two ways to do it. But the way that we were doing it, you know, there's two like tracks you can follow, but you're really not legally allowed to work in the U.S. while waiting for your visa it just says, when I moved to Canada, I was not allowed to work in Canada as a Canadian employee because the system sees that as you taking away a job from a Canadian that could have that job. And it goes the same in the U.S. and you have to be really careful about that. We have an online company, and we knew that that was probably kind of a gray area. But Erik was going back and forth and up in Canada quite a bit. But one time, just all it takes is one border guard not being in a great mood that day. And he took Erik in for questioning and asked all sorts of stuff and told him that, hey, doesn't matter, you know you're not really supposed to be working in the U.S. and stamped his passport basically saying that he had 30 days at a time to be down there.
Amy Ledin 6:21
So we knew until things like we could get that permanent visa or anything like that, we knew that that was not going to be an option to be there, coupled with just the primary reason of our family not being together. Erik's mom was up here in a nursing home and just being away and missing that was like, if we had the opportunity, we would. While we were up in Canada, actually at on a visit last summer, and I was getting ready to come back down and Erik was like, well, I mean, we found a place here, which we had looked at a few because keep in mind, we do have five kids and they all really do need their own bedrooms. They're at an age where I mean, I've got two older ones. And then you know, the three little ones that we knew what our needs were, and we wanted to come back to having those needs met. But also like, it was a pretty steep list there of like, well, I want this and I want a walk-out basement and I want this and that. And well, we ended up finding it, we took a walk through and we're like, oh my goodness, like this, this checks all the boxes in terms of like this can happen. And Erik's like, yeah, but we still have a house down there that we need to figure out. And, just put it this way, there was nothing other than God's timing to make this happen for us in that we pretty much got the timeline we wanted on the home, able to make everything you know, as smooth as it could possibly be with moving back to another country. And we just knew that then this was even if it's for a season, because like I said, Erik, Erik and I, we're mourning Florida, you know, sun and warmth and all that, one, it's just better on cancer, chemo, all of that. But it's also just, it's a happy place for me. Growing up in Hawaii, I just really relate a lot to the blue skies, and just warmth. You know, I just, I'm a pretty cold person. But we really missed it. And I had a lot of, as I said, a lot of positive things that I experienced in Florida, so, but we knew this was checking the boxes and we knew that it just was it was God sending us back.
Amy Ledin 8:25
So that is us now back. And this is why I wanted to launch this third season because we're now in the middle of it. You know, I took off the first couple months getting up here to Canada to not do any podcasting. I know, it's been four months since I've put out an episode, but I will say it will be worth the wait. You know, because I've got some fantastic guests, I'm talking dream guests, I've got Nicole LePera, holistic psychologist, is coming on. We're gonna really do a deep dive into emotional immaturity, something I've talked about on here and something that I'm sure that 90% of you parents are guilty of. And it's, I used to say, oh my gosh, emotionally immature, I am not, but I've learned I am and I'm working through it and I've been doing the therapy and the works. So I'm excited to bring that to you.
Amy Ledin 9:15
But you know, we are back in Canada, our family is all together under one roof. But we've also found a new church home here, which, these are just some of the things that I know over this next chapter, this next season, I plan to bring to you because it has been a rough few months where habits of mine that I'd had for you know, months, years, I struggled to do them I struggled to do my daily agreement cards. You know, I felt like we were just going through so much with the move and you know, with a lot. But through that, we're also in our second year of homeschool with the kids. So we started homeschooling last year keep in mind we still run a business, add to what we were moving, there now, but you realize oh my gosh, we're moving it was it was tough, but the kids crushed it and they are now in their second year and we're feeling like we're getting into a stride.
Amy Ledin 10:08
My cancer, I'm now at 16 months in remission, my next scans, which I am already expecting, they will come back clear, this will mean it will be the longest time I've stayed in remission in the 10-plus years. So it's just a huge monument for me there. But you know, we've also had some hardships. As soon as we got back to Canada within a few weeks of being here, Erik's mom passed away, I actually will have a special episode just a tribute to her that I had already recorded and taken notes for because I really wanted to stay present in how I felt during that time. Because us getting back here, the timing, again, just even us finding the home here, and then having the timing of us at least being able to be back here for her passing was nothing more than nothing, it was nothing less than knowing for a fact that God's hand and God's timing, just had a part of it. And so I will have an episode all about that.
Amy Ledin 11:10
But you know, now this new season, you're gonna see episodes focusing on a healthy family, focusing on mental health, addressing some of the old skeletons that have come up. We took a family vacation and things come up sometimes when we're having conversations and I realized that I have more work to do more hard conversations with my kids. I have never been shy to not share everything here. And, you know, part of that with my affair, and just the, the remnants of that, the consequences long term to some of the mistakes I've made. And that's hard, it's hard to hear certain things, it's hard to not want to just curl into a ball and not show up for myself during those times. But I'm hoping that I can be as raw and vulnerable and helpful to those of you that are either one, for the first time listening in, or you've been with me through this road. Like, you guys are awesome, y'all. And I hope that I can just share as much of me with you over this next season just to really help you level up as I'm doing myself.
Amy Ledin 12:19
So with that, I'm excited. I'm going to be launching two episodes a week, I promise you this will, this break will be much worth it. We will be bringing a video. Yes, that's video, I have a whole podcast studio that is in the works right now. So we will have camera set up all the time because we are going to be launching this on YouTube as well. I just want to thank you all for just being here around for the past three years and still going strong. So I'm excited for this new season, new chapter and like I said two a week one will be interview style and one will be the solo ones just like this. All right. Have a good one. Can't wait to see you on the next one.
Amy Ledin 13:02
Okay, I'm on a mission. As you know, if you've been following along, I have a goal to be at top 100 podcasts. And it's less about that top 100 and more about I want to make an impact. I want more people to hear F* It! and learn from all of the mistakes that I've made, along with me bringing on really special guests for you. So my ask here is this. I want you to screenshot this episode today and share it on your social media, share it with a friend, you know, tag me in it. Go give me a review. Of course, if you're really feeling it and rate me you know, this is the only way things are gonna get seen here and in a big world of tons and tons of podcasts. I'm hoping that you're going to choose mine and help me on my mission.
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