Jan. 19, 2026

Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Building Relationships that Endure (The Second Act)

Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Building Relationships that Endure (The Second Act)

Send us a text A faith-filled love story moves from a college class pairing to a covenant tested by recession, a house fire, and an autism diagnosis, and rises into purpose as two attorneys build a family and a firm rooted in prayer. We close our season with gratitude, hard-won clarity, and a living template for a second act. • God as matchmaker guiding a campus connection into covenant • “Jesus dating” and boundaries that built trust • Proposal before dating and why care proved commitment •...

Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Castro podcast player icon RSS Feed podcast player icon

Send us a text

A faith-filled love story moves from a college class pairing to a covenant tested by recession, a house fire, and an autism diagnosis, and rises into purpose as two attorneys build a family and a firm rooted in prayer. We close our season with gratitude, hard-won clarity, and a living template for a second act.

• God as matchmaker guiding a campus connection into covenant
• “Jesus dating” and boundaries that built trust
• Proposal before dating and why care proved commitment
• Law school grind, early marriage, first pregnancy
• Recession, bar exam delays, and choosing family first
• House fire and autism diagnosis reframing their script
• Language, prayer, and practical teaching unlocking breakthroughs
• Maya’s prophetic moments and the arrival of twins
• Home as sanctuary and kids leading in faith
• Career redemption, multi-state licensure, and launching the firm
• Marriage as mutual service and daily anticipation
• Gratitude as the posture of the second act

Thank you for like, sharing, and subscribe
Go ahead, babe. We are located at 810 Dutch Square Boulevard, suite 206, Columbia, South Carolina, 29210. Our office number is 803-339-1661. Our website is www.smallfirmsc.com


00:00 - Welcome And Old Friends Reunite

05:12 - The Matchmaker Moments At Wofford

12:30 - Jesus Dating And Boundaries

20:25 - The Proposal That Wasn’t A Date

27:05 - Law School, Marriage, And First Baby

34:20 - Recession, Bar Delays, And A House Fire

40:30 - Autism Diagnosis And A New Script

48:10 - Fortress Mode: Protecting The Family Narrative

55:00 - Faith, Prayer, And Samuel’s Breakthroughs

01:02:00 - Maya’s Prophetic Voice And The Twins

01:10:20 - Building A Family Of Prayer And Purpose

01:17:30 - Career Redemption And The Small Law Firm

01:25:10 - Marriage Rhythms, Roles, And Daily Care

01:32:30 - Gratitude, Closure, And Season Finale

WEBVTT

00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:05.040
What's up, everybody?

00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.280
Welcome back to the Element Podcast.

00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:12.160
This is your girl Jaqueta back with another episode of the Second Act.

00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:20.000
This is the place where we reflect on where we've been so we can redefine our now and rewrite our next friends.

00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:24.239
I have my people on here with me today, okay?

00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:26.640
Two of the besties, okay?

00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:31.760
One I've known since a young girl at the middle school in eighth grade.

00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:37.600
Then he married this amazing, beautiful, phenomenal woman that you see on the screen, okay?

00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:41.679
Listen, they are you gotta say it, okay?

00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:43.119
She is that girl.

00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:44.159
And he alright.

00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:46.719
But nevertheless, I'm just playing.

00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:50.000
I'm just playing.

00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:51.679
Yeah, but look what you pulled, though.

00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:52.399
Look what I pulled.

00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:53.920
Look what you pulled, though.

00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:54.320
Okay.

00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:55.600
Look what you pulled though.

00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:57.200
And that's what matters, okay?

00:00:57.359 --> 00:00:58.320
She upgraded you.

00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:04.879
But nevertheless, uh, these are two of my greatest friends that I super duper cherish.

00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:06.719
Um, they are lawyers, okay?

00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:11.519
So when I tell people don't play with me, I got two in the bag, okay?

00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:13.519
I give you a two for one special.

00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:15.840
Somebody try to come at me funny, right?

00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:20.239
They're lawyers, they're parents, uh, their sisters, their brothers.

00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.760
They are uh a man, a woman of God.

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:32.799
And I am super excited to introduce you guys to my friends Samuel Andre Small and Brandy Small.

00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:34.640
Say what's up to the people, y'all.

00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:35.680
What's up, people?

00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:39.200
Yay! What?

00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:44.799
Uh listen, me and Andre go way, way, way back.

00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:45.280
Okay.

00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:49.120
Way.

00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:51.359
How about one for every five years?

00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:54.400
Way, way, way, way, way back.

00:01:58.079 --> 00:01:58.640
Right.

00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.120
Well, we can talk about that later, but talking about it way back.

00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:08.000
So my barber, who's Gen Z or no, he's he's Gen Alpha, maybe I don't know at this point.

00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:13.120
Don't be fooled up with them, young and I was like, I'm coasting that ump status.

00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:17.599
He's like, Oh no, I started talking about the the dial up and phone book and something.

00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:19.599
He's talking about something, oh, you're an old G.

00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:23.919
What minute?

00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:25.039
Like I said, wait a minute.

00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:26.159
Oh, wait.

00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:29.439
I said, wait a minute.

00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:32.639
No, he said, oh man, I forgave you um because I was trying to be generous.

00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:34.800
You know, if he said shut up.

00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:41.680
Oh, and then he remptly reminded me that I was his mom and dad's age.

00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:42.159
I said, okay.

00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:43.840
Oh, but disrespect.

00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:45.199
Yes, disrespect.

00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.560
Listen, I try to correct people real quickly, okay?

00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:51.759
I'm a middle adult, not middle aged.

00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:52.400
Okay.

00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.080
There's a difference.

00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:55.520
There's a difference.

00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:57.199
Middle adult, okay.

00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:58.560
I'm not a young adult no more.

00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:00.560
I left that around about 35.

00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:01.360
Okay.

00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:02.800
Middle adult.

00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.240
Okay, let's get it right.

00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:08.479
Um, and most of our most of our viewers are also middle adults.

00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:10.080
The young adults starting to come in, though.

00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:11.599
They're starting to creep in on us though.

00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:15.039
Um so people who understand our struggle.

00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:16.719
I want to know what y'all are being called that day.

00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:24.159
You know, I I went from being like, you know, you like an auntie to, you know, you're really like a mother figure for me, you know.

00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:25.360
And I'm just like, well.

00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:28.879
And then when I meet their moms, their moms are like, girl, I'm gonna call you.

00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:30.080
You know, we can be friends.

00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:34.560
And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:36.719
It's my new reality.

00:03:36.879 --> 00:03:42.479
Uh, speaking of parents, listen, y'all, my they're gonna tell you the whole story, okay?

00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:52.400
But I really want you guys to know, uh, when I thought about uh people that I wanted on the podcast, I had Andre and Brandy's Samuel Andre Small.

00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:55.919
That's the way he first introduced himself to me in the eighth grade, y'all.

00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:57.919
I was sitting next to him in the band room.

00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:00.960
And he said, Hi, my name is Samuel Andre Small.

00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.000
I was like, all right, Samuel Andre Small.

00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:04.479
Brandy.

00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:06.400
One name, Samuel.

00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:07.840
Listen.

00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:09.759
Listen.

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.639
So I'm gonna call him Andre from here on out.

00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:16.000
But uh uh he his whole name is Samuel Andre Small.

00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:16.720
Okay.

00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:22.240
Um but I they have such a magnificent story.

00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:30.480
God has done, when I tell you guys, so many things in their lives, in their marriage, um, with their family.

00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:36.160
Um, I mean, we we could literally be on here for hours, but producer joy ain't having it.

00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:40.240
Um, we could literally, she she gonna cut it.

00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:45.600
Okay, so if y'all see me say, all right, well, we're gonna wrap it up, it's because producer joy might have given us a signal.

00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:54.800
But their story is just so full of how God has shown himself to just be mighty in their lives and to transition them.

00:04:54.959 --> 00:05:13.839
I mean, the the name of the show is the second act, but I feel like Andre and Brandy have like a third act, a fourth act, a fifth act, you know, just multiple stages where God has transitioned you, almost taking you from a place where it felt really, really still and just like zoomed you forward into another realm of living.

00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:21.839
Um, and so I want you guys, either one of you, can start um and talking about how did you meet?

00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:24.639
Talk about the talk about the origin story.

00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:26.079
I want to hear it again.

00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:28.800
You're gonna start, Brandon.

00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:30.879
No, I will I'll just say this.

00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:35.120
Um, I'll let you do that, um, Dre, but it was so funny.

00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:45.199
We were leaving um the courthouse in York this week, and it dawned on me that Andre and I will have been together 20 years this year.

00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:46.720
Um, I know.

00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:48.959
Look, I was like, oh my gosh.

00:05:49.040 --> 00:06:02.879
And then so I go scrolling um like on my Facebook or my pictures or something, and I see like the first time we went to like the black and gold ball and um all these things, and I was like, it's really been 20 years.

00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:06.240
Um, so yeah, it's 20 years.

00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:10.720
Wouldn't change the whole world, but it's definitely 20 years.

00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:16.399
Listen, I love telling people like I got I got friends who've been married since 2010, okay.

00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:18.959
Like, listen, okay.

00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:20.079
I love it.

00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:25.040
Andre's the romantic teller of stories, so he is well.

00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:27.759
Especially when he talks about his booth.

00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:28.879
Yeah, I know.

00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:32.079
Listen, so went to Waffle College.

00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:48.399
Brandy's actually a year older than I am, so it's um um, but graduated from Rich View, went to Waffle College, and I get on this campus, and I I am the loner that uh that you probably remember me.

00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:50.319
I I just I didn't really talk to anybody.

00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:53.120
Andre ain't go nowhere, ain't do nothing.

00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:59.040
Anytime I hung out with him, he's like, Why don't you just come to I'm like, Sordre, sure.

00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:01.519
Let's sit around the house again.

00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:03.680
Look, look, because it's safe there.

00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:06.000
Look, I'm saying, and I don't got to spend no money.

00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.480
Y'all was y'all got to spend y'all gas to come to my.

00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:10.160
I'm so done.

00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:11.839
Anyways, anyways, okay.

00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:13.759
Tell them tell them about my sister.

00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.240
Yeah, so uh, you know, I I get that.

00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:19.439
And I don't know, you know, I'm just trying to find my way.

00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:25.120
It's the first time, of course, you know, when you get to get your freshman year on campus, you're just trying to find your way.

00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:29.839
The first time we actually met in Brandon Corten was at Transitions, right?

00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:39.120
Was that there was some program where you guys visited like or like the spring before, or something like that.

00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:39.680
Yeah.

00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:41.680
Remember, I met you there.

00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:42.480
Yeah.

00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:45.199
Um But it was kind of in passing, right?

00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:59.920
Well, there was a room, like remember we had like the bar height, uh like the bar um tables, and like we kind of I guess went around and spoke to all the like incoming um freshmen or what have you.

00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:00.319
Right.

00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:01.680
And of course that was for it.

00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.800
It wasn't but a but a handful of us, you know.

00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:08.000
So we found each other very, very easily.

00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:09.680
It's like, oh my god.

00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:11.360
All right, come here, let's talk.

00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:13.920
Yeah, similar, similar vibes at prominent.

00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:14.480
Similar vibes.

00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:15.519
I can imagine.

00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:17.040
Yeah, yeah, right down and wrong.

00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:19.120
But you know, that's just the way it was.

00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:22.000
And um, so I I didn't quite do that.

00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:23.360
Hey, my name is Samuel Small.

00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.800
It was um, you know, just kind of nervous, whatever.

00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:27.920
We meet then.

00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:32.080
But um, it wasn't, it was like I said, it wasn't passing, it wasn't a big deal.

00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:35.759
I got to, I actually got to Walford in the first couple of weeks.

00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:40.159
Um, you know, had my first round of classes, and I remember I took French in high school.

00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:43.200
Um and pretty pretty decent at it.

00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:45.519
And the lady, uh Dr.

00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:55.519
Schmitz, who was our um professor, uh French professor at um at Walford, um came to me and said they were trying to beef up the French program, right?

00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:59.440
Because they they had an even, it was just a very, very small program, not a lot of people.

00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:03.120
And I think they were also trying to push diversity and say, you know, you're really good at this.

00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:04.879
I said, okay, great.

00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:05.840
Well, what do I need to do?

00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:06.559
You know, no.

00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:08.960
And she said, well, you'd have to become a French major.

00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:10.399
I said, French major.

00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:12.080
Oh, well, I mean, okay.

00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:12.799
I mean, whatever.

00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:14.559
I I just I'll do it.

00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:22.399
Um but uh part of the deal was if I did, they would skip me up to the next level.

00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:23.279
Was it 301?

00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:24.240
No, 200, 200.

00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:29.919
300 level, the 300-level class with the class ahead of me, where Brandy was.

00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:38.240
Um, and they would give me the credit for the lower classes and kind of put me on track to graduate a year early, right?

00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:39.679
I said, well, that's great.

00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.799
Hold on, wait, because the way the Lord set a thing out, yes, I love it.

00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:46.000
Yeah, come on, home.

00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:46.799
Yes, ma'am.

00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:54.080
It gave me credit for all those, and then my AP courses all when they calculated all that, they said, and if you stay on this road, you can graduate a year earlier.

00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:56.000
Wow, be able to graduate with Brandy.

00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:00.480
I didn't know that at the time, but so I said, I said, sure, why not?

00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:01.600
Well, Dr.

00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:06.080
Schmitz on the on the back end went to Brandy.

00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:08.480
Because she was the she came to you.

00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:12.799
Um, she was because Brandy was the only black person in her class.

00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:13.919
All right.

00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:15.679
And I think it was also because Dr.

00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:24.159
Schmitz and I were close due to like, you know, having had um the experiences that we shared the year prior.

00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:36.080
Um and and so she came to me and she said, Hey, I have a student that I'm gonna move up to the 300 levels uh the to you guys' class.

00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:42.159
And if um, if you don't mind, you know, I told him if he has any trouble, you know, or any questions that he can come to you.

00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:44.480
And I was like, okay, that's fine, no problem.

00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:48.320
And then she said, but will you just go introduce yourself and what have you?

00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:50.000
And I said, that's not a problem.

00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:56.320
Um, you know, thinking back on it, I'm actually a very shy person, but I told her, I said, that's fine, no problem.

00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:05.200
Um, and so I mean, and I let you pick it up there, but she didn't ask me, and and I'll say this, Jaquita, she actually moved up two students.

00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:07.679
Um, it was you and Chad.

00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:12.320
Um, and but she told me specifically to go talk to Samuel.

00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:14.639
Let me tell you something.

00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:15.919
I I love it.

00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:31.360
I've I've been really wrestling with this idea of God being a matchmaker, and how when we think about like, oh, how am I gonna find you know my husband or how's he gonna find me, you know, like we we think that the answer is you gotta put yourself out there.

00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:37.039
You know, you gotta you gotta get on the on the date naps and you gotta be in the places where the men at.

00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.440
And everybody's like, where's all the single men at?

00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:56.399
And I have found myself drawing back from all of this, from this idea that I have to put myself in position and realizing that as long as I stay in position with God, He can orchestrate my love story just like I've I've trusted him to orchestrate everything else.

00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:01.200
And and I think there's so many single people, right?

00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:19.039
You know, like I'm sure she had no idea that when she put you guys together, that this whole love story and this huge family and all of these things would come of it, you know, in her mind, she's like, I have a higher level student that can help this incoming student to progress and move forward.

00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:30.399
And so I think a lot of times we're trying to write a story when God already has a script and all you have to do is stay on script.

00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:38.159
And that will allow God to unveil to you what's in what's in your what's in your what's in your act, what's in your story.

00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:40.159
So, okay, I'm sorry, I just had to get that in.

00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:40.960
No, that's awesome.

00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:47.519
Because listen, I did not go to Waffle College thinking I'm gonna come out finding a wife, a wife.

00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:49.039
And I know Brandy did.

00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:50.480
I did not.

00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:54.000
Well, because I mean one who's younger than I am.

00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:55.279
That's number one.

00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:55.840
Her buttons.

00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:58.000
Brandy take that one year so seriously.

00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:12.879
Listen, I I just I knew there were there were only a handful of us, and of course, I I, you know, I just did not, I just did not think that I would come out of Walfrey.

00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:14.320
I was not looking for a spouse.

00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:16.960
Well, and I think also it's the the focus.

00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:24.720
I think coming from um, you know, black families, um, you know, and talking to our friends and things of that nature, it's just a different culture.

00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.759
When you go out to school, you go to go to school, you go to accomplish something.

00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:33.840
You know, for me, I'm like first generation um college student.

00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:42.720
So a relationship, right and and never mind the fact that um this, I never had a relationship up until Andre.

00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:48.159
Um, you know, and so I definitely didn't come there and I would I did not seek him out.

00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:51.440
I was just obedient to my teacher and I told her I would do it.

