Hope for the Home with Jerry and Becky Drace

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Recent Episodes

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The Real Cost of Single Fatherhood: More from T.C. Talley

September 6, 2026 — Episode #138

Two jobs, weekend custody, and child support he set up himself the day his first wife left: T.C. Talley knows exactly how thin single fathers get stretched.

T.C. Talley returns for a third week with Jerry and Becky, this time digging into the practical realities of single fatherhood: working two jobs to make ends meet, voluntarily setting up child support the moment his first wife left, and navigating the nurturing side of parenting that didn’t come naturally to him. T.C. also opens up about his own education struggles as a visual learner in a traditional school system, and shares his current work directing both the fatherhood mentoring program and an abstinence education program called Stone Covenant, which he brings into schools and churches to teach purity in relationships. The conversation takes a candid turn when T.C. shares his personal conviction that Christians shouldn’t casually date, sparking a discussion about red flags in early relationships. Jerry and Becky close with a look at single-father income and another reminder for single dads to request their free study Bible.

Topics discussed:

Income challenges for single fathers
Working multiple jobs and taking on child support as a single father
Navigating the nurturing side of parenting as a father
Being a visual learner and finding an educational path that worked
T.C.’s dual roles directing fatherhood mentoring and abstinence education programs
Teaching purity and relationship “red flags” in schools and churches
Why T.C. believes Christians shouldn’t casually date
The stereotype of the “deadbeat dad” and the reasons behind it

From the Streets of Chicago to Mentoring Fathers: T.C. Talley’s Story, Part 2

August 30, 2026 — Episode #137

Content note: this episode includes discussion of a past abortion decision within a marriage.

T.C. Talley’s mother once told him plainly: the day you join a gang is the day you leave my house. It worked, and it’s part of what shaped the man who now spends his life mentoring fathers.

T.C. Talley returns for a second week with Jerry and Becky, picking up his story from the streets of Chicago to his current work as a fatherhood mentor at Birth Choice. T.C. describes his mother’s fierce boundaries that kept him out of the gangs surrounding his family, his move to California as a teenager, and getting married for the wrong reasons in his early twenties. He opens up candidly about a painful chapter of that marriage: a decision to end a pregnancy that he opposed but felt powerless to stop, and how that experience now shapes his empathy for the fathers he counsels. T.C. walks through the actual structure of his mentoring program: a ten-week curriculum built around honesty, earning trust, and a documentary screening families watch together. Jerry and Becky close with an offer for single dads to request a free study Bible and a teaser about T.C.’s mother and wife’s stories still to come.

Topics discussed:

Growing up in Chicago and avoiding gang life because of his mother’s strict boundaries
Moving to California as a teenager and finishing high school while working
Getting married for the wrong reasons and the strain that followed
A painful decision within that marriage to end a pregnancy
How that experience shapes his work mentoring fathers today
The structure of his ten-week fatherhood mentoring program at Birth Choice
Why building trust and honesty comes before anything else in mentoring
Preview of upcoming stories about his mother and his wife

A Father’s Story: Single Parenting from a Man’s Perspective with T.C. Talley

August 23, 2026 — Episode #136

He never heard his father’s voice, saw his face, or spoke to him — not once. Decades later, T.C. Talley is the one mentoring other men through fatherhood.

After weeks of listeners asking when they’d hear the single-parenting series from a father’s point of view, Jerry and Becky welcome T.C. Talley, Director of Fatherhood Mentoring and Abstinence Education at Birth Choice, for the first of what will be a multi-week conversation. T.C. shares his remarkable story — growing up on the streets of Chicago without ever knowing his father, surviving two violent altercations in a single weekend as a teenager, and starting over in California at his cousin’s urging. He opens up about coming to faith through a friend’s invitation to church, being single-parenting his four children on joint custody after his first marriage ended, and the painful, ongoing estrangement he now has from his adult children. Jerry and Becky share statistics on single fathers in America and set the stage for a series that promises to be, as Jerry puts it, “the rest of the story.”

Topics discussed:

Statistics on single fathers in the United States
T.C. Talley’s introduction: his work mentoring fathers at Birth Choice
Growing up without a father and the pain behind an absent parent’s silence
A violent turning point in Chicago that led to a fresh start in California
Coming to faith through a friend’s invitation to church
Being a single father of four on joint custody after his first marriage ended
Praying for estranged adult children rather than trying to control the outcome
Preview of an ongoing multi-week series on single fatherhood

Grief, Trust, and Healing: Wrapping Up the Single Parenting Series with Lisa Reasons

August 16, 2026 — Episode #135

Divorce isn’t just the end of a marriage — it’s a grieving process for the person you thought you were. In her final week on this series, Lisa Reasons gets candid about what that grief actually looks like.

Jerry and Becky close out their multi-week series on single parenting with Lisa Reasons, sharing openly about her own path through divorce and healing. Lisa talks about finally finding a church with a real support system for divorced people, why rebuilding trust after betrayal is so much harder than it sounds, and how grief after divorce means mourning not just a marriage but an entire imagined future. Jerry shares a memorable story about a house full of college students and one young man’s tearful confession about his parents’ divorce — and the unexpected comfort he received from friends who’d been through the same thing. The conversation turns back to adoption as Lisa describes her role walking birth mothers through the process at Birth Choice, and the episode closes with an offer for listeners to request a free Bible packed with resources on family and single-parenting issues.

Topics discussed:

Why people become single parents: divorce, death, deployment, or never having married
Finding a church community with real support for divorced people
Divorce as a grieving process — mourning the marriage, the person, and the future you expected
Rebuilding trust after betrayal and understanding attachment styles
Leaning on prayer and Scripture during seasons of numbness or hopelessness
Why single parents should know their own worth before dating again
A story of unexpected comfort among college students processing their parents’ divorces
Lisa’s role guiding birth mothers through the adoption process at Birth Choice
Offer of a free Bible with family and single-parenting resources

Single Parenting and the Search for Healing: A Conversation with Lisa Reasons

August 9, 2026 — Episode #134

Nearly 24 million American families are headed by a single parent — and Lisa Reasons knows that world firsthand, both as a single mother of four and as the adoption agency director who now helps other families navigate it.

Continuing their series on single parenting, Jerry and Becky welcome back Lisa Reasons, director of the adoption agency at Birth Choice, to talk candidly about what it actually takes to heal and hold steady as a single parent. Lisa shares how prayer led her to Christian therapy, and unpacks EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) — including lesser-known variations like attachment-focused and pre-verbal EMDR, which address trauma from before a child could even speak. The conversation turns to the importance of seeking out a Christian counselor, the value of processing painful events from the past rather than pushing past them, and the loneliness Lisa felt when she was shunned by people in her own church after her divorce. Jerry and Becky share statistics on single-parent households and press the point that churches need real, visible support systems — not judgment — for the parents and kids living this reality. They close with a preview of next week’s continuation of the series, this time from a woman’s perspective.

Topics discussed:

Statistics on single-parent households in America
Finding and choosing a Christian therapist
EMDR, attachment-focused EMDR, and pre-verbal EMDR for processing trauma
Why processing the past matters instead of only moving forward
Feeling shunned by a church community after divorce
What churches can do to support single parents without judgment
Helping children of single parents process what they’ve been through
Preview of next week: single parenting from a woman’s viewpoint

That’s the 5 most recent episodes. For the complete back catalog, visit the full episode archive.