Photography by Liana Mikah

Helen Bartlett has been a mother and now a grandmother for over 35 years. She is a Secondary School teacher, Religious Instruction and Kids Church Instructor, dedicated volunteer in multiple capacities, a wife and mother of 6 children.

In Part 1 of this episode Helen describes her early years as a mother and how learning to cope with her first child on the autism spectrum and with undiagnosed gastric reflux and anxiety conditions affected the way she lived out her faith. Emerging from an era when talking about feelings was not an option, Helen struggled to find her way without revealing her weaknesses, even to God. In spite of this, God came to Helen, where she was, battling in her own strength and spoke a word of faith that she carries to this day.

In Part 2, Helen and I discuss how as the years progressed and her children grew and experienced long-term illness, her perspective on what a successful life looks like was reshaped by God. She has come to understand more of God's purposes in her own and her children's lives, what success really looks like and who she is both as a mother and a child of God in her own right.