00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:56.639
So I I I told her I would approach him and tell him, you know, if he needed any help, he could, you know, ask me.

00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:01.360
But um I also included you won't need any help in my statement.

00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:02.639
I said you won't need any help.

00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:03.759
It's it's it's great.

00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:06.480
Don't even bother me, you good.

00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:16.080
And funny enough, when she approached me, you know, and that people use that term, who was it, love at first, at first sight.

00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.000
I'm not I'm not I can't say that.

00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:31.679
I'm not gonna say that because when she came to me, of course I thought she was beautiful, but um but in my mind, just like she, I thought, what what I I didn't I was like, well, she's an upperclassman, what is she gonna do with a little freshman, that type deal.

00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:35.120
I if that didn't cross my mind at first, you know.

00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:39.200
So um let me let me tell y'all about how that changed.

00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:41.840
Okay, let me tell y'all.

00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.720
Uh I'm gonna let him I'm gonna let him continue his little story.

00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:56.399
Okay, but remember, me and Andre, when I say we were best friends, we were best friends in the idea of me and Andre were probably the only two people telling each other the truth at all times.

00:14:56.639 --> 00:15:00.159
Keeping it 100, which means we fought a lot, okay?

00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:01.440
Let me tell you something.

00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:05.759
Let me tell you, couldn't nobody get on my nerves like Samuel Andre Smoke.

00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:13.200
Jaquita putting in love, I just so you know, you know, at Blackwood High School, you know um Coach Ellis is is the uh student activities coordinator.

00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:13.840
Really, yeah.

00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.559
So I talked to her and she said, ask Jaquita.

00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:17.360
I said, fine.

00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:20.799
The first thing she said, she said, y'all just used to fight in my car.

00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:25.120
Ooh, that's so funny.

00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:40.320
Me and Andre used to go at it, you know, and um, but it was it was in a in a loving way that we didn't understand as love at that time because it was it was he was the only person fighting baby.

00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:43.440
It was it was it was petty, but it was honest.

00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:47.039
And it was real, and and it was always cutting to the bone.

00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.840
Like it was always, we're gonna cut to the truth of it.

00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:51.759
Honey, let me tell you something.

00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:59.360
When this man, I don't know what he thought when he first saw you, but probably the second or third time he saw you.

00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.080
All I heard was Brandy, Brandy, Brandy.

00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:04.799
And oh, there's this girl at Waffer named Brandy.

00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.440
And then he started accidentally calling me Brandy.

00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:12.559
And I was like, that was like, I was like, who is Brandy?

00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:15.039
Because let me tell you something.

00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:17.759
Okay, this is the poetry came too.

00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:18.720
Remember, Squidday?

00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:20.720
The poetry, the poetry.

00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:26.720
So I finally, and I I'ma I'm a I'm a I'm a I'ma tell my little piece and I'm gonna be out.

00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:29.759
And again, me and Andre just completely friends.

00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.879
I finally go to visit him because Furman and Wafford is like 45 minutes away from each other.

00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:39.519
So I go to visit him, and I'm in the room, and he's just talking about brandy, brandy, brandy.

00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:40.559
And he's oh, I'm gonna go in.

00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.600
I'm a and I was like, take me to her now.

00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:44.480
Let me see her.

00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:45.519
Let me see this list.

00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:47.360
Take where is she at?

00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:48.960
Where is she at?

00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:50.799
Because, bro, you is sprung.

00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:53.600
Yes, you are sprung.

00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:58.960
I want to meet her, and of course, when I met her, I loved her, but they weren't even dating yet.

00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:01.919
And that was the crazy part.

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:10.400
It was so that when she came to me and and we and became my mentor or whatever, and she said exactly that.

00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:11.599
I didn't have any issues.

00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:13.200
And of course I didn't.

00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:18.799
Um I started talking to her, you know.

00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:28.319
We started talking and we we figured out, found out very early on um the love of God, the love for God that each that we each had, right?

00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:32.960
Um, and of course I was like, whoa, that's that's that's a big deal.

00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:40.559
Um she helped get me involved with our on-campus um Soldiers for Christ.

00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:41.839
Oh, soldiers for Christ, yeah.

00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:43.119
Soldiers for Christ.

00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:54.799
Um, and that was a way to keep me grounded while I while I was in school, but in it, and it kind of um, you know, just encouraged to keep my walk with God while there.

00:17:55.119 --> 00:18:02.640
Um, and one of the first things that she told me that um I was like, wow, this is somebody that I could I can kick it with.

00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:06.480
Um I was like, man, I really want to read the Bible in its entirety.

00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:08.720
I've never been able to do that up in that point.

00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:11.920
She said, well, why don't you, why don't you, we can read it together, right?

00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:23.119
She said, because she and another student, um, I won't say her name, but they had they had gone on a quest, if you will, to to read the Bible, the entire Bible over a um over the semester.

00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:24.079
No, the summer.

00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:25.920
The summer, so like three months.

00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:27.839
Um, and she completed that.

00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:29.599
And I said, How did you do that?

00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:30.960
I was so enamored by that.

00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:35.279
She um showed me her plan and we started doing that together.

00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:42.559
But of course, that led to deeper conversations, that led to deeper friendship, and there was no romance involved at that time.

00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:43.359
I mean, right.

00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:55.759
There was let me but but we were so close and it it was it was scary to me at first um because I was like, like, this really is my homie.

00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:00.880
But like it was just on a just another level.

00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:07.839
And it was through our our uh pursuit of God that that that really happened, and we spent so much time together.

00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:10.079
People said, Y'all are then, are y'all sure?

00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:11.599
You know, are you sure?

00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:12.079
What do you mean?

00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:13.759
No, I promise you we're not.

00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:25.599
But if like when I had my choice, um, you know, when all of our friends, and none of our none of the friends that we had at Walkford were the um lushes or like they they they were soldiers for Christ, they were those members.

00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:30.640
But whenever they even went off to do other things, I said, can we just chill?

00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:33.680
Can we can we continue like that?

00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:36.880
I know he didn't want to go nowhere, Brandy.

00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:44.960
I didn't want to go, not not because I was, I mean, I I guess you could say I was courting her, but I wasn't.

00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:46.240
It was just so easy.

00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:59.200
And I don't know if you remember in my vows, Jacquelita, at our at our wedding, um, that was thing I said I could, this is the first time, and I don't want to get emotional, but uh this is the first time in my life.

00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:11.680
Um, where I truly feel like I can and that's even within my upbringing, family relationships, all of that and giguity, you know the story about that.

00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:13.200
We'll talk about it in this podcast.

00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:15.119
That's a different podcast that I imagine.

00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:16.319
Um we'll bring you back.

00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:20.000
We'll bring back to talk about those things.

00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:35.359
But it I I literally, you know, uh amongst the other friends I could with Brandy, I could truly just breathe, take my shoes off, and really and and be be be silly, be my authentic self.

00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:45.839
And not only did she um uh not judge me for that, but she it was it drew her in even more.

00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:49.839
It could and she opened up, she made herself vulnerable to me as well.

00:20:50.000 --> 00:21:01.119
Um there was there was no when I asked by the time uh spring of 2026, or I guess the the Jan term of 2026.

00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:18.559
2006 came around um and a little later on, it might have been in February, I can't remember exactly, but when I asked her to marry me, um she did not believe me when I said that.

00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:29.920
And you know, when I and of course it's like we were we were still freshmen in college and all that stuff, I said, not now, but I cannot imagine my life without you.

00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:37.599
And I said, why not let's we started this thing, why not let's just let's make the plan, let's let's finish it.

00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:41.359
Um and Brandon, did you want to pick up from there about the well?

00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:46.720
I'll add in something because I don't want to make it seem like I was the only one reading the Bible.

00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:54.559
So I can remember us going from Olin Building, which is where our class was, uh, to walking toward.

00:21:54.720 --> 00:22:01.920
I was in um who was that Dre um English uh I was in Dupree and you were in Marsh.

00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:11.359
Marsh so we were taking the the route behind Old Maine, and at that time Andre was reading Romans.

00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:17.920
Um and um he was fasting from TV and he was reading Romans.

00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:25.200
So that's what um I shared my story with him, and he shared where he was.

00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:31.519
Um he was saying that he wanted to, he he was on the pursuit of you know, knowing God for himself.

00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:37.039
He he knew him, but you know, as an adult, um, knowing God for himself and reading the Bible.

00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:41.839
And so um I never forget Becky called it Jesus Dayton.

00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:57.599
She said, You guys are Jesus Dayton, um, because what we would do is we would go to the common area and we would read the Bible together, um and we would uh talk about where we were in the Bible or what have you, um, and just you know have discussions.

00:22:57.759 --> 00:22:59.440
So I I did want to bring that up.

00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:03.039
And then Andre to your question where you asked, was it about February?

00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:08.480
So what happened was like we got really close that first semester, and that's when I met Jaquita.

00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:15.279
And then the next semester, our whole group, we had our um interim time at Walford.

00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:21.920
We got our group was really close because we would stay up all night, you know, just hanging out, playing games and things of that nature.

00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:30.720
But by February, Andre was Andre was writing me poetry, and all the the poetry was very beautiful.

00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:37.920
Um, but it it would respond, I'm trying to tell you.

00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:50.480
The poetry was very beautiful, but the the words would it would, if you read the words, you could tell it was planning a future.

00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:53.039
Now, in my mind, I'm not there.

00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:58.400
Um, because I'm just here to, I'm not gonna take advantage of a fellow person in Christ.

00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:04.400
Um, I'm just here to do exactly what I said, which was I would, you know, read the Bible with you, what have you.

00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:06.960
But apparently he had something else in his mind.

00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:09.920
But it became clear when I would read the poetry.

00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:21.119
But I also remember um that in February, your dad um called and told you to buy me something for um my birthday.

00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:33.839
And you called my roommate at the time, Vicky, and helped uh set up like the streamers and the balloons in my room while I wasn't there, um, you know, set up a cake and all those other things um for me.

00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:42.000
Um and that we we had the little party down in the common area, and then he said, Well, I just would rather go hang out.

00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:43.519
You want to go back to your room and hang out?

00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:46.000
And I was like, that's fine, because Andre always wants to hang out.

00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:49.119
He don't want to be in the crowd, like he's always been that way.

00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:50.640
And so I was like, that's fine.

00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:54.000
So we go back to my room, and that's when I see the surprise.

00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:59.200
And excuse me, I think at that time you bought me the teddy bears.

00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:02.240
Um, and I think you bought me an outfit.

00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:09.119
Um and right, and it was so funny because I was like, well, how do you know what to buy?

00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:13.200
He was like, Well, I can look at you and kind of tell, and I can see your clothes and stuff.

00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:15.759
So, you know, he uh bought me an outfit.

00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:18.960
I I wish that, well, we had house fighting, so we wouldn't have it anyway.

00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:20.720
But he bought me the outfit.

00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:30.720
Um, and that year, uh, might have bought me flowers for my birthday, which is February the 12th, and then for Valentine's Day.

00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:35.279
So it was a lot of like, was there courting?

00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:36.160
Yes.

00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:44.160
Um, but in my mind, listen, I'm a Christian, and I am not gonna, I'm not gonna take advantage of someone.

00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:46.079
I just I accepted gifts.

00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:51.279
I got then I bought stuff for Andre, took him out to eat, um, and everything like that.

00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:56.079
So it was like we did that with our entire, you know, friend group.

00:25:56.319 --> 00:25:56.559
Yeah.

00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:05.279
Um none of them believed us when we said that we were not, because that well, because you know, there were some other friends of us that had some struggles sexually.

00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.000
And he said, What how can y'all spend so much time together?

00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:09.680
Y'all got to be doing something.

00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:12.400
I was like, Y'all, we were not, we did not.

00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:13.519
We did not.

00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:16.079
Before we got married.

00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:16.880
We did not.

00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:21.680
And we don't we don't praise God.

00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:30.720
Yeah, and we don't say that to to to boast, but when I when Becky said Jesus dating, she said, oh yeah, y'all and Jesus dead, and I can that's I'm trying to talk like shit.

00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:32.319
Yeah, y'all are Jesus dead, and I completely get it.

00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:33.119
I totally get it.

00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:35.359
Yeah, that's that's accurate.

00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:36.000
That's accurate.

00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:36.880
I said, I can take that.

00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:38.160
I can take that thing.

00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:41.599
That's such a I'm sorry, Brandy, I didn't mean to cut you off.

00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:43.759
No, you're perfectly fine, Jacobi.

00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:56.480
I think that's such a, you know, as as we're talking on this episode, I'm realizing, you know, guys, if you only know how many struggles we have had to get this episode up and running.

00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:07.039
I mean, from the scheduling when I was gonna be able to get these two very busy people on a screen together to today, all of the technical issues that I've literally never had.

00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:21.599
But I'm as as you guys are talking, I'm realizing how powerful this is because as young and middle adult Christians, we don't have models for Jesus dating.

00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:47.759
We don't have models for keeping integrity, remembering that this is your brother or sister in Christ, remembering that this is not just about I need a husband, I want a wife, and you gotta treat me like this, and you gotta do this, and I don't want to go to cheese cookery and all of the things that like when you're talking about building a foundation together, you have to start with something that's gonna last forever.

00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:53.359
And I think, and also if you guys are like, man, Andre wrote all this poetry, that's crazy.

00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:54.799
Go look at his Facebook statuses.

00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:56.960
This man is still writing, okay.

00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:03.920
He is still writing, he's still writing love letters to this day to Brandy, to his children, okay.

00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:07.759
He is he just wrote one to Maya today.

00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:10.720
Um he has not stopped.

00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:16.000
I I don't remember Andre writing nothing for nobody ever, okay, before Brandy.

00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:20.799
But now all of a sudden, trust me, trust me, Brandy.

00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:25.519
Uh but but it's such a there is a missing piece.

00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:44.720
And so when you guys are talking about your first act, and you know, Brandy noting that you guys have been together now for 20 years, are known, have met each other 20, 21 years ago, and and have all of this history and this foundation, that you have to build something that's gonna last a lifetime.

00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:46.960
And you know what's not gonna last a lifetime?

00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:53.519
That little romance, that little, you know, I had to sweep you up off your feet, I had to do this, I had to do that.

00:28:53.680 --> 00:29:09.359
Like you guys are giving the template for how we need to be approaching relationships um as believers and how we need to approach um what how we need to adjust adjust our eyesight for what we're looking for.

00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:16.000
Um, because you know, I'm five foot eleven, so you know I've been looking for six, two, six, three, you know.

00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:19.039
And he might he might just be that in the spirit.

00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:19.920
I don't know.

00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:25.359
Yo dude might be five ten, bro.

00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:26.559
That just might be it.

00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:36.559
You know, I it's it's so funny saying and we just had this conversation um not too long ago, and I I don't know how for how deep we can get on on the podcast when we talk about sex.

00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:38.000
As deep as you'd like to?

00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:39.519
Yeah, when we talk about sex.

00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:46.079
And Jaquini, we've had this conversation with it about, you know, um within within the marital sphere.

00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:53.440
Sex my with in my marriage, sex is not the best aspect of our marriage.

00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:54.880
No, it is not.

00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:57.200
That's so that's so key.

00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:03.279
Not it's not not even close, it's as as as great as it is.

00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:07.440
Right, it is, it is not let's be clear.

00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:19.039
We won't change that because I will say having been on this side of that, I told I told Andre, I said the only thing I would have changed about our relationship is I'd have gotten married earlier.

00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:19.440
Earlier.

00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:28.640
I said, Because like for for all those years, it was I can't let my my brother in Christ fail.

00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:32.799
I'm not gonna be Jesus is not gonna be mad at me for doing something with me.

00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:38.559
So, you know, I said that's the only thing I would change, but no, sex is not even close to the best thing.

00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:40.559
But y'all didn't start with that.

00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:42.079
No, it was the kicker.

00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:53.680
And you you didn't even start with that as as as as a goal, as a as a burning desire, like I gotta have it, and this is and you know, and and I think that it it made a difference.

00:30:54.079 --> 00:31:10.480
Yes, it is it it is something that you make you make it what you need it to be in your marriage and um and you uh how you regard sex is is more important than than anything.

00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:16.960
If you go in with the mindset, like you just said, I that I have to have it, that it has to be, we got to make it spicy and we got to do this, that, and the third.

00:31:17.119 --> 00:31:19.279
Number one, that makes it too mechanical.

00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:28.559
Um and the purpose of sex is not to get my rocket off and turn like that.

00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:58.000
But if you continue, if my goal is for us to to what's the word I'm looking for, to um put a cherry on top of the Sunday, or to um to embody our love for each other in a physical act, for me to please her, and then her regard is to uh her her regard for sex is a is a tool to please me.

00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:06.799
We too busy trying to please each other that how it happens is less important as to the moments leading up to it and even the moments after.

00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:11.680
Because there's only a few, there's only is just a very short period of time.

