Bringing Taura into the mix, we dive deep into how faith guides us through life's twists and turns. She shares her journey of moving to Houston without a job, facing a tough pregnancy, and dealing with financial pressures that pushed her to her limits. Our real talk strips away the masks we wear, revealing that the best journeys are often the ones without clear paths. This episode celebrates the bravery in being real and the freedom that comes when we ditch society's rules for what success looks like.
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License code: 4LNHLW6CL9FJGMWN
Bringing Taura into the mix, we dive deep into how faith guides us through life's twists and turns. She shares her journey of moving to Houston without a job, facing a tough pregnancy, and dealing with financial pressures that pushed her to her limits. Our real talk strips away the masks we wear, revealing that the best journeys are often the ones without clear paths. This episode celebrates the bravery in being real and the freedom that comes when we ditch society's rules for what success looks like.
Instagram
Follow Black Friends Forever: @blackfriendsforever
Follow Shay: @shavonia_marie
Follow Tanzania: @theniablack
To support the work of Black Friends Forever, donate via Cashapp: $blackfriendsforever or a monthly subscription https://www.buzzsprout.com/2295163/supporters/new
To advertise with us or if you want to shout your bestie out email blackfriendsforeverms@gmail.com
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/moire/new-life (https://click.pstmrk.it/3s/uppbeat.io%2Ft%2Fmoire%2Fnew-life/vZub/Zq6yAQ/AQ/74ea54e8-4ea3-498b-a4eb-796286f9e4e7/4/qc1qvBx_nI)
License code: 4LNHLW6CL9FJGMWN
One, two, three, four. Get your friends about the Groove Chat.
Speaker 3:Groove Chat. Groove Chat, where your past was in the air. Air, air the devil. He don't like it. Stump that devil, stump that devil. Oh well, oh well.
Speaker 1:Oh, welcome back. We can hold a little something, something oh well, tarah Mickens in the room.
Speaker 2:Y'all got a new side. We did Upgraded, going from level to level to level. Don't really like pink, but I love it.
Speaker 3:I really don't either, but you can catch me in pink quite some time.
Speaker 1:A lot actually. Alright, so before we get into the topic for today, let's go ahead and get into our game.
Speaker 3:We're playing a new game this season. It's called who knows their bestie, and we want you to call one of your besties and see if they know you. You know, okay, we're gonna ask three questions so you can get the calling three questions. They at least got to get two right to see who wins at the end of the three questions three questions, easy questions.
Speaker 2:I going to lose this person ain't known me that long.
Speaker 1:These are three easy questions. Most are present day knowledge kind of thing.
Speaker 3:She answered guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you for answering my call. I'm on this podcast and I need you to answer some questions for me. Oh my gosh, okay, who do we have?
Speaker 3:this is tisha all right hey tisha, all right, you're on, get out the group chat podcast and we're gonna ask you three questions about tar to see who knows their bestie. So the first question is you gotta at least get two right, okay? First question is what is tar's favorite color? Yellow?
Speaker 2:okay, is that the right answer? That is subjectively true. Okay, so I don't necessarily have a favorite color, but I always tell people, if I did, it would be yellow good job, okay, good job, good job, okay.
Speaker 3:Second one what is Tara's favorite food? Ooh, favorite food, yeah, if I ain't don't eat Now you know what that might be the answer. That might be the answer. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:She be over here eating to live. That's all I really do eat to live. I'm a very fast person and I don't eat a lot, can we?
Speaker 3:take that answer. Yeah, no, we're going to take that one. But if you had a favorite food, what would it have been? Probably salad Salad. That sounds about right.
Speaker 2:You can have so many variations of salad.
Speaker 3:I see your point. And then the last one is how many times have she been engaged? How many times has she been engaged? How many times have she been engaged? Yes, Twice, oh T, you got it you the gold Good job.
Speaker 2:I'm going to get some chocolate chip cookies from HEV.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much for participating, and who knows their bestie? You're welcome, bye.
Speaker 1:Thank God she's on spring break.
Speaker 3:Spring break, I mean because you was gonna be bestied out.
Speaker 1:Yes, but is the country all on spring break at the same time? I guess I feel like everybody I know is on spring break.
Speaker 3:We in texas, oh wow, yeah okay, all right, well, we're gonna get into our wait. What would have happened if they?
