When Life Changes the Plan: Motherhood Through Hard Seasons | Part 1When Life Changes the Plan: Motherhood Through Hard Seasons | Part 1
Love&BLoved with Lena Cebula
Amy Pace shares her journey through severe scoliosis, chronic pain, stillbirth, and motherhood, alongside her changing relationship with faith. The conversation focuses on resilience, practical support, and trusting God one hard day at a time.
30:31•12 Oct 2026
Motherhood, Chronic Pain and Faith Through Brutal Seasons
Episode Overview
- Resilience can mean learning to live faithfully inside circumstances you would never have chosen.
- Life happens, and shifting from “why me?” to acceptance can ease some emotional burden.
- Different motherhood paths (working, stay-at-home, work-from-home) are valid, and mums need mutual support rather than judgement.
- Practical help from loved ones, like cooking and cleaning, can be a crucial expression of care during health crises.
- You don’t have to pretend a difficult season isn’t difficult in order to have faith; acknowledging pain and asking for support can coexist with trusting God.
“Life happens. It doesn't happen to you.”
What drives someone to seek a life of steady faith through relentless hardship? This conversation between host Lena Cebula and guest Amy Pace offers a raw look at motherhood, chronic pain, and trust in God when life keeps changing the plan. Amy, an early years coach and long-time early childhood and community services professional from Australia, shares how severe scoliosis led to a 12-hour spinal surgery at 16, lifelong pain, and a series of complex medical challenges.
As she puts it, "I have never lived with letting my health hold me back. My attitude is to achieve as much as I can, just in a different way." You'll hear how that attitude carried her through early marriage, fertility fears, a miraculously natural pregnancy, and the grief of losing a stillborn son named Charlie.
She talks openly about a year marked by her daughter's life-threatening pneumonia, an attempted kidnapping, an assault, and then the loss of her baby, describing it as a "very, very dark year" where she struggled with mental health and felt distant from God. Her honesty around anger, doubt, and feeling that "the world's against me" will resonate with anyone who's wondered where God is in the chaos.
Amy later shares how the birth of her son became a turning point: "He basically looked at me like you're easy to love, and I just started healing." From there, she walks through major spinal surgery, intense rehabilitation, and the practical support of her mother-in-law, highlighting the quiet ways God's care can show up through people. Lena gently reflects that resilience isn't about fixing circumstances, but "learning how to live faithfully and intentionally inside those circumstances".
The episode speaks directly to mums carrying heavy loads of health issues, grief, and responsibility, offering space to admit, "this season is hard" while still holding on to faith. If you're a mum in a hard season, this story might help you ask: where might grace be present in your everyday struggle?
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