00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:30.079
But it's it's the love letters all day, it's the um, it's it's the um validation, is it's the it's the mind, the the the mind that you will go leading up to it, letting you know that if of all the people in the world, you are the one that I desire.

00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:34.160
Yeah, that is a choice, that's a conscious choice you have to make.

00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.000
And that makes it sweeter.

00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:37.759
And listen, throw kids in the mix.

00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:40.559
And I know we're gonna talk about the second act and the final act.

00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:49.440
You're trying to make things spicy while you got four little people knocking at your door, it just probably ain't gonna happen.

00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:52.000
I mean, not that not in the way that you want to point it.

00:32:52.880 --> 00:33:08.720
But it is, it is, it is if we I can honestly say, because we tempered our flesh in the in the beginning, if we had to go months without it, if we had to go without it, period.

00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:15.519
Don't want to, but if we had to, we I I a thousand percent know we would be fine.

00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:21.839
And because here's the thing get in a marriage and get in a position where you can't do it for whatever reason.

00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:25.359
Yeah, but what are you gonna have to fall back on?

00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:25.920
Yeah.

00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:34.880
And here's the thing, we all gonna get old, prayerfully, you know, we all gonna get old, and that and that it's just not gonna be the same.

00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:41.519
So um learning to grow with each other is what I I I believe it.

00:33:41.759 --> 00:33:50.799
God has really when I look back on these 20, 20 plus years, um, it's been a privilege, it's been an honor to love.

00:33:51.279 --> 00:33:53.119
You don't know what challenges you're gonna face.

00:33:53.279 --> 00:34:02.319
But so I, you know, one, every every turn of your relationship, every part of your journey has been beautiful.

00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:11.679
Um, I I want to kind of focus in on, okay, so Andre called me, you know, sent me a picture of the ring, you know, and he was like, it's about to go down.

00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:15.360
I was like, this man, I did not know how serious he was.

00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:17.920
I knew it was Brandy, Brandy, Brandy, Brandy, Brandy.

00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:21.360
But when I saw the ring, I said, we 20 and proposing.

00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:28.320
We proposing in college, you know, and I let me tell you something.

00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:29.199
I loved it though.

00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:30.719
I was I was in full support.

00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:31.679
I I love Brand.

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:33.039
I love Brandy.

00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:36.639
I love that Andre was in love because yeah.

00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:51.920
Um, but I I want to kind of talk through, you know, now you guys are engaged and then were um headed to law school, um, and you're at the beginning of marriage.

00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:58.800
Um kind of talk to me about how life shifted um in those terms.

00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:02.960
So we so first get into law school.

00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:09.599
Um I actually uh was going to be a doctor at the end.

00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:11.840
Yeah, since like the nine since like the tenth grade.

00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:16.639
Queen remembers by AP bio was my was my deal, right?

00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:17.199
Yeah.

00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:26.400
Um got to to when we got to Walfer after I met Brandon Austin, I got to the end of my uh um um freshman year.

00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:30.880
Um I don't know if you remember, Grandma Betty had a uh aneurysm an aneurysm.

00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:31.760
Yeah, I do remember that.

00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:39.760
Um so of course I ran down there and that whole event, I don't know why, I just shifted my focus or whatever.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:41.679
I had to have a real talk with the Lord.

00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:44.719
And I never forget, God rest the soul, not Mrs.

00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:51.039
Nandim, not granddaddy, says before um I even met you since I was a little boy, he said, Boy, you're gonna be a lawyer.

00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:53.199
No, I'm not.

00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:57.519
He has always said that when Brandon?

00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:00.000
Oh, he's gonna be a lawyer.

00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:00.559
Period.

00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:09.360
So that kind of resonated with me, and then of course I found out that Brand was was headed to law school, and I said, Well, I had a talk with God.

00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:11.119
I said, Let's do this then, right?

00:36:11.360 --> 00:36:11.920
Wow.

00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:20.079
We ended up, so I did propose, if you will, in uh our freshman year, we end up getting extended.

00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:21.679
You propose freshman year?

00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:22.719
Sophomore year.

00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:23.440
Sophomore year.

00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:25.360
Oh, okay, okay, okay.

00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:27.440
Sophomore year.

00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:29.599
Well, so let me fix that.

00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:44.400
No, but knowing what I knew back by the time like he did propose, he was actually trying to propose in February of his freshman year when the poetry was coming and all the other stuff.

00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:52.400
Because the the way that I later found out that I was like, Do you know you did this back like months ago?

00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:57.599
So we were in the dorm room, like watching TV or something and just kind of talking.

00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:02.800
And he kept grabbing my hand and saying, Will you buy my um salsa chips?

00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:04.639
And I was like, Why do you keep asking me this?

00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:06.079
Yes, we can go to the store.

00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:08.079
Let's just go, let's go to Walmart, because you know I got to do that.

00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:10.960
I said, like, will I said, Will you?

00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:12.719
And will you?

00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:14.800
And I paused.

00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:18.559
And I then I said, like I said, so I said, buy my sauce of chips.

00:37:18.639 --> 00:37:20.639
It was some sauce of chips that I really liked at the time.

00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:24.559
I think that was me getting cold feet about doing that.

00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:27.519
Because I think I I got in my head, I said, What am I doing?

00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:29.679
I'm I'm I'm in, I'm in, I'm a freshman year.

00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:31.360
I'm I'm a freshman here at this college.

00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:35.519
See, they're asking this um woman to marry me type deal.

00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:41.599
And of course it wasn't to get married, but anyway, and I then I I finally I kept trying, and then what was it?

00:37:42.159 --> 00:37:48.000
It was October 16th of my, you know, that sophomore year.

00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:50.000
Also, right at the beginning of sophomore year.

00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:50.480
Yeah.

00:37:51.199 --> 00:37:53.440
Finally just went ahead and said it, right?

00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:54.400
And just to cut this one.

00:37:54.960 --> 00:37:58.480
And and to preface it, he would always, you know, Andre's word.

00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:00.559
I love it, it's beautiful.

00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:03.760
I love how his how he has his way with words.

00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.159
It wasn't will you just buy my sauce of chips?

00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:08.719
He was like, I just love you, this, that, and the other.

00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:10.320
Will you buy my sauce of chips?

00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:14.800
In my mind, I'm like, yes, let's just go buy these sauce of chips.

00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:16.960
Like, I I had no clue at this time.

00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:22.480
Like, I could tell that he liked me a lot, um, and even loved me.

00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:25.360
But I just marriage wasn't in your proof.

00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:34.480
I'm I'm interested to know, Brandy, because you know, you you was a woman on a mission, on a grind, okay.

00:38:34.639 --> 00:38:39.920
Brandy was like, I'm here to get my degree, I'm here to go to law school, I'm here to do the things.

00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:44.000
What, how, what made you say yes?

00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:48.639
Like, when when did you get to the yes that ultimately came?

00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:54.480
So, um, we so let me say this.

00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:02.239
Even before becoming my fiance at the time, I always thought Andre was a phenomenal person.

00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:06.000
Like he is very thoughtful, um, or at least he was with me.

00:39:06.079 --> 00:39:08.480
He was very thoughtful, very careful.

00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:14.159
Um, all these different things, like he he cared about me deeply.

00:39:14.800 --> 00:39:22.880
Um and one thing that um, and he always like he he would tell me everything.

00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:35.119
Um, and so it it wasn't hard when all the stuff came together, like in a moment when I could look back on it, like all the events, but it was shocking to me.

00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:38.960
Like I was like, boy, stop playing.

00:39:39.039 --> 00:39:43.440
And you know, he was like, um, I think we came out of the same class.

00:39:43.599 --> 00:39:45.199
I said, Boy, stop playing.

00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:49.119
Like, no, I I right now I just really want to go back to my room.

00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:51.199
You go ahead and go farewell.

00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:53.119
You know, it is what it is.

00:39:53.360 --> 00:39:57.199
And he was like, No, um, I'm really serious.

00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:04.880
And because I know that you are Focused and you keep talking about law school, I figured I better tell you this now.

00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:09.199
And I'm like, tell me what right now.

00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:12.960
Um, because I had told him I wouldn't go to Burwell with him that day.

00:40:13.199 --> 00:40:22.719
And he said, um, he said, well, listen, because I don't want you to plan your life without thinking of me too.

00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:26.639
I just want to know, would you do me the honor of being my wife?

00:40:26.800 --> 00:40:28.559
I said, Andre, look.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:36.960
I said, Andre, I said, like, dude, um I said, are you serious?

00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:38.960
And he was like, yeah, I'm really serious.

00:40:39.119 --> 00:40:41.440
He said, you know, we we talk all the time.

00:40:41.679 --> 00:40:47.440
Everything you've said about what you want your future to look like, that's what I want for my future.

00:40:47.599 --> 00:40:57.280
And so I I I don't want you to, because I know you're already planning, like I was telling when I was taking uh LSAT, um, you know, I all these things.

00:40:57.360 --> 00:40:58.320
I was he knew.

00:40:58.480 --> 00:41:09.599
Um, and it wasn't for the per I wasn't telling him those things because I was trying to pressure him to something because I didn't know that he felt no, I had when I say zero clue, Jaquita, zero clue.

00:41:09.679 --> 00:41:09.840
Yeah.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:13.280
Um, and I as a matter of fact, I told her, Andre, we haven't even dated.

00:41:13.440 --> 00:41:15.440
He was like, Well, we don't have to.

00:41:15.679 --> 00:41:22.480
And so he said, I just know that this is what I want to do.

00:41:23.360 --> 00:41:32.000
And I just like I I stood there for a moment, um, and whatever was going on at the time, like it left my mind.

00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:39.280
And I was like, Andre, like, you know, I knew at by that time I knew I loved him.

00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:46.800
Um, but again, in my you didn't have you, you I said, you gonna say it, you gonna give me a few minutes.

00:41:47.039 --> 00:41:49.920
Five minutes, and I ain't even answered the question.

00:41:50.159 --> 00:41:56.239
I said, I was giving him every reason about like Dre, you you have your life ahead of you, you know, those kinds of things.

00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:59.280
I was I I guess I was almost convincing you out of it.

00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:06.639
And and or trying to, but you know, when Andre feels something, he's gonna go with it 100%.

00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:18.719
And so he said, I know all those things, and I know we haven't traditionally dated or any of those things, but I I've I've been talking to God about this, and I know this is what I want and what I want in my future.

00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:21.039
And so eventually I said yes.

00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:29.599
But Andre and I actually didn't tell anybody um right that it took like a week or so because I was having to still process it.

00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:39.519
Um, and I knew that, like when I say Andre cared for me intimately, I never forget I have horrible cramps, and I have since I've had a cycle.

00:42:39.679 --> 00:42:42.400
And I remember one day Andre was in my room.

00:42:42.880 --> 00:42:44.320
A couple things happened.

00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:49.679
One time I was in uh my dorm and he said, Hey, let's go to Walmart.

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:52.559
I didn't really feel like it, but I said, Sure, I'll ride with you.

00:42:52.719 --> 00:43:00.079
And I got in this car and I missed his car, like, super heavy cycle, and he didn't have leather seats.

00:43:00.239 --> 00:43:01.840
So I missed his car.

00:43:02.320 --> 00:43:06.559
And and this was on the way back to Walford, and I was mortified.

00:43:06.639 --> 00:43:07.360
I ran away.

00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:09.519
I said, Oh my god, Andre, I'm so sorry.

00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:13.199
And I was like trying to think in my mind, like, how am I gonna get that out of his seat?

00:43:13.280 --> 00:43:14.639
You know, this, that, and the other.

00:43:14.800 --> 00:43:17.679
And like two, three minutes later, Andre walks up to my room.

00:43:17.840 --> 00:43:19.280
He said, Girl, why are you running?

00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:21.280
I was like, Andre, I'm so sorry.

00:43:21.360 --> 00:43:22.800
I did not mean to do that to your car.

00:43:22.960 --> 00:43:23.840
I'll pay for it.

00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:27.679
Just I just uh that's very embarrassing, you know, whatever.

00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:30.400
Like that has never happened to me before.

00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:33.840
Um, and he said, Girl, I already got it up.

00:43:34.079 --> 00:43:35.679
He said, There's nothing in my car.

00:43:35.920 --> 00:43:37.280
I said, What do you mean?

00:43:37.360 --> 00:43:40.880
I said, like, there was look like somebody got shot up in there.

00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:43.280
He said, Brandy, wasn't it bad, first of all?

00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:45.360
And like, he said, it was fresh blood.

00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:47.440
I just cleaned it up and it's it's all good.

00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:53.519
He said, But give me your pants and I'll go ahead and throw those in the wash, and you won't even know that this happened.

00:43:53.840 --> 00:43:57.119
And like tears started falling down my eyes.

00:43:57.199 --> 00:43:59.119
I was like, I'm so sorry, I'm so embarrassed.

00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:03.599
He was like, You don't have to be embarrassed, just give me your pants and I'm gonna take them downstairs.

00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:05.920
He and I so I went and laid down.

00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:11.519
He took my clothes to the laundry room, washed them, dried them, he brought them back up to me, woke me up.

00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:13.440
He said, See, you don't even see it.

00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:18.559
And I was like, I still was trying to process it, but that's how he cared for me.

00:44:18.719 --> 00:44:24.320
And then in another instance, I had a cycle and it was really, really heavy, but it was super, super painful.

00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:28.320
And I called the doctor after he called my doctor after hours.

00:44:28.400 --> 00:44:29.760
He was like, You want me to call the ambulance?

00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:32.880
I said, Well, they don't do anything for cramps like that.

00:44:33.519 --> 00:44:35.360
I said, So that's not a good idea.

00:44:35.519 --> 00:44:37.119
He's like, You want to go to the emergency room?

00:44:37.199 --> 00:44:38.960
I was like, No, I just have to let it pass.

00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:40.000
Well, he calls my body.

00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:42.880
I was, I was crying.

00:44:42.960 --> 00:44:44.960
I said, Oh my god, this is so painful.

00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:51.760
But at the end of the day, he just kind of sat with me, and then he um I he I fell asleep.

00:44:51.840 --> 00:45:01.760
He stayed in my room till I fell asleep, but I said I wanted a brownie, and it was two o'clock in the morning, and Andre walking into my um dorm room with a brownie.

00:45:02.079 --> 00:45:05.920
I said, Boy, why did you go get me a brownie?

00:45:06.079 --> 00:45:08.480
He said, You said it earlier that you wanted a brownie.

00:45:08.559 --> 00:45:11.280
I just thought about it, so I went to go get you a brownie.

00:45:11.440 --> 00:45:13.039
I said, in the middle of the night?

00:45:13.199 --> 00:45:15.199
He said, Yeah, you said you wanted it.

00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:18.239
And so it like like the way he was caring for me.

00:45:18.320 --> 00:45:20.000
And then at that time, and I saved it.

00:45:20.079 --> 00:45:21.360
We have it in our scrapbook.

00:45:21.519 --> 00:45:26.239
He went back to his room and he uh a AIM messaged me.

00:45:30.880 --> 00:45:36.159
He said, um I just want to uh I love you.

00:45:36.719 --> 00:45:40.159
And I said, Oh I said, well, why'd you say that?

00:45:40.400 --> 00:45:43.679
He said, I I just felt it so I wanted to say it.

00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:45.760
I said, Oh, well, I love you too.

00:45:45.840 --> 00:45:49.679
Um, and I thank uh, you know, and I uh uh you know thank you for saying that.

00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:57.840
He said, um, and then he started saying, and and you had a really rough day today, and I just wanted to, you know, make sure that I told you that I love you and all this and the other.

00:45:58.159 --> 00:46:00.480
So I knew what kind of person he was.

00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:11.280
So when I said, yeah, like I thought about it, I was like, well, you know, if he cares for me like that, he and and he would be a uh husband like that, well shoot, yeah.

00:46:11.440 --> 00:46:12.159
You know what I mean?

00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:13.280
Like, of course.

00:46:13.440 --> 00:46:21.920
And we'll have to work out some of these details, but but I don't know what those details ended up being because it just felt so natural after he told me.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:31.840
Um, because by that time I come down to Columbia um and spent the week for um spring break, um Paddy's house and all that other stuff.

00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:37.360
So it it it was studying abroad together in 2007.

00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:40.639
Um graduated, we ended up getting in USC.

00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:41.280
Yes.

00:46:41.760 --> 00:46:46.079
Uh um, of course, and we got our letters right after each other, our acceptance letters.

00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:48.480
Um we get to law school.

00:46:48.639 --> 00:46:51.519
Um, we didn't we don't have the same last name, right?

00:46:52.239 --> 00:47:02.320
We still ended up getting in the same section, you know, which was amazing because I I was like, and once you get in your section, you pretty much stay with them, at least your first year.

00:47:02.559 --> 00:47:05.519
Um, and then even part the first part of your second.

00:47:05.920 --> 00:47:10.079
Um so it it was that part was was magical.