Speaker 2:would have gotten wrong. I just didn't lose it. You want to get the bff?
Speaker 3:I'm always a winner you want to get the bff award, so yeah, no, no food this season shea.
Speaker 1:Shea said she didn't want to torture y'all. I didn't want to torture, but you remember she gave you you know expired.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so it wasn't expired, it just it was old we had to talk about it all right, so we're going to get in our topic of today, and, and it is that pain is from.
Speaker 1:God, so that's a really, really interesting concept because, when you think about God, you think about someone who's just loving and caring and he's his protector and he wants you to be happy and be joyful all the time. But you know, you know he's the lion in the land. Know, you know he's the lion and the lamb. Yes, and the lion in him likes to see us go through situations, because it's what builds character. You know strength, tenacity, all these different things, and so I want to hear from y'all, ladies, share with me just one season where it was just like I don't know if this is the enemy or this is god, but by the end of it you knew okay, this is God.
Speaker 3:I would say just for me, I think the last season when I got fired yeah, I don't know why it took you so long to say it.
Speaker 1:Don't put her out there. Tia is the group that would put you on front street leave you, drop you off in a muddy puddle. I was going to say when I was dismembered from my job, let her use her own language. When I was dismembered from my job, let her use her own language when I left and quit, because I was done with them. No, no.
Speaker 3:But no, yeah, when I got fired from the last job, it was just that season took me out completely, and I think it's the season of being leaving mississippi. All of that happened in what about?
Speaker 1:three to four months, literally, um grandfather dying friends situation.
Speaker 3:It was just crumbling all around me and I'm like, is this the enemy? I kept blaming, like, okay, it's the enemy, da, da, da. But then I had to realize like, okay, maybe this is God really trying to equip me and I think he was really trying to get me out of Mississippi, literally. I don't know. Everybody knew like my car was tripping. I remember it being specific, like I started in the end of 2022-ish and all of 2023, it was doing like something interesting where I couldn't like reverse or drive, like the little thing would do something right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the range where we just acting a monkey car got plenty of complaints, though like I looked on the west.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh, you got a lot of complaints about this range rover, but um, it wouldn't let me, you know, reverse or anything I'm just correlating this season with your car.
Speaker 1:God was like oh, you're gonna try to stay stagnant and go backwards exactly so reverse didn't work because you were trying to stay in reverse.
Speaker 2:All my theologians don't check me wow, and I think I was.
Speaker 3:I. I think now looking back is like I should have been going in 2023 and I didn't.
Speaker 3:And so I'm putting thousands of dollars, thousands of dollars in it. And it's like, lord, what are you doing? Like you know, like what's happening, and so, um, towards the end, and I think I still stay because I was, I got my church, I got my friends. So I still was like, okay, I'm, I'm pushing, pushing, I'm in this, but then towards the latter, it's just like church friendship. Everything just started like acting right, and so I just was like you know what, lord, maybe it is time to go. Mind you, I think I left in December, um 20th or 21st, something like that.
Speaker 3:My friends shout out to Kiki and Bridget went to go get my car because it was in mississippi for christmas, brought my car back december 27, 28th, mind you, we in like mid march, we in march, right now you ain't had no trouble, I ain't had not one and it shall still be there I ride that thing to the wheels every time and it's like I ride it more here than I was in Mississippi and nothing happened so I think I'm like thinking that pain was from the enemy, that pain was probably from God to get my tail about in Mississippi and I just wouldn't listen. So that's, yeah that. Listen people, if anything, listen to what God is saying, cause, baby, you gonna go around that mountain until you get it right.
Speaker 2:God is the originator of you. Don't believe. Fate me, yes correct for real.
Speaker 1:That's so good. It kind of reminds you the doctor, like we're told, like you're supposed to go yearly to get a checkup and we don't. When we don't do the yearly, then our body starts giving us signs and it's like oh, this is the enemy, but it's like no, if you would have gotten the checkup four months ago, we could have gotten there earlier and you wouldn't have had to experience this pain.
Speaker 2:But God in his goodness gives us the signs because we would just stay there and be comfortable. So the signs are from God and they hurt.
