Alisha Keating: grief, church, travel, & post-pandemic thoughts

Whit's End: Real People, Hard Questions

Today I get to sit down with my dear friend, Alisha Keating. She’s a wife to Nate and mom to Corban and Simon. She works as pediatric nurse practitioner and has a deep, beautiful soul. We talk about everything from why it's worth it to travel with kids to the importance of getting involved in the local church. We dive into the grief of losing children by miscarriage and thoughts post-pandemic from her medical perspective.

The friendship I have with Alisha is one of those that was forged in a really painful season for both of us. This is both a teary, heavy conversation and one in which we laugh and reminisce about the awkward way we met.

IG: @nateandalisha, @ajkeating, @natekeating

Memorable Quotes:

• “I think it’s ok to let people sit in their pain for a time and sit in it with them instead of just encouraging them there’s an end to the pain, because God is with us in the pain.”

• “How in the midst of the pain and sin and just the curse of the earth, how do I still acknowledge that God is still on His throne and still has a plan despite the fact that we sorta screwed that up in the garden?”

• “I think sometimes loss or pain can actually give us that eternal perspective that wow, we are here for just this temporary time and how am I being a good steward of my love for my children, my love for my community? And it gives almost that healthy urgency that I don’t number the days of my children, God does. I don’t number the days of my own life, God does.”

• “The reality is only you get to be their parent, and only you have a voice in their life as their mom or as their dad and how are you using your voice in their life.”

• “Grieving is not a lack of faith or gratitude but it’s merely a recognition that what we have lost is precious.”

• “If Jesus himself says that he is going to defeat sin and death, he’s going - ‘this is an enemy only I can take on.’”

• “My dad sat with me and cried and said, ‘It’s good to grieve.’”

• “Humans are not made for isolation.”

• “I don’t think the pandemic necessarily created new problems as much as it revealed the underlying issues.”

• “It is actually good for me, for Nate, for our marriage, for me to say - ‘these are the things that I need!’”