00:47:10.239 --> 00:47:12.480
So we ended up doing everything together.

00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:15.519
And we kind of fell seamlessly there.

00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:19.199
So I we ended up getting married our second year, right?

00:47:21.119 --> 00:47:21.920
2010.

00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:29.280
And we graduate uh in uh 2011, and of course, she graduates.

00:47:29.599 --> 00:47:32.159
Uh she walks across the stage six months pregnant.

00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:33.840
Wait, six months pregnant with him?

00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:37.280
Seven months pregnant.

00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:38.559
Seven months pregnant.

00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:42.559
You're seven months pregnant, about to walk across the stage.

00:47:43.840 --> 00:47:48.800
Can I just interject real quickly because I I cannot overemphasize.

00:47:48.960 --> 00:47:50.320
One, I want to say one thing.

00:47:50.480 --> 00:47:57.199
A lot of people, you know, there's this whole conversation on if you can be friends with people of the opposite sex, right?

00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:03.119
And I, Andre and I have been best friends since, you know, eighth grade.

00:48:03.280 --> 00:48:04.480
We were 13.

00:48:04.719 --> 00:48:07.599
All the time for, like I said, we used to fight like cats and dogs.

00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:10.320
What I tell people, I tell people this all the time.

00:48:10.559 --> 00:48:13.840
I became just as close with Brandy as I was with Andre.

00:48:14.079 --> 00:48:26.239
I did not keep some super special relationship with Andre that we had to like, you know, keep on the side of me, you know, I became a friend of the family.

00:48:26.480 --> 00:48:39.519
And so for all of you who have friends who may be, you know, the opposite sex, I would encourage you, and I mean, it doesn't, all of all of y'all's friends aren't marrying somebody as cool as Brandy, right?

00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:48.079
But you have to, you have to redefine that relationship with that person as I am now a friend of the family.

00:48:49.039 --> 00:48:53.039
And so it really helped to set a dynamic where I can stay.

00:48:53.119 --> 00:48:53.840
You know what I'm saying?

00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:55.920
I stayed part of the part of the crew.

00:48:56.000 --> 00:49:02.079
You know, I stayed part of their lives because I'm I be at the house, me and Brandy be talking, I don't know where Andre be at.

00:49:02.239 --> 00:49:04.639
And I I really don't be, I really don't be caring.

00:49:04.800 --> 00:49:07.840
I be like, Brandy, girl, I got to talk to my sister.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:10.559
Have you done this?

00:49:10.639 --> 00:49:11.440
We hear my friends.

00:49:11.599 --> 00:49:15.360
Yeah, you know, we, you know, Brandy be hearing some of the stories before Andre do.

00:49:16.320 --> 00:49:18.079
Brandy, tell Andre what I said.

00:49:19.039 --> 00:49:37.599
You know, but it was really important for me as I was watching y'all's relationship unfold that I wasn't, I wasn't trying to, you know, reassert who I was or where I should be in this friendship, in this relationship, right?

00:49:37.679 --> 00:49:43.840
Like I I remained a supporter of you guys as a unit.

00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:45.920
And I think that that's really important.

00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:49.760
Um yeah, and of course, when the kids came, you just became auntie queened.

00:49:49.840 --> 00:49:51.280
I mean, that's just it just is amazing.

00:49:51.760 --> 00:49:52.960
Boy, did the kids come?

00:49:54.639 --> 00:49:55.599
The kids.

00:49:56.400 --> 00:49:56.800
I don't know.

00:49:56.960 --> 00:50:01.360
When I tell you I love y'all's kids, I love that I now have nieces and nephews that are teenagers.

00:50:01.519 --> 00:50:03.280
That's wide to me.

00:50:03.599 --> 00:50:07.119
That is wide to me how quickly these kids grew.

00:50:07.360 --> 00:50:17.920
Um the point I was gonna make was I remember when Brandy was pregnant, y'all, because, you know, they've told so many stories about how Andre cared for Brandy.

00:50:18.239 --> 00:50:30.559
I remember I went to visit, y'all were in the apartment uh at the meeting, and I went over there, and Andre, we were getting ready to go out to eat or something, and Andre said, okay, Brandy, stand up, and he like sprayed her down with the body spray.

00:50:30.639 --> 00:50:33.920
He put her coat on, he put her shoes on.

00:50:34.159 --> 00:50:37.679
I said again, my brother is.

00:50:38.880 --> 00:50:53.440
But I'm so appreciative because I tell people when I come home to Columbia, I'm like, I need to go see my brother and sister because just being around y'all reminds me of what the promises of God looks like.

00:50:54.480 --> 00:50:57.039
And because also I know Andre before.

00:50:57.119 --> 00:50:59.519
I know pre brandy Andre.

00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:05.280
Like I said, Mary, a poem written.

00:51:05.519 --> 00:51:09.440
I could have branded, I could've, I could've uh ran and stuck my tongue.

00:51:09.679 --> 00:51:18.719
Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I have plenty of examples where something happened to me, and that I looked over there, and that boy was laughing, cutting up.

00:51:20.400 --> 00:51:25.360
I got sick one time, and he made me ride in the back seat with the window down.

00:51:26.960 --> 00:51:29.039
The key closet, the keystone, not he.

00:51:32.320 --> 00:51:35.360
That man told me he was out, that is disgusting.

00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:36.719
You sitting in the back.

00:51:37.440 --> 00:51:54.000
So when I tell you, when I tell you, I said, I said, my brother, but just hearing your story is just confirmation of knowing what it looks like when it comes.

00:51:54.239 --> 00:51:56.800
So, all right, we're seven months pregnant.

00:51:56.880 --> 00:51:58.559
We're walking across the stage.

00:51:58.800 --> 00:51:59.119
Yeah.

00:52:00.079 --> 00:52:05.519
And we go to, we, of course, right after we we graduate, we go to try to sit for the bar.

00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:13.599
The week before, maybe a couple of weeks before, then it was she didn't have she had a pretty, she had a pretty um seamless.

00:52:13.920 --> 00:52:34.320
Yeah, pretty good pregnancy, like no issues, but for some reason, right up to that point on where we were getting ready to sit for the bar, they said we might have to take the baby because um he's he's he's what is it, he's growing larger than or measuring larger than what uh our due date was so so he could come early.

00:52:34.400 --> 00:52:42.320
And they said, Do you really want to sit and be sitting in the bar and your water breaks and you go into labor and you have the baby and we don't want any issues to happen?

00:52:42.400 --> 00:52:44.639
So they scheduled her for a C session.

00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:45.039
Right.

00:52:47.199 --> 00:52:55.599
And though the other one was like a week later than the bar, they were afraid that I could go into labor um surely.

00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:00.159
And so it was this idea that let me just withdraw.

00:53:00.400 --> 00:53:11.519
Andre withdrew so that we could um, you know, have have our um have our baby, but um and then I wouldn't change that for the world.

00:53:11.840 --> 00:53:12.559
My Lord.

00:53:13.760 --> 00:53:37.280
Because it it in that um, you know, the one is expensive to take to apply apply to take the having to do it later um in life, having a baby and not feeling settled, but you know, looking back on it at this point, I don't I would change a single solitary thing or win change uh the kid I got.

00:53:37.440 --> 00:53:40.239
And we we had a series of amazing kid.

00:53:40.320 --> 00:53:41.599
All of your kids are amazing.

00:53:41.840 --> 00:53:42.719
I love them so much.

00:53:42.800 --> 00:53:43.039
Thank you.

00:53:43.519 --> 00:53:45.199
The sweetest kid.

00:53:45.679 --> 00:54:04.480
Um I will say the the the thing that came in this second act w was the trials that come with, you know, being a newly married couple, um, the economy at the time, as well as what eventually happened with Samuel, the house fire.

00:54:04.559 --> 00:54:16.159
Like it was a a number of things that happened, but it was so funny that um when we look back on everything, God was still faithful the entire time.

00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:26.960
Um, even though it didn't feel like it going through it, it was I could look back on it at each stage and see where God was working things out for us.

00:54:27.199 --> 00:54:37.039
Um, but in in like I said, that second act was, and I think it is for a lot of people where you're trying to figure out who you are as adults, as a married couple, and all those things.

00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:45.280
Um when we had Samuel, um, you know, issues would arise, you know, family issues arose.

00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:52.239
Um eventually when Samuel was two, almost turning three, he was diagnosed with autism.

00:54:52.559 --> 00:54:55.679
Um piece to that.

00:54:55.760 --> 00:55:06.320
So after we we withdrew from the uh from taking the bar, of course that was that's supposed to be our piece into I mean our our standard into our careers.

00:55:06.480 --> 00:55:09.519
Um, like she said, the economy was was terrible in the recession.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.480
And and um I said, oh my gosh, so I w we withdrew.

00:55:14.639 --> 00:55:18.960
I don't have a job, I have a wife and this brand new baby that I have to take care of.

00:55:19.519 --> 00:55:20.559
What am I gonna do?

00:55:20.960 --> 00:55:30.159
Um ended up getting uh odd odd and odd and end jobs, if you will, but it I got a job as a professor or an adjunct professor as a teacher.

00:55:30.960 --> 00:55:36.800
Um and eventually I I um went into public school teaching full time.

00:55:37.360 --> 00:55:48.960
Um I had to go get my certificate, but you had to go through the alternative certification, so I had to get into that class and go to that seminar and do all, you know, and um to to get certified, take that test to be certified, and I finally did.

00:55:49.280 --> 00:55:56.559
Um and like you said, in the midst of that, and it was 2014, we had a house fire.

00:55:58.239 --> 00:56:06.079
The uh year before that, or a couple years before it was at 2012, we had we both lost our jobs at the same time.

00:56:07.760 --> 00:56:08.480
Let us go.

00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:13.440
Um Sam was diagnosed the day we had the house fire.

00:56:13.840 --> 00:56:18.719
The lady that was coming to do the um doing the assessment.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:23.760
She came, she would, she was pulling up to a house in flames.

00:56:23.920 --> 00:56:24.239
Yep.

00:56:24.559 --> 00:56:29.760
And um she said, please don't tell me that this is y'all.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:32.400
Um she said, please tell me you're not Mrs.

00:56:32.559 --> 00:56:32.960
Small.

00:56:33.199 --> 00:56:34.960
I said, Yes, ma'am, I am.

00:56:35.199 --> 00:56:37.760
Um she said, you know, of course I'm so sorry.

00:56:37.920 --> 00:56:52.880
I said, Well, ma'am, if you'll just give us until tomorrow, I'll just have to come to you because when they do the assessments, it was my understanding that they like to see the child in the actual setting and like environment so they can get an accurate setting.

00:56:53.039 --> 00:56:54.800
Um, she said, tomorrow?

00:56:54.960 --> 00:57:00.400
I said, Well, ma'am, we've lost everything at this point, and I don't know what's going on with my child.

00:57:00.480 --> 00:57:03.360
So if you just give me till tomorrow, I'll come to you.

00:57:03.519 --> 00:57:05.039
Um, and we ended up going.

00:57:05.280 --> 00:57:09.440
Samuel would not say a word to those people.

00:57:09.760 --> 00:57:13.840
And that's when she said, We're gonna have to diagnose him with autism.

00:57:13.920 --> 00:57:16.639
I was like, Oh no, but he can talk, you know, that kind of thing.

00:57:16.800 --> 00:57:21.440
She was like, he didn't do it in there with us, so we have to diagnose him.

00:57:21.519 --> 00:57:27.360
And he had some um like uh receptive language issues and um all those things.

00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:40.400
And I think when he was maybe 18 months, and we started the process with Baby Ned of, you know, having him assessed, I never forget the my heart sank when I saw the the paperwork.

00:57:40.559 --> 00:58:00.480
It said um he was at like a eight months expressive language and 15 months um receptive language, or it could be switched, but um she put um on that paperwork I could just still see the writing in the corner.

00:58:00.559 --> 00:58:04.159
It said severely disabled slash retarded.

00:58:04.880 --> 00:58:11.679
And I was auntie auntie Jaquita uh uh peaked up because Yes.

00:58:12.559 --> 00:58:21.679
We know that's not we know that's you know I wish I wish y'all could see Samuel because literally one of the most brilliant kids.

00:58:22.320 --> 00:58:33.119
Um but at that time it was not a brilliant feeling, and I remember like my heart sank and I started to blame myself.

00:58:33.360 --> 00:58:50.159
Um I thought I'd eaten something because at the time you didn't you didn't know a whole lot about autism, and it was at the point where I could not, Andre and I could not even bring ourselves to tell everybody what was going on.

00:58:50.320 --> 00:59:01.679
We just were saying, like, he's going through some things, we're gonna work with him, you know, and I took every everything that I had on the wall decoratively, and you know I like my decorative stuff.

00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:02.559
Let me tell you something.

00:59:02.639 --> 00:59:04.079
My sister can deck a house out.

00:59:04.880 --> 00:59:06.400
I took it all down.

00:59:06.719 --> 00:59:14.480
I put the alphabet on the wall, the numbers through 20, um, color, shapes, all the things.

00:59:14.639 --> 00:59:17.760
I put those up, uh clock, what have you.

00:59:18.159 --> 00:59:31.199
And I, you know, after I took it the the way that I did, um I I finally, you know, Andre and I sat there and we really couldn't even say words to each other.

00:59:31.440 --> 00:59:39.440
We just sat on the couch and had a whole silent conversation, and both of us were just sitting there with tears just falling down our face.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:47.760
Um and it just it looking back on it, it was a lot of ignorance, if you will.

00:59:48.320 --> 00:59:50.639
Because we didn't know and it wasn't.

00:59:52.719 --> 00:59:52.960
Right.

00:59:53.039 --> 00:59:54.960
We we couldn't get a lot of information.

00:59:55.039 --> 01:00:00.800
Like it's all it's it's all out there now, but you couldn't get any information um At the time.

01:00:00.960 --> 01:00:06.719
And so I just remember um, you know, feeling like a failure as a mom.

01:00:06.880 --> 01:00:08.880
I just knew I'd done something wrong.

01:00:09.039 --> 01:00:10.639
I knew I ate the wrong thing.

01:00:10.719 --> 01:00:12.960
I didn't take enough supplements or whatever.

01:00:13.119 --> 01:00:18.000
And you know, with with Andre, he he gave me DHA back in 2011.

01:00:18.159 --> 01:00:19.199
I'd heard that later.

01:00:19.280 --> 01:00:20.639
I didn't know that stuff.

01:00:20.800 --> 01:00:24.719
Um, but he was giving me all these supplements and stuff like that.

01:00:24.800 --> 01:00:28.480
And I just I took it as, you know, I'd done something wrong.

01:00:28.719 --> 01:00:43.199
Um, and you know, there was a lot of condemnation, like I said, from that people were saying about him and experiences that he was having, um, and family saying certain things about him.

01:00:43.599 --> 01:00:46.880
And yeah, that was that was painful.

01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:52.320
And I remember, um, and I just be quite frank, because that was my baby, like Samuel.

01:00:52.400 --> 01:00:55.039
Um, you know, he's my gift from God.

01:00:55.280 --> 01:01:17.039
And I when I did something wrong, quote unquote, did something wrong, and he came out with autism, um, or he was diagnosed with autism, I just was like, I was heartbroken because then I would get the literature that, you know, he would, he would be um, you know, he wouldn't talk, he wouldn't do, he wouldn't learn to read and write.

01:01:17.280 --> 01:01:24.239
Um, I got a pamphlet one day after the house fight um where it was talking about adult daycare.

01:01:24.320 --> 01:01:32.880
Now Samuel's three years old, and they were telling me about daycare and how you could get diapers for him as an adult.

01:01:33.039 --> 01:01:36.800
And so these people over the messaging.

01:01:37.679 --> 01:01:38.159
I don't know.

01:01:38.239 --> 01:01:42.320
No, I'd like the lady came to my house and told me that and gave me the pamphlet.

01:01:42.400 --> 01:01:47.519
She was talking about DDSN, which is a great program to provide services for families.

01:01:47.679 --> 01:01:53.039
But I mean, uh that just wasn't my vision that I had for my life and for my kids.

01:01:53.119 --> 01:01:54.960
It's nothing wrong with diagnosis.

01:01:56.159 --> 01:01:56.880
I'm sorry to cut you off.

01:01:56.960 --> 01:02:03.760
In the midst of everything we're going through, it just seemed like another holding a bag of uh a bag and everybody was throwing a rock in it and scaring it around.

01:02:03.840 --> 01:02:04.880
So another thing.

01:02:07.840 --> 01:02:17.199
He wasn't talking the lack of family support, the lack of stability, you know, outside of our yeah, like you now don't have a house.

01:02:17.599 --> 01:02:17.840
Right.

01:02:18.079 --> 01:02:18.239
Right.

01:02:18.719 --> 01:02:19.840
And we are now houses.