Speaker 1:It's like the signs be hurting, but thank God for the hurt, yeah. It hurt it, baby, it hurt it. So what would you testify to now as far as, like, what's been happening or the transitions you felt since you moved from that last season?
Speaker 3:I would say just getting to like be in his presence more, because I even in that I think I was so consumed with work I had so many stores to watch over and everybody calling me and things like that that I didn't even really now that I'm looking at it, I didn't even prioritize God in that season. So that's probably his way of like hey, you need to, you know, prioritize me in this season. So I've been spending more time with him, haven't really maneuvered the working whole part. You know I was. Now I did, you know, go to started my therapy and everything like that. And yeah, it's just being whole, happy, healthy. That's pretty much Taking more trips.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been on more trips. I think it's so interesting. You cannot have a job. It's like you travel more, man, when I didn't have a job.
Speaker 2:I traveled so much. Yeah, that's kind of like People be like come, I'm going to pay for it and I'm like okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been on probably a bunch of trips since and about to go on some this week, next week, atlanta. So it's just, yeah, traveling more.
Speaker 2:Turn up Okay.
Speaker 3:So what about you, Tara, though?
Speaker 2:My whole life. I feel like my life is like this big merge of pain. But God has really graciously shaped my character through it all I'm gonna talk about the last season, um, moving to houston, and moving to houston was a thing within itself like not only were we confused about is this god? Or the enemy, but other people trusted voices around us, wasn't sure about it, so for me I lean on on wisdom and wisdom, a lot of my wisdom.
Speaker 2:I would say like 95 percent. Yeah, meaning maybe one person okay, like yeah, I think this is from god. Everyone else was like are y'all jumping the gun? Or kind of like being okay with it, but you can tell they're like I don't know. Then we get here question real fast. I don't know if I should know the answer to this. Like I don't know. Then we get here question real fast.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I should know the answer to this, but I don't really know the answer to this because maybe I was just so happy I was coming that I never asked uh-huh. So at what was or what sign or what did god say to get y'all to move here? We, because y'all are the type that kind of like just goes with. Laura says not necessarily. Yeah, we don't. We don't move without god.
Speaker 2:That's me. Yeah, so two years prior we knew we would be moving in two years, but we kind of put it in the back of our head and we were like, okay, god will show us. We didn't think it would be Houston because all y'all lived here. Our prior pastors lived here and we just didn't want people to think y'all are just moving to Houston because it's comfortable.
Speaker 2:So we were like, surely God's not going to send us to Houston. And then, once we kind of started trending to that two-year mark, so he spoke this in the pandemic so it's come 2022. We're like, oh, okay, it's time to move. And all the signs were pointing to Houston and we didn't want to tell our then pastor Shout out to him, who so graciously, you know, saw us out, but like we didn't want to tell him because it was like, oh, y'all just want to leave and go.
Speaker 2:And it's like but no, god told us through so many signs which I don't even have time to go through. But once we got here, I didn't have a job lined up. I'm talking, I have a stack resume, like so many connections in Memphis, and I just knew coming here it was like, oh, I'm going to get a job, no job, like, applied to over at this point, like 700 jobs, like nothing. And then when we get here we find out we're pregnant. Like two days after I got here, I'm good and pregnant, like, didn't know. And then, two months after that, the complication started and my son was born early. So it was just like, like. And then we say we had saved close to twelve thousand dollars, um, or a little bit over twelve thousand dollars by the time my son we had. We found out we were having complications. Savings was like drained because my husband's the only one working. We're living in houston, living in a luxury apartment you know, we did all the things like.
Speaker 2:We had months and months of savings and it just you were obedient to god financially I mean obedient to god. We didn't buy a thing, y'all we may have bought a few clothes, forms of clothing for our kids, but we didn't eat out I mean we're doing all the things and it just god, it just said, it just felt like where are you? Like somebody put hoodoo voodoo on this because it's like surely god wouldn't tell us to do this and leave us in the dumps, like surely he wouldn't do.
Speaker 2:And even now I'm like remembering the pain, like of crying at night like God, just hear me, like please see me, because maybe they were right, maybe this wasn't you, but I know I heard you because I wouldn't move without you. So it's like okay, then I had to start digesting, maybe. And the Bible shows us like God is such a good God that he allows us to go through the mountains and the valley.
Speaker 2:And he hit me and he's like this is a valley, like you know, like and now I'm going to have to learn how to trust him more and faith is going to kick in. So in that season it was the move to Memphis, to Houston. In that season it was the move to Memphis, to Houston.
Speaker 3:But it was definitely my son being born at like one pound three ounces like.
Speaker 1:Oh my god. I don't even have time to tell the whole story.
Speaker 3:The the icing on the cake yeah, it's like lord, I all this just done. Happened, it was so bad.
Speaker 2:And now this right, because if it was just the pregnancy?
Speaker 3:it would have been a little bit easier to digest.
Speaker 2:But we got the pregnancy. We got like relationships that are weird now because we moved to another city which is like kind of preventable right um and then we got finance.
Speaker 3:Y'all finances will take you out, especially because you're going to doctor so much.
Speaker 2:So then and with two other kids who are at the time were three and one, and any parent can just testify to the difficulty of having kids that small. So they're adjusting. And then on top of that you got marriage like the number one cause of divorce, or one or two is like communication and finances. So all everything in our lives was just like mood I mean crashing and burning. I'm sorry it.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry it's like funny now it's like you left the key from crying Right Like it was so bad but God did his good work, yeah.
Speaker 1:So how could you or at what point did you realize okay, this is you, God, yeah or can you testify? To what you've overcome since then, because your life then and what your life looks like now, it's too different. It's different, it's two different jam-packed questions.
Speaker 2:I'll try to answer the first one. Okay, I think god is so good in the bible tells us he'll give us like signs along the way, like even in the difficult story, like the Moses and all of that. Like you see them traveling to the premise land, you see the difficulty, but like he gives them manna, like it wasn't steak and lobster, but it was manna and it's like during that time we would have moments where we'd have breakthroughs.
Speaker 2:So even through the complications, yeah, the doctor would be like, oh, your child may have down syndrome or you know you may. They thought I had cancer at one point, so it was like a two-week waiting part. And this is at the same time we're trying to. They know something is wrong. They know this condition my son had only happens in people who have drug use. So it's like are you using drugs? So I had to get drug tests like.
Speaker 3:So it's like they're looking at me.
Speaker 2:I'm already a black female, like you know.
Speaker 3:I'm saying like they're looking at me. I'm already a black female, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like they're looking at me like something. So they had to. I knew I wasn't on drugs, never tried even marijuana in my life right.
Speaker 3:So I knew that wasn't it.
Speaker 2:But they didn't know, so I had to go through that, had to find out if I had cancer or if I had, like some other life-threatening disease. Then we're waiting to see if he has down syndrome on top of other. Dna, like chromosome-like disorders, and it was just two weeks of torment, like so. I didn't mean to go down that road.
Speaker 3:No, no, no you're good, how I knew it was God was just the snippets of like breakthrough in the midst.
Speaker 2:So like we waited those two weeks and everything came back clean. And so then they were just like everything is normal. But then two weeks later, later, we're on a down roll again because it's like, oh, your son isn't getting oxygen, so now he may have um, I can't even think cerebral palsy, like he may come out blind. He may come out, like you know, crippled, like he may not have any good form of life because it's too early. So I think at the time when we found out like it was life-threatening, and he to come early I was like 24 weeks.
Speaker 2:So at that moment they were like, yeah, like if, if this were a normal pregnancy at 24 weeks, like your chances would be higher, but it's even lower because he's under a pound in your 24 weeks.
Speaker 3:So even now listeners.
Speaker 2:if you look up the charts, you're at 24 weeks. Your baby is supposed to be well over one pound, so we're facing multiple things. Is that when you went?
Speaker 3:to the hospital. Yes, because I remember you had to stay for a while, yep, so we went to an appointment.
Speaker 2:They thought everything was normal and then they tell us, like he's getting no oxygen, he's not getting nutrition, you're going to have to go into the hospital.
Speaker 3:Mind you, I to go into the hospital.
Speaker 2:Mind you, I'm a stay-at-home mom right, we don't have remember I lost my job. Well, I didn't lose my job. I left my job.