01:02:23.119 --> 01:02:23.440
Yeah.

01:02:23.679 --> 01:02:25.280
It's it's everything is gone.

01:02:25.360 --> 01:02:34.719
But I I you know, at that time, um it it felt like God, I did everything right.

01:02:34.880 --> 01:02:37.280
How did you give me a defective baby?

01:02:37.840 --> 01:02:39.679
That's that was my feeling.

01:02:39.920 --> 01:02:42.960
Um, because all I heard was the doom and gloom.

01:02:43.119 --> 01:02:46.480
Like, he won't ever leave your house and this, that, and the other.

01:02:46.559 --> 01:02:48.880
And I was like, Sam, you can't live with me forever.

01:02:49.039 --> 01:02:52.559
You know, he thought about a half okay, you know.

01:02:53.119 --> 01:02:53.840
Let me add this.

01:02:54.000 --> 01:02:57.039
On top of that, we had family members that I'm saying.

01:02:58.719 --> 01:03:03.119
Actually told Brandy that she was a bad mom.

01:03:03.599 --> 01:03:03.920
Yeah.

01:03:04.800 --> 01:03:06.719
I just I had that.

01:03:07.039 --> 01:03:10.320
Um and like quite explicitly.

01:03:10.480 --> 01:03:11.440
And yeah.

01:03:11.599 --> 01:03:21.360
And when you hear that as a person who believes in God, you know, all the enemy can do is plan a thought, but doggone those thoughts are very real.

01:03:21.760 --> 01:03:33.679
Um, and at the time, I I just thought that I'd done something so wrong, or I couldn't, I couldn't think about, I couldn't figure out what God was punishing me for.

01:03:34.320 --> 01:03:40.320
And I told my husband after the fact, I said, I contemplated suicide.

01:03:41.920 --> 01:03:45.360
Because I thought I did something to my child.

01:03:45.679 --> 01:03:46.000
Yeah.

01:03:46.239 --> 01:03:55.119
And hearing that you're a bad mom, in conjunction with this thing that I did not understand, that was my thought.

01:03:55.199 --> 01:04:06.719
I had my plan and I I told Audrey that I had planned to put my children at a certain location, and I was just gonna not be here anymore.

01:04:07.760 --> 01:04:25.039
But thank God that, you know, thank God for the Holy Spirit because I can remember like rationalizing, well, who's gonna be there for my husband?

01:04:26.239 --> 01:04:29.440
And who's gonna be there for my children?

01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:39.599
Um and and the more I just sat there and I talked, I had Sam and Maya in the backseat, you know, trying to go through with my plan.

01:04:39.679 --> 01:04:47.360
And then I said, um, I said, wait a minute, who's gonna love my kids?

01:04:47.599 --> 01:04:55.199
Who's gonna, you know, nobody can love your kids like your mom can, you know, or your dad, but mom can.

01:04:55.760 --> 01:04:58.320
And well, who's gonna take care of Samuel?

01:04:58.559 --> 01:05:01.280
You know, and so I ended up saying, you know.

01:05:05.920 --> 01:05:11.519
And I said, so I came to the point where I said it wouldn't be fair to my family to leave them like this.

01:05:11.679 --> 01:05:13.679
And so I said, okay.

01:05:14.800 --> 01:05:17.280
We could out, I'm gonna tell you what I did.

01:05:17.519 --> 01:05:18.000
Yes.

01:05:18.639 --> 01:05:19.440
Not everybody.

01:05:19.599 --> 01:05:19.920
Yeah.

01:05:20.639 --> 01:05:21.840
Let me tell you something.

01:05:22.960 --> 01:05:23.360
Tell them.

01:05:24.400 --> 01:05:27.840
Andre will hunker down, okay?

01:05:28.079 --> 01:05:31.360
He he will create a fortress.

01:05:31.599 --> 01:05:37.840
Um, and I and I I have never held that against you because I have always understood.

01:05:38.159 --> 01:05:46.000
Um, because I I was aware of everything going on and I was, you know, praying with you guys and for you guys.

01:05:46.239 --> 01:06:10.000
Um, but that was such a, you know, uh, when we talk about first act, second act, I think in this part of the story, we're still in the first act where you are introduced to like some incredible challenges that we don't know, you know, when you're watching a play and you're you're seeing the main character go through all of these things, right?

01:06:10.239 --> 01:06:15.920
It's not until they they start, they turn the lights on and you're like, how are they gonna get out of this?

01:06:17.280 --> 01:06:19.840
How are we gonna see our way to the other side of this?

01:06:20.079 --> 01:06:29.599
And I really feel like, you know, when you guys were in college, imagining your relationship, you never, you you don't write these type of things into the narrative.

01:06:29.840 --> 01:06:36.239
Um but God introduced God brought challenges that he had beautiful responses to.

01:06:36.400 --> 01:06:40.480
Um, but that that doesn't always happen in the beginning of it.

01:06:40.639 --> 01:06:48.480
So what I did in response to everything, like when the world just got so chaotic for us, I said, okay, can't do this anymore.

01:06:48.800 --> 01:06:50.000
Block everybody out.

01:06:50.159 --> 01:06:52.800
I need him when I blocked everybody out.

01:06:52.960 --> 01:06:54.639
I blocked everybody out.

01:06:54.719 --> 01:06:56.239
It was nothing against them.

01:06:56.559 --> 01:06:58.960
But I said, we're going through something right now.

01:06:59.920 --> 01:07:01.039
I'm the head of this family.

01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:04.880
I got to, we I I had, like you said, I have to hunker down.

01:07:04.960 --> 01:07:06.960
I got to create a fortress.

01:07:07.440 --> 01:07:17.440
We where if you don't think like us, we never told, we never told um uh any of people of Samuel's teachers to say to tell him that he has autism.

01:07:17.920 --> 01:07:19.119
We said, do not say it to them.

01:07:19.599 --> 01:07:22.880
If he has to be pulled out for whatever reason, just say it's a fun adventure.

01:07:22.960 --> 01:07:24.000
I don't know, I don't care.

01:07:24.239 --> 01:07:25.599
We never noticed even today.

01:07:25.679 --> 01:07:29.679
We didn't say he was autistic, we said he was diagnosed with autism.

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:30.639
That was a reference.

01:07:32.079 --> 01:07:37.679
It's not that we had a problem uh with autism in and of itself.

01:07:37.920 --> 01:07:42.000
What we said was, okay, what God says, we don't know what to do here.

01:07:43.039 --> 01:07:49.199
Um and we know you do, and you've you set this out before, you know, before he was even thought of.

01:07:49.440 --> 01:08:02.559
Um then we're going to uh speak, we're going to we're going to get together, we're going to pray, we're going to have a, I'm going to give my family marching orders, and we're going to go on with God in the way that we know how.

01:08:02.800 --> 01:08:06.880
Um and we're going to let the Holy Spirit lead in this one because I don't know where I'm going.

01:08:06.960 --> 01:08:10.239
I don't, I can't see beyond what we're being told here.

01:08:10.400 --> 01:08:25.359
Um add to that, uh, you know, I'm glad, you know, we're we're you know attorneys now, but we we've had we let's let's talk about this this this podcast episode and all the delays and all the technical difficulties and all that stuff.

01:08:25.600 --> 01:08:35.119
That is actually a very good um um uh uh representation of what our journey was like for the lawyer thing.

01:08:35.199 --> 01:08:41.520
Because, you know, we didn't have the contacts coming right out of law school to say, well, when you pass the bar and you got a job like our kids will have.

01:08:41.600 --> 01:08:44.159
Because by the way, now Samuel wants to be wants to be an attorney.

01:08:44.399 --> 01:08:45.279
Come on, Samuel.

01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:48.000
Um Maya does too.

01:08:48.079 --> 01:08:49.840
She has she, or it's it's in the works.

01:08:49.920 --> 01:08:53.760
She's she's a little unsure, but she's she's she's job channeling us.

01:08:54.239 --> 01:08:59.439
In fact, um she's she's coming in uh early February to she'll be she'll hear hearing a mile.

01:08:59.520 --> 01:09:00.640
I have a hearing in comedy, please.

01:09:00.800 --> 01:09:02.079
You have a hearing family court.

01:09:02.399 --> 01:09:04.560
Um she's gonna view that, so that's great.

01:09:04.720 --> 01:09:05.039
I love it.

01:09:05.279 --> 01:09:07.520
But we we didn't have that, right?

01:09:07.760 --> 01:09:10.960
And it wasn't on a straight or direct path.

01:09:11.119 --> 01:09:21.600
There were any distractions and you know, failures, and you know, uh we would we would apply to take the bar, but then we had to withdraw again.

01:09:22.000 --> 01:09:25.840
Um through it all, God is faithful.

01:09:26.479 --> 01:09:27.520
I will say this.

01:09:27.760 --> 01:09:33.119
I remember the conversation where Andre and I were sitting on the couch and we didn't say anything.

01:09:33.279 --> 01:09:36.079
We just kind of like hugged each other, tears were running out.

01:09:36.159 --> 01:09:37.520
Like we literally said no word.

01:09:37.680 --> 01:09:38.399
We said no word.

01:09:38.720 --> 01:09:48.079
Um, and tears were coming, and then finally I got myself together and I said, Um, well, Dre, I'm just gonna love him to his healing.

01:09:49.279 --> 01:09:53.760
Because at that point, again, I had no clue what autism was.

01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:58.880
Like, I did not and and you have to remember, we are very new parents.

01:09:59.039 --> 01:09:59.920
He's two years old.

01:10:00.159 --> 01:10:09.760
Samaya is uh less than a year old, and so I'm just like, oh, you know, and he had times where he was not talking and all those other things.

01:10:09.840 --> 01:10:16.560
He had ear infections, all these things uh that you'd have to sit for days to hear the story, but you know him, Jaquita.

01:10:17.039 --> 01:10:19.279
Um but I what was your prayer, Brandon?

01:10:19.680 --> 01:10:25.039
Um I I well I told Andre I said, I'm gonna um love him to his healing.

01:10:25.600 --> 01:10:27.520
We're gonna love him to his healing.

01:10:27.680 --> 01:10:35.600
I said, and then um we got very vigilant about speaking over his life.

01:10:35.840 --> 01:10:39.199
That's why we never called him autistic, and we don't to this day.

01:10:39.359 --> 01:10:46.239
We do not call, I don't have a problem with anybody excepting what they have to deal with, but I've never called him autistic.

01:10:46.399 --> 01:10:58.239
I don't accept that because everything that I heard as it relates to Samuel in autism, uh, was that he would never not be able, he could not, he would not, he could not.

01:10:58.479 --> 01:11:09.680
And so I started praying and I said, Um, Holy Spirit, I said, please reveal those things that my children cannot and will not tell me.

01:11:09.840 --> 01:11:11.359
That's my prayer to this day.

01:11:11.680 --> 01:11:21.600
So if they're facing something, even if they don't understand that they're facing something, Holy Spirit, so I know to go to God on behalf of my children.

01:11:21.920 --> 01:11:34.560
Um so I had a moment where I you go got to the lowest I could, but at the end of the day, I remembered everything that that I knew about God, and it was I started speaking over our child.

01:11:34.640 --> 01:11:46.800
Um, and I had been doing this the whole pregnancy, but I was very vigilant about you know those things, and I can't tell you the number of things that God has revealed um over the years for our children.

01:11:47.039 --> 01:11:51.680
Um well, I was gonna say specifically Samuel, but it's all of them.

01:11:52.159 --> 01:11:54.640
Um that was my prayer.

01:11:54.880 --> 01:12:02.000
I still pray it today, in addition to other things, and Samuel started to flourish.

01:12:02.319 --> 01:12:05.520
Yes, he started talking, he hadn't stopped.

01:12:06.159 --> 01:12:14.800
Um Samuel will talk you under uh other like I fell asleep on Samuel many times because he will talk you.

01:12:15.119 --> 01:12:15.920
It's amazing.

01:12:16.159 --> 01:12:19.840
It's amazing, but he's actually a very I'm sorry, Brandy.

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:20.880
Not just talk.

01:12:21.039 --> 01:12:21.520
No, go ahead.

01:12:22.399 --> 01:12:25.039
I remember when Samuel was in his Spider-Man phase.

01:12:25.359 --> 01:12:41.520
That boy knew everything there ever was, every piece of information that there was, like just a breadth of knowledge about how he could like take in information and give it out.

01:12:41.760 --> 01:12:50.239
Like, I I remember being absolutely amazed every time I encountered Samuel, like how how big his brain was.

01:12:51.199 --> 01:12:51.840
Yes.

01:12:52.640 --> 01:12:54.000
And then Samaya comes.

01:12:55.439 --> 01:12:59.520
And funny story, Samuel was two at the time that Samaya was born.

01:12:59.760 --> 01:13:01.279
Samuel was not talking.

01:13:01.439 --> 01:13:03.439
He would, he, it was gibberish.

01:13:03.600 --> 01:13:07.039
Um, but I we were still every day going over those letters and numbers.

01:13:07.279 --> 01:13:09.600
Samaya comes home and we have a picture.

01:13:09.760 --> 01:13:16.479
Um, he wanted to hold her, and so we put the Bobby on his lap and let him hold her.

01:13:16.720 --> 01:13:21.600
And Samuel just goes, it'sy bitsy spider.

01:13:22.560 --> 01:13:24.640
And we like We were shocked.

01:13:24.720 --> 01:13:26.640
We said, whoa, wait, what the world?

01:13:26.800 --> 01:13:30.079
Like he to not be talking, and he starts saying that.

01:13:30.399 --> 01:13:35.680
And like after that, we saw, like, I never forget, I said, you know, everything was a lesson.

01:13:35.840 --> 01:13:42.800
I my mama taught me that, like, you make everything a lesson for kids, you know, to build their language and increase their vocabulary.

01:13:42.960 --> 01:13:43.119
Wow.

01:13:43.279 --> 01:13:48.720
So we were in book line, and I said, Samuel, what color is this on daddy's shirt?

01:13:48.880 --> 01:13:51.680
So Andrew had a red shirt, but it had these stripes on it.

01:13:51.920 --> 01:13:54.960
I said, Um, Samuel, what's this?

01:13:55.199 --> 01:13:56.880
Um is that blue?

01:13:57.039 --> 01:13:58.079
Because it was blue.

01:13:58.319 --> 01:14:04.000
Um, and he said, No, mommy, it's uh it's aquamarine.

01:14:05.039 --> 01:14:07.119
I said, Aquamarine?

01:14:07.760 --> 01:14:10.399
I said, so I said, well, what's this, Sammy?

01:14:10.560 --> 01:14:13.039
He said, um, that's amethyst.

01:14:13.119 --> 01:14:14.640
It was to me, it's purple.

01:14:14.880 --> 01:14:17.039
But he said, that's amethyst.

01:14:17.199 --> 01:14:19.199
I said, is this yellow?

01:14:19.359 --> 01:14:21.439
He said, no, ma'am, that's gold.

01:14:21.600 --> 01:14:27.520
I said, I was like, where is he getting all this stuff from?

01:14:27.920 --> 01:14:32.640
And he he goes to my mom and my mom throughout this time.

01:14:32.720 --> 01:14:35.199
She was like, there's nothing wrong with my grandbaby.

01:14:35.279 --> 01:14:40.960
She just said he's where he's supposed to be because she was a preschool teacher and a director of a daycare.

01:14:41.039 --> 01:14:42.319
She was like, I don't accept it.

01:14:42.399 --> 01:14:45.840
You know, she was like, Well, Sammy knows this and he could this, that, and other.

01:14:46.000 --> 01:14:49.279
My grandbaby is, you know, how she has grandparents can be.

01:14:49.439 --> 01:14:50.399
Thank God for her.

01:14:50.640 --> 01:14:55.439
And so she like tested him on the was it, the Briggs uh test or something.

01:14:57.520 --> 01:15:01.680
I can't even think of the name of the test, but she tested him and she was like, Nope, he's fine.

01:15:01.760 --> 01:15:03.279
This is all he has to know.

01:15:03.439 --> 01:15:05.600
And he knows more than this, so he's fine.

01:15:05.840 --> 01:15:06.000
Wow.

01:15:06.479 --> 01:15:12.560
Including the social truth, because a lot of the aspects of autism, of course, is social, social, social elements.

01:15:13.279 --> 01:15:18.560
And when I tell you this kid is popular, he's popular, he is incredibly popular.

01:15:18.880 --> 01:15:22.560
And he's very social, and he's very, very, very social.

01:15:23.039 --> 01:15:24.560
He's such a cool kid.

01:15:28.479 --> 01:15:29.119
He's amazing.

01:15:29.279 --> 01:15:31.760
Junior scholar, plays the cello, taught.

01:15:31.920 --> 01:15:33.359
By the way, check this out.

01:15:33.600 --> 01:15:34.640
He's taught himself.

01:15:34.800 --> 01:15:35.199
Yes.