Speaker 2:But my husband's the only one working stay-at-home mom finances where these two kids gonna go exactly like thank god for y'all we shout out to the friend group godparents and their grandparents like my circle rallied around me, but I don't know, I forgot the question at this point but I realized that god is still god because of the breakthroughs within the pain, and that's why I don't understand why people don't don't know god, because I don't and I can't fathom going through that type of pain without the breakthrough and the reassurance, yeah, and even the prophetic words and the hope of god.
Speaker 1:Like the faith, like you can't have faith without. Did you ever have like pockets where you could feel your body or yourself about to lose hope? And you almost had to call yourself like back to like.
Speaker 2:I don't know whether it be a scripture or you just spoke to yourself I'm sorry I'm and I hate telling this story, but so many stories of being in the hospital where I've, like, you're losing, you're losing hope like so, um, for the people who have had babies before and y'all have been in the room with people who have had babies.
Speaker 3:You go in there, and I was in the room with you, you, y'all did come with ally with my first baby.
Speaker 2:So when you walk in the room a woman is nine months pregnant, she's about to have her kid you hear the little walk in the room. A woman is nine months pregnant, she's about to have her kid. You hear the little thing in the background and it's like boom, boom boom, boom, boom Like you're monitoring the baby. So, micah, we had that monitor on because with his condition I can't even remember the name y'all. Trauma makes you forget some stuff.
Speaker 2:But with his condition, like his heart rate would drop. So I had to be monitored, like consistently, yeah. And so what would happen with micah is you would hear the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then all of a sudden it'll go down. It'll be like boom, boom, boom, boom, like y'all, y'all can't even fathom as a mom, so that you hear you.
Speaker 2:And not only do you hear, you see the, the rate dropping from the 140s or the 130s down to 110, like 190 um, with his condition. Also, a lot of women just don't find out and that's how they have stillborns, because there's no way for you to know that early, like you don't know that.
Speaker 1:The baby's heartbeat is right, so so what's knowing his condition ahead of time? And the doctors, being aware, made sure that they checked it so you automatically think the enemy.
Speaker 2:So if somebody putting voodoo on me did I make the wrong decisions, what did I do? What did I eat? Like is my body going normal? But even the diagnosis, even the catching in the moment y'all like was god, the fact that I was in the hospital and could hear his heart rate dropping at that rate, like that is a gift from God. But it don't feel like that in the moment because it's like well, god, you're a healer like you can heal him.
Speaker 2:I've seen you. I've seen people come in in wheelchairs and walk like this. Is not me just hearing it.
Speaker 3:I have seen it with my own eyes, like I have seen people with STDs herpes like HIV.
Speaker 2:I've seen their before test with my eyes and I have seen them come back with a clean record and science. Science proves that that's not curable. I have seen this. So at the hospital I'm trying to have faith. My body is like filling me um, but I still have to have faith and in those moments I had to listen to god. So I hope I'm talking so much you're fine.
Speaker 1:You're the guest, ma'am.
Speaker 2:We want to hear from you so one thing that god told me to do, of course, like I'm in the pain, so I'm like, but I can't get that through this without you guys so what? Do you want me to do? One thing he told me to do was fast like and I'm I'm pregnant, I'm emotional.
Speaker 3:Pregnant women want to eat like you know what I'm saying, I'm sitting here fasting in the bed, like once I.
Speaker 2:It wasn't until a couple of months after that that I realized the diet that god put me on at the time helped increase blood flow, naturally to my baby so like just having the opportunity to commune with god and know, like okay, it's painful at this moment, yeah, but the bible tells us he'll give us the instructions, like noah to find out how to get through this moment.
Speaker 1:He'll build you in these moments and so I'm sorry, I was gonna go into another story, but no, no, you're fine, go ahead one more story um, I hate telling this story, but we're in this moment where micah's heart rate is just like going down and went from boom
Speaker 2:boom, boom and it's going like boom boom, boom and it's getting slow, y'all slower, like Micah's heart rate got down to the 60s. So at that moment, if you you're not you know, if you haven't been in a moment where a pregnant woman is going through um difficult times, yeah, at that moment everyone's rushing in the room calling code blue because his heart rate is coding. He's coding on the inside, he's dying on the inside of me, and that happened multiple times, but this time he was down 10 minutes when I hear you, 10 minutes of no oxygen.
Speaker 3:You guys that equals to brain damage.
Speaker 2:That equals to death, like 10 moments of it going down and then they lost it, so that they they lost it when.
Speaker 3:Okay, so on the monitor he's at 60 and he's lost because he's under one pound, I can have this monitor on my stomach, but he's so he's so tiny, the monitor lost him.
Speaker 2:So they're calling the surgeon, like we got to get this baby out and we got to get this baby out, and we got to get this baby out. So I hear God it's this angel of a nurse beside me. She's like just keep calm. At that moment she was like God got you.
Speaker 3:So in my pain oh the nurse said that yes. Oh, come on, Shout out to the nurse it was this African lady.
Speaker 2:I forgot her name, but she was top tier moment. My husband's in the room, a friend of mine is in the room and it's like freaking 30 nurses and like people trying to get me to surgery. They're like prepping me, like wiping me down because they have to get, like they can't find my baby. Yeah, and I'm going somewhere here. Um, at the moment I hear guys say I had to pee.
Speaker 2:Really, really bad okay, you pregnant, you gotta pee all the time I hear guys say pee on yourself and I'm like I'm gonna pee on myself, god, all these people there's so many people in that room they prepping me for, so you want me to go to surgery. Pc right, like pc, we see time so like god says pee on yourself. And I'm like what? No god I'm in the moment, like y'all can't imagine, my heart rate is going. I'm thinking that my son is dead and now I hear god say I can hear god very big like to this day.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I have a relationship with him I hear him say pee on myself, and so I'm like I'm finna pee in front of my friend.
Speaker 3:We just new friends okay, I'm in front of my husband.
Speaker 2:Like you know, this ain't attractive, this ain't cool. So, like a few seconds into it, I realized I need to be obedient in god and I need to piss on myself. So I piss on myself. No, sorry, you pee pee all of a sudden don't laugh at me y'all. These ain't my real friends. That's why I didn't want to pee on myself.
Speaker 1:You pee, pee, shout out to my friend danny, who didn't laugh at me?
Speaker 2:y'all wouldn't laugh at me probably the stress out lord come now in the corner, speaking in tone I bet but yeah, so like so. Then I pee on myself and all of a sudden the heart rate starts saying boom boom they find it all of a sudden, just by peeing on yourself by peeing on myself.
Speaker 2:So once it calmed down it's like 30 minutes. They realize they don't have to have take me to surgery. Michael's heart rate stays up for about 30 minutes. People are dispersing out the room. This same angel nurse looks at me and is like ma'am, like you cannot hold your pee, because when you hold your pee it's like your bladder is like on the cord.
Speaker 2:Probably he's already struggling to get oxygen so she kind of, she kind of goes through the scientific part of how dangerous it is for me in this moment, with my condition, to hold my pee, had I not pissed on myself I'm sorry for that voice, baby had I not peed on myself and listened to the voice of god in my pain because when you're in your pain you don't want to talk to god, you don't want to have nothing to do with him because it's like, why are you talking to me exactly? Had I not, like, listened to him and cleaved to him, yeah, and obeyed my son, probably wouldn't be here. Like, even in the pain you have to focus on God. I don't care how hard it is, because, like Noah, he will give you the blueprint to show you how to build and how to be reformed in that moment.
Speaker 2:And so had I not peed, had I not been willing to embarrass me like no, like noah, it hadn't rained like people are like who is who? This guy building a boat for the rain, making fun of him? Had I not been willing to be made a fool of? In that moment and be obedient my son may not be here and he does not have any brain dysfunction, not a thing.
Speaker 3:That baby is so cute.
Speaker 2:I mean cute um, but yeah I just, I don't even remember the question, but I just told this right, yeah, you did um, but yeah that that she dropped some gems on that.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you're right in the comments, like if, if you took something from that story please take something from my bed.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So what would you? What would you if you, tara, could go back and give a word of advice to the Tara that was went, went through that with Micah? What would be something key? You would say.
Speaker 2:Man, that's a good question, cause even now, in this moment, I realized for the rest of my life I will still go through pain like this. Isn't the? It may be the pinnacle, I don't know. I kind of hope, because that one was really painful like I kind of hope I don't got to go through nothing worse than that but like even now, daily, when I wake up, it's a reminder of how good God is.