01:15:36.560 --> 01:15:38.880
Uh the bass, the mandolin.

01:15:39.039 --> 01:15:39.680
Oh my god.

01:15:40.159 --> 01:15:44.399
Banjo, the uh, what was the other thing we got from ukulele?

01:15:45.199 --> 01:15:49.600
The uh the liar or something, yeah, liar, yeah.

01:15:49.760 --> 01:15:50.399
Something like that.

01:15:54.720 --> 01:16:00.880
Andre used to get him get on my nerves a little bit in high school because Andre could literally play every single instrument.

01:16:01.119 --> 01:16:02.319
Like every single instrument.

01:16:02.399 --> 01:16:03.600
Like, and I didn't mind.

01:16:03.680 --> 01:16:04.880
It didn't bother me.

01:16:04.960 --> 01:16:06.159
You know, he would pick up a flute.

01:16:06.319 --> 01:16:10.880
Andre started, he started out playing trumpet, and then one day he was like, Oh, let me see if I can do this flute.

01:16:10.960 --> 01:16:12.000
Oh, yeah, I can play this.

01:16:12.159 --> 01:16:13.680
Oh, let me try a package on it.

01:16:14.079 --> 01:16:17.359
I can understand this just like clarinet, but he played a clarinet.

01:16:17.439 --> 01:16:18.239
And I was cool.

01:16:18.319 --> 01:16:20.239
So he picked up my tuba one day.

01:16:20.319 --> 01:16:21.439
And he was like, Oh, what?

01:16:22.000 --> 01:16:22.800
Oh, this is easy.

01:16:22.960 --> 01:16:25.439
He played tuba and started playing mommy.

01:16:25.520 --> 01:16:28.000
I was like, this ain't fair.

01:16:28.239 --> 01:16:30.479
This is not fair.

01:16:30.800 --> 01:16:31.680
This ain't right.

01:16:31.920 --> 01:16:36.479
To the point where Andre was playing, picked up a completely different instrument.

01:16:36.560 --> 01:16:40.560
Like, was it junior year you started playing French horn or senior year?

01:16:41.119 --> 01:16:42.239
No, senior senior year.

01:16:42.479 --> 01:16:48.640
Yeah, completely started playing a new instrument in the band, playing people's flute solos better than them.

01:16:48.800 --> 01:16:50.560
Like, it was ridiculous.

01:16:50.880 --> 01:16:54.479
I got first chair on the French horn, and then Mr.

01:16:54.800 --> 01:16:54.960
Mr.

01:16:55.039 --> 01:17:01.119
Clayton ended up giving me like this dick solo during that that uh trip to video game.

01:17:03.520 --> 01:17:03.680
Yeah.

01:17:03.840 --> 01:17:06.960
So Samuel did not Samuel did not feel this.

01:17:07.920 --> 01:17:29.760
Yeah, but you know, Brandy, as you were talking, um, you know, when we go back to kind of the beginning of you guys' relationship and the first act, and people wonder why it's so important to build that foundation at the beginning, a foundation of integrity of I got, I have this person's back.

01:17:29.840 --> 01:17:31.439
I want to see the best for them.

01:17:31.600 --> 01:17:38.720
Um I'm and I'm invested completely in who they are and in who God is in this relationship.

01:17:38.880 --> 01:17:50.479
And we were knit together, not on what we selfishly want out of a relationship, but we're knit together in purpose with God and in community with God.

01:17:50.880 --> 01:18:03.279
And when you face these moments where I really think these are more of our intermission moments where the lights have gone off and we're backstage, and like Andre said, you cut everybody off, right?

01:18:03.439 --> 01:18:07.840
And now you're on, you're backstage and it's just the cast, right?

01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:10.239
It's just the people who are in the story.

01:18:10.399 --> 01:18:12.159
We've cut out all the noise.

01:18:12.399 --> 01:18:14.880
We're not, we're not trying to perform for anybody.

01:18:14.960 --> 01:18:19.760
We're not, we are trying to figure out how are we gonna get back out on the stage?

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:22.399
How are we gonna carry the story forward?

01:18:22.720 --> 01:18:26.560
You know, what everything that's happened thus far has been a lot.

01:18:26.720 --> 01:18:27.840
I need to take a moment.

01:18:27.920 --> 01:18:38.800
And you know, I think a lot of times when we think about the acts of a play, you know, you have your first act and there's a story there, then you have a little intermission that's a break, and then you have a second act.

01:18:38.960 --> 01:18:42.000
It's not a lot of people who call their own timeouts.

01:18:42.239 --> 01:18:42.560
Right?

01:18:42.720 --> 01:18:46.239
Like, it's not a lot of people who say, uh, Lord, I need an intermission.

01:18:46.399 --> 01:18:47.520
Hold up, hold up.

01:18:47.600 --> 01:18:55.600
We, you know, and Andre, as the leader of his home, you know, really saying, okay, listen, we're going backstage.

01:18:56.000 --> 01:18:59.520
We we we gotta go back here and get the plan and get the script.

01:18:59.680 --> 01:19:01.439
I need to revisit the script.

01:19:01.680 --> 01:19:06.560
I need to, I need to figure out something needs to be redefined so and because whatever it is.

01:19:08.720 --> 01:19:14.880
You said what I said and talk to the director if we need some more guidance, some instructions.

01:19:15.359 --> 01:19:18.560
I love it when somebody takes a metaphor and run with me, right?

01:19:18.800 --> 01:19:27.840
Go backstage and talk to the director and say, hey, we need to have a one-on-one meeting about about the script, right?

01:19:28.000 --> 01:19:29.920
And he knows where it's going.

01:19:30.399 --> 01:19:39.439
You know, you only see kind of the hard trial that you're in right now, but nobody would have known how beautiful this story could get.

01:19:39.600 --> 01:19:44.640
You know, and I um as you guys are talking, you have multiple things going on, right?

01:19:44.880 --> 01:19:48.079
You have house fire, you lost everything.

01:19:48.319 --> 01:19:59.760
You have baby, uh, two children, and one that you're, you know, trying to steer away from what people are saying about him because now you're having to rewrite in your mind.

01:20:00.560 --> 01:20:04.720
What his future's gonna be because somebody else is trying to write another narrative.

01:20:04.960 --> 01:20:05.279
Right.

01:20:05.439 --> 01:20:06.960
Somebody else is telling you.

01:20:07.199 --> 01:20:12.000
Telling you about, telling you about adult diapers for a two-year-old is bananas.

01:20:12.159 --> 01:20:12.479
Uh-huh.

01:20:12.720 --> 01:20:12.960
Right.

01:20:13.119 --> 01:20:16.399
But they're trying to project that far down the line.

01:20:16.720 --> 01:20:26.239
And it's in these moments when you get to a moment where somebody else that's not the Lord, that's not the playwright, that's not the director, right?

01:20:26.399 --> 01:20:35.039
That's not the author of your story, starts giving you a different script and says, this is what your life is going to look like.

01:20:35.199 --> 01:20:37.039
This is what your future is.

01:20:37.359 --> 01:20:45.760
You know, there has to come a moment where we reject what's being given to us that was not given to us by the director.

01:20:45.920 --> 01:20:51.119
And it's going to take a moment to recalibrate to go back to the original script.

01:20:51.359 --> 01:20:53.520
And that's what the intermission is about.

01:20:53.760 --> 01:20:57.680
I need a moment to go backstage to figure some stuff out.

01:20:57.760 --> 01:21:00.560
And I again, I love that Andre was like, uh-uh-uh-uh.

01:21:00.720 --> 01:21:01.920
Everybody backstage.

01:21:02.720 --> 01:21:04.560
Everybody backstage.

01:21:04.720 --> 01:21:08.880
We going to meet with the director and whatever he says, that's what we're gonna do.

01:21:09.039 --> 01:21:11.520
I ain't trying to hear what nobody else got to say.

01:21:11.680 --> 01:21:12.000
Right?

01:21:12.159 --> 01:21:18.960
But again, a marriage that is founded on that, you can make that call when you get in the middle of it.

01:21:19.279 --> 01:21:19.760
Right?

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:28.640
But the ways, sometimes the ways that we are beginning things is making it more difficult when we get in the middle of something like that.

01:21:28.880 --> 01:21:29.279
Right?

01:21:29.600 --> 01:21:34.239
Brandy, in the lowest moment of her life, had a rock.

01:21:34.399 --> 01:21:40.960
Not she had the rock of her Lord and Savior, who also sent her a rock of a husband that could hold her up in that moment.

01:21:41.119 --> 01:21:44.560
And I'm sure Andre felt all kinds of feelings in that moment too.

01:21:44.880 --> 01:21:45.279
Right?

01:21:45.520 --> 01:21:48.720
But they both knew which rock they had to go to together.

01:21:48.960 --> 01:21:53.199
And so I think that that's beautiful that, you know, you guys went back.

01:21:53.520 --> 01:21:55.279
You willingly went backstage.

01:21:55.439 --> 01:21:58.079
Sometimes the Lord got to drag us backstage.

01:21:58.479 --> 01:22:00.560
Because, you know, we be like, I'm gonna figure it out.

01:22:00.640 --> 01:22:03.680
I'm feeling the Lord be like, intermission, cut the lights right now.

01:22:05.840 --> 01:22:07.039
Y'all ain't listening.

01:22:07.119 --> 01:22:09.119
Let me let me cue you back on over here.

01:22:10.079 --> 01:22:11.680
He pulled us plug, really.

01:22:11.920 --> 01:22:12.319
Yes.

01:22:12.560 --> 01:22:14.399
And then you get to today.

01:22:14.640 --> 01:22:16.159
And man, what can I say?

01:22:16.560 --> 01:22:18.800
Tell me about the second act, Andre.

01:22:18.880 --> 01:22:21.920
What happened when the Lord pulled them curtains back up?

01:22:22.640 --> 01:22:25.920
Because listen, I go ahead.

01:22:26.159 --> 01:22:30.319
No, I was just gonna say because there's there's many pieces of the story, right?

01:22:30.479 --> 01:22:42.239
We had house fire, we had uh diagnoses, we had law degrees, but working in education, losing jobs, trying to figure it out.

01:22:42.479 --> 01:22:42.800
Yes.

01:22:43.039 --> 01:22:48.239
Where did God bring resolution to some of the things, challenges that you faced before?

01:22:49.439 --> 01:22:56.479
Listen, so it the the I would say probably we really started, and I didn't think about it until then, Brandy.

01:22:56.640 --> 01:23:01.520
But um, so Brandy passed the bar back when she was pregnant with Maya, right?

01:23:02.079 --> 01:23:13.119
But because of everything that went back with Samuel, getting full-time into law, you know, didn't happen until later because we were so focused.

01:23:13.199 --> 01:23:31.439
Now she was she was always an attorney, she always did work for it, but she ended up, you know, she finally said, All right, I, you know, let me just step out on faith on on my side, because I was still, I still had I had us on the on the um, I still taught and I still had our um, you know, providing that way.

01:23:31.600 --> 01:23:35.439
She said, let me go ahead and step out on faith and create the law firm.

01:23:35.680 --> 01:23:40.720
Let me go ahead while and then make the way for went out when it was time for me to come out to do so.

01:23:40.880 --> 01:23:43.760
And that was in what 2019?

01:23:44.159 --> 01:23:44.560
18.

01:23:44.800 --> 01:23:45.279
18.

01:23:45.760 --> 01:23:56.560
Um so she goes out, uh, steps out to to make uh to to make our uh um on her own to make the business.

01:23:57.359 --> 01:23:58.399
At the time it was Brandy L.

01:23:58.640 --> 01:24:00.399
Small Attorney at Law, LLC.

01:24:01.119 --> 01:24:03.520
Um, and then we she pops up with twins.

01:24:03.920 --> 01:24:04.319
Right?

01:24:04.479 --> 01:24:06.960
Um, and we can go over that story later.

01:24:08.880 --> 01:24:19.199
While she had the IUD that worked since Miles, since Maya was born, the daughter puts it in and it works for six years, and it is fine.

01:24:19.680 --> 01:24:26.479
And one day, I said, What's your last cycle?

01:24:26.720 --> 01:24:35.199
Doesn't mean the IUD didn't affect the cycle, it was just uh it was the no no hormone based on um just topper wire one.

01:24:35.520 --> 01:24:36.960
I said, What's your last cycle?

01:24:37.439 --> 01:24:40.159
She said, Drake, I don't know.

01:24:40.399 --> 01:24:41.600
See, he's not telling you.

01:24:41.760 --> 01:24:43.359
So this is what happened.

01:24:43.600 --> 01:24:49.039
I was coming home and I was so sleepy, I would literally just fall asleep like right there.

01:24:49.199 --> 01:24:55.840
And I was texting um our friend Brandy, and in the middle of the text, I fell asleep.

01:24:58.560 --> 01:25:00.560
Hey Brandy, she fell asleep.

01:25:00.640 --> 01:25:05.039
And Brandy, when I told her later, she said, Girl, I was thinking, how did she fall asleep?

01:25:05.119 --> 01:25:06.239
She was typing.

01:25:06.479 --> 01:25:08.319
Um, I fell asleep.

01:25:08.560 --> 01:25:16.239
Um and so he goes on there and he texts her and and says, you know, uh, Brandy, she fell asleep.

01:25:16.319 --> 01:25:19.199
I when she wake up, I'll tell her to go back and text you.

01:25:19.439 --> 01:25:24.000
Um, and you know, just a little thing, because we all Andre and I have always shared phones.

01:25:24.079 --> 01:25:26.319
There's been times when he's had mine, I've had his.

01:25:26.640 --> 01:25:31.359
So he just went right in there and he texted her and said, Hey, you know, she fell asleep.

01:25:31.600 --> 01:25:35.760
The next day, I get up and Andre like brushed past me.

01:25:36.560 --> 01:25:38.000
And I like hit him.

01:25:38.079 --> 01:25:41.199
I said, Whoa, why would you hit me in my chest so hard?

01:25:41.439 --> 01:25:43.439
He said, Girl, I hit you in your chest.

01:25:43.600 --> 01:25:45.760
He said, I just like brushed past you.

01:25:46.239 --> 01:25:52.479
But the sensitivity was on a level 100 out of 10, I would say that much here.

01:25:52.960 --> 01:25:55.359
And then Maya before then.

01:25:55.680 --> 01:26:06.239
Oh, so that was the night that I I messed the uh I fell asleep on Brandy, that was a Friday night because the Saturday we were gonna go take the kids skating, all the kids skating.

01:26:06.560 --> 01:26:17.520
That Wednesday, Samaya comes to me, and um before she got she they the kids always, even to this day, they come and give me a hug before they go to school.

01:26:17.680 --> 01:26:19.760
Andre was about to take them to school.

01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:25.039
So she comes and gives me a hug, and she says, uh, she touched my belly.

01:26:25.119 --> 01:26:27.279
She said, Mommy, there's a baby in there.

01:26:27.439 --> 01:26:29.680
I said, Samaya, you don't say that.

01:26:29.760 --> 01:26:30.560
That's not nice.

01:26:30.960 --> 01:26:32.239
Don't just go into people's family.

01:26:37.119 --> 01:26:40.079
I was like, you trying to say I'm fat or something?

01:26:40.239 --> 01:26:42.239
You know, what you what you what is this, you know?

01:26:42.399 --> 01:26:44.159
And so I said, girl, go to school.

01:26:44.399 --> 01:26:47.359
Like, I was like, love you, might go to school.

01:26:47.600 --> 01:26:50.159
So they go off, um, or what have you.

01:26:50.319 --> 01:26:53.680
And then the next thing, um, that Friday, I fell asleep.

01:26:53.840 --> 01:27:00.880
Saturday morning, I walk into Andre, the sensitivity's on a thousand, and he said, Wait a minute.

01:27:01.119 --> 01:27:04.239
Lord, with an IUD, you can feel the strings.

01:27:04.399 --> 01:27:07.600
Andre said, I haven't felt the strings.

01:27:08.079 --> 01:27:10.800
And so he said, Oh Lord.

01:27:10.960 --> 01:27:19.279
He walks when I said, when I pushed him and I said, That hurt, he he looked at me, he said, walked out the door.

01:27:19.520 --> 01:27:23.199
He goes to Walgreens and he buys two pregnancy tests.

01:27:23.520 --> 01:27:24.880
I said, Why did you get two?

01:27:24.960 --> 01:27:26.000
One is sufficient.

01:27:26.239 --> 01:27:27.840
He got two pregnancy tests.

01:27:28.720 --> 01:27:30.880
And I took it and it came positive.

01:27:31.039 --> 01:27:35.680
He called the doctor's office that day because he was like, wait a minute, we have that.

01:27:36.239 --> 01:27:37.359
This was a Saturday.

01:27:37.600 --> 01:27:39.119
He left a message.

01:27:39.600 --> 01:27:41.520
So he calls the doctor's office.