Speaker 2:Like encounters with God, reminders of faith. It just strengthens your relationship with him. So to this day, I'm still waking up thanking him for that moment. So if I could go back and talk to Tar then I would be like, just like he got you through the pain of being molested like, just like he got you through the pain of, like miscarriages, the pain of oh my god, I can't even of being broke like not even knowing when stuff was going to come through in college.
Speaker 2:Working three jobs, like losing friendships, like being the villain myself, the pain of not being finding out. I'm not a good person like that, just like he got you through that pain for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:He will get you through pain, like the pain is, even if it's sent from god. Yeah, romans 8 tells us that like everything, like it's still good, he makes everything good, like it will still be good, even if the pain is sent from some hoodoo person. God will make it good. He will work everything out for the good of those who love him. So as long as because saints don't like to say that part it, it says for the good of those who love him.
Speaker 3:He don't just automatically take care of me, but as long as I dedicate my life to him and love him.
Speaker 2:I'll always get through the pain, that's good, I love that, so y'all want to see Micah. Okay, y'all, this is Micah. Say, hey, micah, his dad's going to kill me. He's not like dressed to the nines, but it's a little tarjay. But this is micah. We actually had his one year adjusted appointment he's over a year, but we had to adjust him because he came three and a half months early, um, but he's 17 pounds now.
Speaker 2:He's tall, he's in the normal height rate okay yes, he's definitely tall, baby, yeah so he's tall like his daddy, and when I tell you nothing is wrong with him, he's just on the smaller side weight wise yeah um, but make no, you know worries about it, michael's gonna come for him he's gonna be muscular and tall in the future um, but no brain um dysfunction has happened yeah um.
Speaker 3:He's in therapy physically because he was born so early, but it's a like precautionary thing but, um, he is fine, yeah you say hi. Say hey, you was yelling earlier. Say hey, you got on this podcast, so now you quiet.
Speaker 2:He is such a good baby. Micah spent 110 days in the NICU, which was a painful moment. Help me on season three and I'll tell you about our nikki journey yes um, but they were calling him micah the miracle in the nikki, because he just y'all he didn't have any brain bleeds. All my nikki moms y'all know the fear of this look at him, he's so active right now.
Speaker 2:He said give me the mic, mommy, give me the mic um, but everything is fine and Micah is cool, so yeah All right, so let's go ahead and get into our friendship stories.
Speaker 1:This is where I read a story and then they're going to let us know if we should leave the group chat or stay in the group chat, and then you let us know in the comments what you would do as well. All right, so my best friend of 10 years and I got into an argument because she didn't like what I had planned for my 30th. I ended up doing a quiet restaurant dinner with 20 of our closest pals over the weekend vacation that we had planned a few months prior. I'll admit my fault. We did lose our $500 deposit on the Airbnb that we booked, and the dinner fell on the same day as her boyfriend, who was not invited. I love her and I value her opinion, but it's my day and I should be able to do what I want with it I would say now, I wouldn't leave the group chat off of that one.
Speaker 3:I don't know why this season I've been not leaving the group chat. But, um, I would say, yeah, I wouldn't leave the group chat just for that. I mean, it was her boyfriends, but why?
Speaker 1:are you doing this?
Speaker 3:because I feel like you think it's something that's because I'm trying to see um 10 years of friendship and just because it was the boyfriend's birthday too, so it seems like she was frustrated because they lost money on that so it's money and it's that okay.
Speaker 1:now you decided to do this new thing and it's on the same day as my boyfriend's birthday, but I'm your friend, so I have to show up for you and he's not invited.
Speaker 3:But I don't have to show up for you when plans have changed, or I could show up for you differently. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and be like, you know, like.
Speaker 2:I'm so sorry, you know. I love you. We got 10 years of friendship. Surely I've been there at least on one birthday like I. Would just be like I. You know things change, I would love to take you to dinner before the weekend before yeah, like I, I don't know but like because you changed this. I already made plans for something else.
Speaker 3:Now. This is the tricky part. Now. She did say the boyfriend wasn't invited. Now the compromise would have just been invite the boyfriend or I mean, it could be somebody like new so like sometimes you want to be in spaces like with, I get it.
Speaker 3:But if you said you want your best friend of 10 years to be there, you have to compromise. So that would have been the compromise I would have done either way, I don't think she should be at the group chat yeah, that's flexible. Yeah, that's what I said. That's, that's a little fixable.