01:27:41.600 --> 01:27:44.079
They end up getting us in really quick.

01:27:44.399 --> 01:27:49.359
And I thought of it, so we went to meet Brandy that um Saturday or what have you.

01:27:49.520 --> 01:27:53.840
And then I thought back, I said, Maya was right.

01:27:55.199 --> 01:27:56.560
I was like, how did she know?

01:28:00.479 --> 01:28:00.960
Next point.

01:28:01.119 --> 01:28:03.600
She is Maya is always right.

01:28:04.720 --> 01:28:07.840
All our children are super holy and super spiritual.

01:28:07.920 --> 01:28:09.600
I I would tell you, and it's so funny.

01:28:09.680 --> 01:28:10.239
I laugh at it.

01:28:10.319 --> 01:28:16.880
I was gonna say the the way I knew Samuel was talking is because y'all sent me five million videos of him saying scriptures.

01:28:17.279 --> 01:28:21.119
Like that boy knew Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:28:22.239 --> 01:28:36.960
A holy, real talking over each other, but yeah, Maya was praying in the whole well, and we can tell that story later, but she she is, she prays.

01:28:37.119 --> 01:28:42.640
Oh yeah, um, and at that age, and just jumping forward, she ended up she ended up praying.

01:28:42.720 --> 01:28:47.199
I'll never forget, she she prayed in the Holy Spirit, and she she told us when the twins would be born.

01:28:47.279 --> 01:28:48.319
Yes, and she was right.

01:28:49.279 --> 01:28:52.000
Um on their birthday, November 6th.

01:28:52.479 --> 01:28:56.800
Um, she Sam couldn't find the remote to his TV, something like that, right?

01:28:56.960 --> 01:28:57.760
Right around that same time.

01:28:58.079 --> 01:29:05.199
Right around that same time, and Maya stopped everybody in the in the in the um room, and she she could she started praying.

01:29:05.279 --> 01:29:05.920
She was moving them out.

01:29:06.079 --> 01:29:09.439
She wasn't loud, but she was moving out until she was praying in the Holy Spirit.

01:29:09.760 --> 01:29:15.760
And um she said, hold on, and she ran back and came back with the remote.

01:29:16.000 --> 01:29:16.880
What's the girl?

01:29:17.520 --> 01:29:19.920
Listen, let me ask you a question.

01:29:20.720 --> 01:29:22.720
What the new what the lock numbers are?

01:29:24.880 --> 01:29:26.880
I'll be submitting my prayer request to my.

01:29:27.119 --> 01:29:34.640
I'll be like, come in, Maya, while we over there playing with the uh with the goo and with the with the beads, and Maya, you know, you know, your auntie needs a husband.

01:29:34.800 --> 01:29:35.760
I'm just playing.

01:29:36.880 --> 01:29:39.520
What has the Lord told you, daughter?

01:29:40.479 --> 01:29:42.479
Right, girl, please let me know.

01:29:42.640 --> 01:29:42.960
Let me know.

01:29:43.199 --> 01:29:44.960
That girl, that's so bad.

01:29:45.199 --> 01:29:46.319
She be never wrong.

01:29:46.479 --> 01:29:48.159
She won't lie to you.

01:29:48.239 --> 01:29:50.800
Cause she's thinking, well, God didn't say anything about that.

01:29:50.880 --> 01:29:58.800
That's exactly when when she the story where she told me the day that I was gonna have the twins, she um she was sitting down there.

01:29:58.880 --> 01:30:07.439
Andre and I were sitting on the couch, we were watching TV, and Mike was just, we could see she was praying and we could see her lips moving, like you could hear something, but you couldn't hear what she was saying.

01:30:08.079 --> 01:30:18.000
And she was just like this, and she turns and looks back at us and she says, Um, mommy, God says you're gonna have the twins on November 6th.

01:30:18.159 --> 01:30:19.439
No, November 7th.

01:30:19.520 --> 01:30:21.920
No, no, no, no, November 6th.

01:30:22.159 --> 01:30:28.800
I said, I looked at Andre and I was like, Okay, baby, you know, and I just kind of went with it.

01:30:29.119 --> 01:30:33.439
And then I, you know, that pregnancy was a little more difficult.

01:30:33.600 --> 01:30:37.680
Um, because you get older, you know, it was two of them.

01:30:37.840 --> 01:30:44.159
And, you know, all the fear about twin-to-twin, transfusion, and all these other things, you know, that God saw us through.

01:30:44.319 --> 01:30:53.840
But um, I went to the doctor and I got the paperwork to set my C-section date, and it was November 6th.

01:30:54.159 --> 01:30:57.119
I took a picture of that thing and I called Andre.

01:30:57.199 --> 01:30:59.840
I said, Boy, do you know what day they say they're taking the babies?

01:30:59.920 --> 01:31:00.319
Oh my god.

01:31:00.479 --> 01:31:01.119
He said, What?

01:31:01.279 --> 01:31:03.039
I said, November the 6th.

01:31:03.359 --> 01:31:04.960
He said, She was right.

01:31:05.359 --> 01:31:09.760
And I was like, Oh my god, he's right.

01:31:10.000 --> 01:31:14.000
And I can't do not, like, it like blew my mind.

01:31:14.079 --> 01:31:16.079
And she's she's still like that today.

01:31:16.159 --> 01:31:17.600
She'll tell us things.

01:31:17.760 --> 01:31:19.840
Um, she's very perceptive.

01:31:19.920 --> 01:31:26.319
Like, if she thinks the twins are about to do something to get hurt, she'll go and um like she'll preempt.

01:31:26.880 --> 01:31:31.439
Yeah, like she's she's uh I she's like a second mom to the house.

01:31:31.520 --> 01:31:34.720
Um because she's always, Dad, you're forgetting this.

01:31:34.960 --> 01:31:36.399
Mom, don't forget this.

01:31:36.560 --> 01:31:39.680
Uh uh, Sam, where's your your you know, your instrument?

01:31:40.000 --> 01:31:40.640
Where's your music?

01:31:40.800 --> 01:31:47.039
Twins, I still said we uh dad, you said we were gonna uh uh read the Bible this year.

01:31:47.199 --> 01:31:48.399
I think it was last year.

01:31:48.640 --> 01:31:51.039
Read the Bible this year in January.

01:31:51.199 --> 01:31:55.359
Um it's March, so when are we gonna listen?

01:31:55.600 --> 01:31:56.960
Maya be keeping y'all together.

01:31:57.279 --> 01:32:00.880
When are we gonna when are we gonna do what you said we were gonna do, Dad?

01:32:00.960 --> 01:32:02.560
I said keeping y'all together.

01:32:02.880 --> 01:32:04.640
Turn your Bibles to Genesis, please.

01:32:04.720 --> 01:32:05.439
We're gonna have to do something.

01:32:06.239 --> 01:32:08.079
Everybody had to go that night.

01:32:08.159 --> 01:32:09.039
It was like 10 o'clock.

01:32:09.279 --> 01:32:13.119
She said, Dad, I keep asking you, and you said you're gonna do it.

01:32:13.279 --> 01:32:15.279
Um, we're supposed to be reading the Bible.

01:32:15.359 --> 01:32:16.319
Here it is, March.

01:32:16.399 --> 01:32:17.359
Like we have it started.

01:32:17.439 --> 01:32:18.399
And I was like, dang.

01:32:20.000 --> 01:32:22.479
She was my y'all.

01:32:22.640 --> 01:32:24.560
I'm trying to keep things together.

01:32:24.880 --> 01:32:25.199
Okay.

01:32:27.359 --> 01:32:33.600
And I, you know, I I read look, I read my kids' text messages and things like that.

01:32:33.840 --> 01:32:37.760
The number of times both Sam and my I've seen them praying for their friends.

01:32:38.000 --> 01:32:41.520
Samuel took an extra, he for their free read time.

01:32:41.680 --> 01:32:43.199
Samuel would read his Bible.

01:32:43.359 --> 01:32:45.359
I said, Boy, you know, you can read whatever you want to.

01:32:45.439 --> 01:32:46.239
You don't have to read the Bible.

01:32:46.319 --> 01:32:48.640
He said, No, Mom, this is just what I want to do.

01:32:48.800 --> 01:32:52.399
Okay, but that's fine as long as five school, you're fine.

01:32:52.640 --> 01:33:00.560
And one day he got his second Bible, got the second Bible because we got two books, two Bibles from Walford when we graduated, one for Andre, one for me.

01:33:00.880 --> 01:33:04.079
And he um he ends up taking the second one.

01:33:04.239 --> 01:33:05.920
I said, Sam, your book bag is heavy.

01:33:06.000 --> 01:33:07.600
Why are you taking another Bible?

01:33:07.840 --> 01:33:13.439
He said, one of my friends was having a panic attack, and I told him, You just need to read the word.

01:33:14.800 --> 01:33:16.079
And so I'm taking it.

01:33:18.239 --> 01:33:21.039
I said, Oh my God, this is tickling me.

01:33:21.119 --> 01:33:37.520
And then this week I get Maya's phone because we know we got their password, and I I'm going, I click on a phone to like to try to get into it and type in the passcode, and I see her lock screen, and it's I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

01:33:37.680 --> 01:33:39.600
And I was like, Y'all know what?

01:33:39.760 --> 01:33:41.920
Like it changes every day too.

01:33:42.479 --> 01:33:49.680
Yep, and they send the scripture in our family group, um, our larger family group and everything, and they they they read their Bibles.

01:33:50.079 --> 01:33:53.199
Samuel was like four, and I remember Pastor was reading the scripture.

01:33:53.279 --> 01:33:55.760
He said, and not by Mike, not by Power.

01:33:55.920 --> 01:34:01.760
And Samuel, who was sitting there on the floor playing with his toys, he sings, but by your spirit, God.

01:34:02.079 --> 01:34:11.199
And it's not like you would know it because he's not singing Tasha Kobb's song, but he's reading the scripture, but Samuel could hear it, and he starts singing in the middle of church.

01:34:11.279 --> 01:34:12.880
I said, Lord, have mercy.

01:34:13.119 --> 01:34:15.199
But they have always amazed us.

01:34:15.359 --> 01:34:22.560
And like the twins, when they were talking about a tornado, they they prayed and they said, Well, mama, no tornado came here.

01:34:22.720 --> 01:34:24.479
Uh, are we gonna pray?

01:34:24.720 --> 01:34:28.479
Like they keep us together as a family.

01:34:29.279 --> 01:34:34.720
That traveling from the that to today, yeah, it's amazing.

01:34:35.039 --> 01:34:40.239
But I love that that your children have become the second act, right?

01:34:40.319 --> 01:34:50.319
Like that, because you know, I'm as you sit here talking about like Maya and Samuel and the twins, like I met Andre at the age that Samuel is now.

01:34:50.560 --> 01:34:52.319
I don't remember me and Andre talking.

01:34:53.680 --> 01:34:58.000
I never had no Bible when we were kids in class.

01:35:00.079 --> 01:35:10.399
But you know, but I I love how there's been something that your relationship, the foundation that you guys built in your first act, right?

01:35:10.640 --> 01:35:20.159
It's being it's being realized in your children who are who are walking at a completely different level than we did when they were at the when we were at their age.

01:35:20.239 --> 01:35:30.239
And not that we weren't walking with the Lord, you know, but they they have it, the things that they're facing are also 10 times more than what we were facing at their age.

01:35:30.720 --> 01:35:33.680
But they also have 10 times more of God.

01:35:33.920 --> 01:35:48.079
Um, and so every trial and everything that you face in the first act, right, it's proving its why in the second act, um, and that they have what they need and you guys have what you need.

01:35:49.039 --> 01:35:55.760
And if I could, if here and I guess to be the final thing that we talk about, what I love about what God did for us professionally.

01:35:56.159 --> 01:36:05.199
Because now, as we talked about when the came, twins came with Brandy um coming out, um, coming out and we hanging a shingle and sheet starting a law firm.

01:36:05.600 --> 01:36:22.560
Well, when we talk about all the delays and things of that nature, and I won't get into how it was delayed, but um when I just when it seemed like that this aspect of of our of our career, us both being attorneys, both having our own firm.

01:36:22.720 --> 01:36:31.920
Now we have a small law firm, when when it seemed like it was denied us for so many years, I was like, God, why?

01:36:32.079 --> 01:36:33.119
What is going on?

01:36:33.279 --> 01:36:40.720
I I don't understand God why is you know I graduated in 2011, I don't get licensed in any anywhere until 2023.

01:36:41.039 --> 01:36:43.520
You know, and I'm like, what is going on?

01:36:44.640 --> 01:36:46.960
I am now licensed in three states.

01:36:47.279 --> 01:36:48.560
Come on here, talk about it.

01:36:49.760 --> 01:37:00.560
Had I had I not had God not do done it the way that He did, I can't go I can't go go through it through every detail.

01:37:00.640 --> 01:37:12.640
And I in a different podcast we might share that story where Brandy, where God spoke to Brandy and helped shift my focus and how I attack attack coming out from on my on my side.

01:37:12.880 --> 01:37:13.039
Yeah.

01:37:13.199 --> 01:37:19.760
And I ended up taking the bar in North Carolina, I'll say that, and blew it out of the blew it out of the park.

01:37:20.079 --> 01:37:23.600
Not, you know, not too long, but I God, God did that thing.

01:37:23.840 --> 01:37:42.640
And then now to for me to be able to say I'm licensed in three states, that I work alongside my wife, that we have small law firm LLC, that our kids have a have a have an entity or have a have something that they can now, because Sam is serious about being an attorney, that he can come out of school and walk into.

01:37:43.039 --> 01:37:49.840
If I had just if I had taken and passed the bar right as I got out of law school, I I I wouldn't be here.

01:37:50.159 --> 01:37:57.600
It was I in the the bar I ended up passing was a completely different one than was than what was offered to me when I first came out of law school.

01:37:57.760 --> 01:37:58.079
Wow.

01:37:58.720 --> 01:38:01.199
It was it was a uniform bar.

01:38:01.439 --> 01:38:02.960
Let me say this too, Andre.

01:38:03.600 --> 01:38:09.520
I think also our focus would have been different with our kids, and I'm gonna tell you why.

01:38:10.319 --> 01:38:16.960
We're sitting here tonight, and like on any given day, we could be um out at the office.

01:38:17.199 --> 01:38:27.600
We've been out here at 10 o'clock, 12 o'clock, and the kids are at home, they're calling us, and we FaceTime and we make sure to have food there with um their grandmother, uh, with Andre's mom.

01:38:28.000 --> 01:38:32.319
And so, and and on most days, we are super, super busy.

01:38:32.880 --> 01:38:44.079
And so that time that I that we had to pour into Samuel, to pour into Samaya, because there was also a time when someone tried to diagnose Samia crazy.

01:38:44.640 --> 01:39:01.439
Uh, and so we we had like all of these things that I believe that God set us up for where we could love our children to where they needed to be, grow them up in Christ in a way that we wanted them to be.

01:39:01.680 --> 01:39:07.680
And now that we have them where they are, we can focus on our careers in in this way.

01:39:08.079 --> 01:39:19.039
Um, so you know, when Andre and I start reminiscing on, you know, things that have happened or what have you, I told him, I said, well, you know, Dre, I don't know that we can be mad about them.

01:39:19.279 --> 01:39:30.560
I said, I think I have to thank God at every stage because I can see today why things were the way they were at that time and why they are the way they are now.

01:39:30.800 --> 01:39:34.079
Um, and I think he knows better than we do.

01:39:34.399 --> 01:39:48.319
And I I, you know, every time we start to question God, it was like, you know what, just because he knows better, he knows you're faithful, he knows that the things that you're gonna go through, but he knows all.

01:39:48.479 --> 01:39:56.560
And so what we have as our plans are not what his plans may be, but he makes them perfect.

01:39:56.720 --> 01:39:59.119
And I told Andre this probably a couple years ago.

01:39:59.199 --> 01:39:59.760
I said, Do you really?

01:40:00.720 --> 01:40:08.319
As spouses, we've never gone through um like some big old fights and all these other things.

01:40:08.479 --> 01:40:10.159
I said, but I laughed about it.

01:40:10.319 --> 01:40:12.560
I said, we were too busy fighting the world.

01:40:16.479 --> 01:40:18.640
I said, we don't have time to fight each other.

01:40:18.960 --> 01:40:23.600
And today we spend pretty much all day around each other.

01:40:23.680 --> 01:40:26.079
I mean, sometimes he's at court here and I'm there.

01:40:26.319 --> 01:40:28.479
But generally we are around each other.

01:40:28.640 --> 01:40:30.079
And when I think back to when Ms.

01:40:30.239 --> 01:40:37.760
Brenda Haddock asked us to tell God what we wanted for our future, everything we're living today is what we wrote on that paper.

01:40:37.840 --> 01:40:40.000
And we always said we wanted to work for it.