Speaker 2:You know how many birthdays we have. I know, and you'll tell them switch them plans and make them lose their money exactly that's why people don't be taking accountability for their own stuff.
Speaker 3:They always be like well you should have been there still.
Speaker 2:No, you need to because you we're in a um inflation period like no period no eggs are six dollars. I don't eat egg. I just thought they were still six dollars. No, eggs are $6. Not $6. You don't have any eggs?
Speaker 1:What kind of?
Speaker 2:eggs you about to ask. I don't eat eggs. I just thought they were still $6. I can't wait. Oh my God, sorry, whole vegan eggs.
Speaker 3:I just know that when I look at the station the most expensive egg I saw was $6. Those are the organic. Those are organic Cage free.
Speaker 2:Yep cage free. Keep, those are organic cage free, yep, cage free. Keep the girl in the group chain it's not you to charge for any. You need to be put out the group chain.
Speaker 1:Yeah just need to work it out. What would you do?
Speaker 2:because you be.
Speaker 1:You be caring if people show up for you, y'all take it, you'll show up for stuff um, I think when you switch plans like that, you kind of have to be okay with who cannot be there because you made an adjustment because you've switched and adjusted before especially if I'm not willing to compromise bringing her boyfriend there. But yeah. I'm a new human, I'm a new woman and I'm more reasonable. New season, new you. I guess in the next season.
Speaker 3:I want to interview you and your escapades on free ships and trips and on free ships and trips and events I have.
Speaker 1:we talk about free ships and events we talk about.
Speaker 2:oh, get the event at the group chat.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Remember that vacation we all took to the coast.
Speaker 2:And we got into it. Y'all, tan and I, are like oil and water. She acting such a fool.
Speaker 1:I really could not remember the details. All I remember was the hotel you gotta wait, you gotta wait.
Speaker 3:You had the episode without me we need a part two where I can tell my story.
Speaker 2:I need to tell my story. I need to tell my story it was about the trips.
Speaker 1:I did say my part. I got upset cause I didn't like the hotel. No, you got more than upset.
Speaker 2:We'll let that stay on that scene we gonna get y'all right, alright well.
Speaker 1:Tara thank you for being on. Thank y'all for having me and being open and transparent.
Speaker 2:Thank you for letting Micah come on.
Speaker 1:And so we hope that you know, you are blessed by just her story and just the beauty of who God is. The pain that you're experiencing Is probably from God, but it is. It is for your good, and so.
Speaker 3:Tara, do you have like any social media that you can let me?
Speaker 2:know I think I am Tara Mickens on all platforms. If it's not there, then I don't know. I think it is.
Speaker 1:Tara Mickens, and I suggest following her, because in 2024,. I just really feel like she. I have this feeling that she's going to start releasing some things some messages. Yeah, I really want to tell Micah's story to the masses. It's really God, oh, definitely God, and it's really like true that, like God, will keep you through things.
Speaker 2:So if you're going through pain. Y'all DM me. Yeah, dm she is. Yeah, please, I will walk you through it. I'm not a counselor, but I do know God.
Speaker 3:So yeah, counselor of the Lord, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:All right, and if you would like to be a part of our close friends, go ahead and go to Instagram, DM us and say I want to be a close friend and we will add you to our close friends, you can see more of Micah yes, behind the scenes, what the fun stuff we're doing and then even some previews on the episodes and don't forget, we got.
Speaker 3:Shout your bestie out shout your bestie out what shout your bestie out? Shout your bestie out so yeah, go ahead um get the details at the bottom where you can just shout your bestie out. We'll do a lot of besties to shout out. Can I shout someone out?
Speaker 2:yeah, shout out to all of y'all for being my bestie for so many years. Okay, seeing me through all type of seasons so cute Because Tara is really the friend friend.
Speaker 1:Now to get there with her, you know it might take a little while because you know, she's an introvert.
Speaker 3:When you become her friend.
Speaker 1:she becomes more than a friend. She's definitely a sister, yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, definitely do that so you can shout your besties out. We'll do some videos, live videos or whatever to shout your bestie out. Thank you for being on with us, tara. And that's a wrap for Get Out the Group Chat. See y'all next time, love y'all, bye.