01:40:40.319 --> 01:40:46.079
Um we wrote that when March, I remember March 2020.

01:40:48.399 --> 01:40:49.039
2012.

01:40:49.199 --> 01:40:49.279
Yeah.

01:40:49.600 --> 01:40:57.279
She told us to write it down to see where we are today that she was talking, uh, that that she had us to do.

01:40:57.520 --> 01:41:02.159
And then um, you know, I we always get the questions, and we've gotten this forever.

01:41:02.319 --> 01:41:05.359
How can y'all be around each other all all day?

01:41:05.600 --> 01:41:09.920
Like, this is what Andre say he could breathe.

01:41:10.000 --> 01:41:11.600
I could breathe around Andre.

01:41:11.920 --> 01:41:18.159
Um, you know, I know he likes to toot my horn as his wife, but he, like I said, he's a phenomenal person.

01:41:18.319 --> 01:41:23.680
He's a very protective person, and he's funny, he's silly, he's goofy, he's all those things.

01:41:23.840 --> 01:41:26.560
And so why wouldn't I want to be around him?

01:41:26.720 --> 01:41:33.680
Um, like there are times I tell Andre, I just wish I could get in your skin, like and be that close to you.

01:41:33.840 --> 01:41:37.840
Um, and it's like uh, well, you know, you're around your husband all the time.

01:41:37.920 --> 01:41:39.439
Why do you need to get in the skin?

01:41:39.600 --> 01:41:41.359
It's so comfortable.

01:41:41.680 --> 01:41:44.720
Like it's so beyond sex.

01:41:44.960 --> 01:41:48.479
It's beyond like the things in this world.

01:41:48.640 --> 01:41:54.399
It's the comfort, it's the the just the love, the peace, and all those things.

01:41:54.560 --> 01:41:59.520
Um, not saying everything is perfect, um, but I can't tell you where there's an issue.

01:41:59.680 --> 01:42:03.439
Um, not between the two of us, and we we haven't had that.

01:42:03.520 --> 01:42:08.399
Um, thank God, because in the line of work we do, we see couples that go through that.

01:42:08.560 --> 01:42:12.560
Um, but I like I really thank God for where we are.

01:42:12.640 --> 01:42:14.560
I don't have to complain about my husband.

01:42:14.720 --> 01:42:21.680
These conversations I hear today about who's gonna cook and what you're bringing to the table, those have never been conversations in our household.

01:42:21.840 --> 01:42:26.239
Whoever is available to cook, that's who cooks, who's available to clean, that's who cleans.

01:42:26.560 --> 01:42:28.319
And it's to the point.

01:42:28.399 --> 01:42:33.520
And it always has been this way, where Andre always tries to out love me.

01:42:34.239 --> 01:42:41.119
If I wake up, not if I wake up, when I wake up, if I'm not gonna be with Andre, he set the car up for me to go.

01:42:41.279 --> 01:42:49.119
He's put my my bags in there, he's like got uh pads, snacks, chocolate, whatever it is.

01:42:49.279 --> 01:42:52.880
He he knows that time, he'll have everything set up for me.

01:42:53.119 --> 01:42:58.000
And you know, we have those conversations, and he said, Well, what's the thing you love about me most?

01:42:58.159 --> 01:42:59.520
Of course, you love for God.

01:42:59.680 --> 01:43:03.119
I said, But as a wife, it's that you anticipate my needs.

01:43:03.199 --> 01:43:04.960
I don't have to ask you anything.

01:43:05.279 --> 01:43:11.279
I'm not begging you to help me with the kids and all this and the other because the kids go with their dad.

01:43:11.359 --> 01:43:13.039
Like he don't babysit them.

01:43:13.119 --> 01:43:14.239
He these are his kids.

01:43:14.319 --> 01:43:16.720
Shoot, he the one wanted all of them.

01:43:16.960 --> 01:43:22.399
Um, you know, look, because talking about the twins, the truth is we still had the IUD.

01:43:22.479 --> 01:43:29.439
I was supposed to go get it taken out, but I was dragging my feet on it because I wasn't really ready because I had just started, you know, my own practice.

01:43:29.760 --> 01:43:39.279
But I said, well, Dre, you know, I'm getting up in age, and I'm not gonna be, you know, too old having children, too much older, because I've already had c-sections.

01:43:39.680 --> 01:43:41.680
And I listen, I know what that's like.

01:43:41.760 --> 01:43:44.640
The first one is a lot easier than the the last one.

01:43:45.119 --> 01:43:51.920
Um, and not that that's an old age, but I'm talking about the the years that I from when I started having kids.

01:43:52.079 --> 01:43:59.359
Um, because I think these women today are on to something with the older age having children because you're more settled, I will say that much.

01:43:59.680 --> 01:44:07.760
But I will say that we we we literally um at that time, I said, Do you want a third child?

01:44:07.840 --> 01:44:08.319
He said, Yes.

01:44:08.399 --> 01:44:09.600
I said, Well, I'll go make an appointment.

01:44:09.760 --> 01:44:10.720
I didn't make the appointment.

01:44:10.800 --> 01:44:11.920
We got pregnant anyway.

01:44:12.079 --> 01:44:14.000
And she told me it takes six months to a year.

01:44:14.960 --> 01:44:19.279
So we never made it to the appointment because got pregnant with the IUD there, right in place.

01:44:19.439 --> 01:44:24.479
Um, and Andre, I said, Well, well, honey, how many more kids do you want?

01:44:24.640 --> 01:44:27.359
Because I he said, Well, I would like four.

01:44:27.439 --> 01:44:31.359
I said, but honey, I'm gonna tell you, I don't I only have three pregnancies in me.

01:44:31.520 --> 01:44:35.520
I said, because them C-sections are not something to be trifled with.

01:44:35.680 --> 01:44:42.640
Um, and then with black maternal death, I, you know, I don't want to keep putting myself in that position.

01:44:43.119 --> 01:44:53.680
And when he said he wanted four kids, and I told him, I said, I don't think I have three pregnancies in me, but if you after this third child, if you will talk.

01:44:54.079 --> 01:44:56.720
And God literally goes for one.

01:44:59.199 --> 01:45:00.560
He both hold them on us.

01:45:03.119 --> 01:45:08.399
Listen, and I could not imagine my life without my twins.

01:45:08.880 --> 01:45:11.039
They are so amazing to me.

01:45:11.199 --> 01:45:17.279
But like the way, like, and I cried that whole pregnancy because I was just like, it's hospital.

01:45:17.359 --> 01:45:21.279
Andre's grandfather had died at that same hospital that I was gonna have to deliver.

01:45:21.359 --> 01:45:24.079
Like, it was a whole lot of things, but God was with us.

01:45:24.239 --> 01:45:36.239
But I would say, like, the the way that God orchestrates things, when I look back on my life and I look back and I look daily at pictures from old, I can't do anything but thank God.

01:45:36.479 --> 01:45:36.800
Wow.

01:45:37.520 --> 01:45:59.680
You know, little country bumpkin trying to go to Walford, like broke, impoverished family, didn't have the resources, but I I literally meet the love of my life and the person who is doing life with me, who cares for me so deeply, like it's I can't explain like the the the joy, the peace that that brings.

01:45:59.840 --> 01:46:04.239
The world is chaotic, but with Andre, it's it's not that.

01:46:04.479 --> 01:46:09.439
Like, I could we we ride in the car and he's massaging my head.

01:46:09.600 --> 01:46:13.760
Like, and he'll he'll reach around me, put my seat back, and say, just go to sleep.

01:46:14.000 --> 01:46:16.239
He's driving me to court and I'll answer some emails.

01:46:16.399 --> 01:46:19.520
He was like, just take your little nap because you're going so much.

01:46:19.680 --> 01:46:20.880
Just take your little nap.

01:46:21.039 --> 01:46:26.399
You know, that kind of like he he just cares for me deeply and loves me deeply.

01:46:26.720 --> 01:46:28.960
Why would I be mad about that?

01:46:29.119 --> 01:46:41.359
And to see our kids are today, where our life, um, where our life is today as a as a whole, like Dekuta, I can't do anything but just thank God.

01:46:41.680 --> 01:46:47.600
This this next chapter has just been one of gratitude.

01:46:47.760 --> 01:47:01.359
Yeah, and and just uh thankfulness and just uh thank you God for showing us new mercies, new grace, but thank you for writing the like setting our paths.

01:47:01.439 --> 01:47:02.880
He knew us from the beginning.

01:47:03.119 --> 01:47:07.760
He knew I would meet Andre um and have the kids that we would have.

01:47:07.920 --> 01:47:10.000
And I wouldn't change it for a world.

01:47:10.079 --> 01:47:13.520
Even it changed it for the world, even the hard times at this point.

01:47:14.720 --> 01:47:17.119
They don't even uh they were hard.

01:47:17.439 --> 01:47:18.800
They were, but they don't matter.

01:47:19.359 --> 01:47:20.000
Yeah, they don't.

01:47:20.079 --> 01:47:22.880
I don't think I cry a well.

01:47:23.119 --> 01:47:34.479
I was never never well when I got so low, and I never forget saying to Granny, I lost my whole life.

01:47:34.720 --> 01:47:34.800
Yeah.

01:47:35.359 --> 01:47:36.479
That broke Granny's heart.

01:47:36.720 --> 01:47:38.239
She went to pray.

01:47:41.039 --> 01:47:47.199
So and I I share that that part of the story, just literally like what what you're seeing now, it is the second act.

01:47:47.359 --> 01:47:49.680
And everything isn't all the kinks aren't worked out.

01:47:49.840 --> 01:47:50.000
Yeah.

01:47:50.239 --> 01:47:57.760
But we are a far cry you know, um the further home than what from from that place.

01:47:57.920 --> 01:48:00.000
We in it it is awesome where we are.

01:48:00.079 --> 01:48:08.319
And I think in this second act, when the world, the more unstable and chaotic the world gets, I create stability in my home.

01:48:09.199 --> 01:48:10.560
Create stability for us.

01:48:11.119 --> 01:48:15.359
It's only instituted by the man if there is one, you know.

01:48:16.079 --> 01:48:18.800
I set the pace for what my home looks like.

01:48:19.119 --> 01:48:24.399
That's not a that's not a chauviness thing, that's not a uh uh um a macho thing.

01:48:24.880 --> 01:48:39.840
Is it but I I I am I take my role and my family very seriously in what God has has has commanded us as men to do.

01:48:40.880 --> 01:48:45.359
And I don't I I don't know it all, but I know who I know I know where to go.

01:48:45.520 --> 01:48:51.279
Yeah and that that what sets it up for the for the next stage.

01:48:51.680 --> 01:48:52.479
Let me tell y'all something.

01:48:52.720 --> 01:49:10.079
It's just what it's more than I have been trying to convince them for years to host marriage seminars, okay, to write books, uh, but I decided, you know, since I had this podcast, I give y'all a little bit of what I get every time I'm around them.

01:49:10.319 --> 01:49:19.359
Because I take, I take all my little relationship issues, and I tell people by uh one of the best couples I know.

01:49:19.520 --> 01:49:22.239
Um, you guys are absolutely phenomenal.

01:49:22.479 --> 01:49:30.000
I I love your story, but what I love more is that your story is not a man over here and a woman over here.

01:49:30.239 --> 01:49:44.239
It is really a union, and it is God has carried you together through every season of life, through everything that He's done for you and done with you, through everything that you've encountered, you've done it together.

01:49:44.399 --> 01:49:58.880
Um, and I think that you have never failed to give God glory in everything that He's done for you, whether it was a challenging season, whether it was a season that brought you to your lowest point, or a season that brought you to your highest point.

01:49:59.119 --> 01:50:04.880
I have watched you give God glory in every season and in every setting.

01:50:04.960 --> 01:50:08.479
Um, and I think that is why God continues to elevate you.

01:50:08.720 --> 01:50:17.199
And as much as he's blown your mind thus far, I can't wait to see what this year and the year's coming look like because he's not done yet.

01:50:17.760 --> 01:50:19.920
He is not done yet.

01:50:20.079 --> 01:50:22.239
You know, they say a baby changes everything.

01:50:22.399 --> 01:50:28.159
Well, y'all had two of them, and them babies, them babies elevated your life.

01:50:28.319 --> 01:50:31.840
You know, the thing that you weren't playing for, you weren't expecting.

01:50:32.079 --> 01:50:40.560
Everything started coming, the pieces started coming together when God introduced that new uh new piece of your story.

01:50:40.640 --> 01:50:45.680
And I think that God has more introductions yet to make for you guys because you're faithful.

01:50:45.760 --> 01:50:58.000
And um and I and I'm personally I might be biased, but I think everybody needs to could benefit from hearing about how you guys love each other and how you love God and how you love your family.

01:50:58.159 --> 01:51:01.600
So thank y'all for being on the show, friends.

01:51:03.920 --> 01:51:05.119
Thank you for having us.

01:51:05.279 --> 01:51:13.039
Look, we would have um it's not that we wouldn't share, it's just we're not just who are we?

01:51:13.279 --> 01:51:14.800
You know, who are we?

01:51:14.960 --> 01:51:30.159
You know, everybody has a different path, but I I do understand that, you know, we we help people with our testimony, and and and I'm talking about Christians in general, like that's how you overcome blood of the lamb and you the words of your testimony.

01:51:30.319 --> 01:51:33.439
So I do understand there's a place for that.

01:51:33.520 --> 01:51:38.720
Um, but I don't think that we are just somebody special um or what have you.

01:51:38.800 --> 01:51:42.319
But I we do thank God for the what he has given us.

01:51:42.720 --> 01:51:53.119
Listen, for the the power of your testimony is um, and it's not a power that we claim for ourselves, it's a power that we recognize to how God has worked through our story.

01:51:53.279 --> 01:51:55.600
So I'm so appreciative of y'all.

01:51:55.680 --> 01:52:04.159
I don't know if we said this in the beginning, but guys, this is the season finale of the first season of the second act.

01:52:04.399 --> 01:52:07.279
And my Lord, what a way to go out.

01:52:12.159 --> 01:52:19.199
I really, really, really hope that you guys have received value from everything we shared in these first six episodes.

01:52:19.520 --> 01:52:20.560
I have more to come.

01:52:20.720 --> 01:52:22.239
I want to tell more stories.

01:52:22.399 --> 01:52:23.920
I want to tell more testimonies.

01:52:24.000 --> 01:52:26.880
I want us to keep encouraging each other in the Lord.

01:52:26.960 --> 01:52:34.159
There's a lot of things that the enemy can take from you, but he can never take away the power of God that has worked through your life.

01:52:34.319 --> 01:52:44.800
Um, and when we share those stories, when we share our testimony, we remind the devil and everything that opposes us how big and how powerful our God is.

01:52:45.119 --> 01:52:48.000
So listen, friends, thank you for like, sharing, and subscribe.

01:52:48.079 --> 01:52:49.039
Hey, quick shout out.

01:52:49.119 --> 01:52:50.159
Shout out the law firm.

01:52:50.239 --> 01:52:54.720
If anybody's looking for legal services, where can they where can they reach you guys?

01:52:56.880 --> 01:52:57.920
Go ahead, babe.

01:53:01.119 --> 01:53:09.840
Um, we are located um at 810 Dutch Square Boulevard, suite 206, Columbia, South Carolina, 29210.

01:53:10.239 --> 01:53:15.520
Our office number is 803-339-1661.

01:53:16.000 --> 01:53:23.119
Um, please um, our website is www.smallfirmsc.com.

01:53:23.279 --> 01:53:28.560
That's s-m-a-l-l f-i-r-m s-c dot com.

01:53:29.119 --> 01:53:29.439
Awesome.

01:53:29.520 --> 01:53:35.520
And we will make sure we have that link on all of the uh websites where we stream the podcast.

01:53:35.680 --> 01:53:36.399
All right, guys.

01:53:36.560 --> 01:53:37.920
It's been a wonderful season.

01:53:38.000 --> 01:53:39.680
It's been a wonderful episode.

01:53:39.840 --> 01:53:41.600
Thank you guys for rocking with me.

01:53:41.760 --> 01:53:52.640
Listen, if you are pushing through a season of your life, if you are pushing through a circumstance and you know God has more for you, remember you do not have to stay stuck in intermission.

01:53:52.960 --> 01:53:55.760
You can raise the curtain to your second act.

01:53:55.840 --> 01:53:57.439
We'll see you guys on the next season.

01:53:57.600 --> 01:53:58.079
Bye.

01:54:02.880 --> 01:54:05.840
Thank you once again for listening to the Unlearned Podcast.

01:54:06.000 --> 01:54:10.159
We would love to hear your comments and your feedback about the episode.

01:54:10.399 --> 01:54:16.800
Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and to let us know what you think.

01:54:16.960 --> 01:54:23.279
We're looking forward to the next time when we are able to unlearn together to move forward towards freedom.

01:54:23.520 --> 01:54:24.479
See you then.