Surrendering to God's calling for life can be hard to do, especially as the wife of a medical student, resident, fellow, or attending. Sarah's example of surrender in Genesis 12 shows how fruitful our lives can be when we choose to let go and obey God's call. Join us as we interview women in medical marriages striving to surrender like Sarah. We are SO glad you're here!
Publisher
Surrendering Like Sarah
Category
health & fitness · kids & family · religion & spirituality
From Study Dates to Married in Medical School | Natalie DeKryger and Nicole Hull
Send us Fan Mail A big welcome to Natalie DeKryger, our guest for this week's podcast! Natalie is an oncology nurse, new mom, and wife to a fourth year medical student who just matched into general surgery. This conversation was recorded just before the birth of her son and match day, so hearing Natalie's trust in the Lord prior to these big life changes was so encouraging to us! She shares... rhythms her and her husband established to intentionally cultivate their marriage.their pregnancy jo...
18 Mar 2026
A Double Match-Day Reflection | Katie Portolese and Megan Baer
Send a text Join us for an early Match Day podcast release, featuring our friend, Katie Portolese! Katie is wife to a PGY5 general surgery resident who just completed the match process for a colorectal fellowship. Join us as Katie reflects on and compares her family's residency match experience to their recent fellowship match. She shares... how God has grown her faith in the seven years between both Match Days,the rich blessings God revealed after a disappointing residency match,practi...
6 Mar 2026
A Conversation of Grace and Endurance with an Orthopedic Surgeon's Wife and (now!) Mom of Four | Karyssa Davidson, Nicole Hull, & Brooke Avon
Send a text What a treat to kick off Season 3 with our friend, Karyssa Davidson! Karyssa is wife to a PGY5 Orthopedic Surgery resident and a mom to now (as of January 2026) four beautiful children! As she reflects on the past five years of training prior to a move for fellowship, her words speak to the heart of wives in the throes of challenging training years. Karyssa exhorts us to give grace to our husbands during long and difficult seasons of training, reminding us to look to Jesus a...
16 May 2025
Founding Side By Side & Listening to God's Call | Robin Morgenthaler & Megan Baer
Send us a text Robin Morgenthaler, wife to a pulmonologist and founder of Side By Side joins us in our Season 2 Finale! She shares about the numerous times she has surrendered to God's calling, from moving all over the country, to adoption, to founding Side By Side! We are so excited for you to hear the wisdom she shares with us! SLS on Facebook and Instagram. Support the SLS Ministry. Purchase SLS Stickers Connect with your local Side By Side Ministry! Support the show
2 May 2025
Striving Together As One with Side By Side Executive Director, Rebecca Lehman | Rebecca Lehman, Megan Baer, & Brooke Avon
Send us a text We are honored to have Side By Side's Executive Director, Rebecca Lehman, join us for this episode! We've packed a lot of her story into this one - starting with her early life when the Lord laid a foundation of faith and ministry, and leading to how that foundation prepared her for her current leadership of Side By Side! Rebecca traces her experience with Side By Side, from first joining after having twins, to co-starting a chapter during residency, to joining the execut...
18 Apr 2025
Resigning from Residency and Redeeming Family Time | April Richards, Brooke Avon, & Megan Baer
Send us a text April Richards, wife to a child psychiatrist and mom of four kids, has packed this episode with such rich and practical wisdom! She shares what it was like when her husband resigned from residency, and how the Lord brought them to complete medical training even still. Her family is so beautifully redeeming family time now that training is complete, and the scriptures she shares are rich truth for us all. Through humor and honest stories, April also gives many practical ways to ...
Send us a text We got to chat with Katie Cross this week and she has so much wisdom to share! Katie is a wife to a current orthopedics resident and a mom to her sweet little girl, River. She shares how she came to have a personal relationship with Jesus while her husband was in medical school, transitioning from one community to another, and how she and her husband have learned to protect their peace during the craziness of residency. She shares the practical ways they do this and how God has...
21 Mar 2025
An Unexpected Match Day & Practical Tips to Build Community | Allison Ivan & Megan Baer
Send us a text Allison Ivan joins us this episode and she has such a beautiful reflection to share on their training journey! Allison is a wife to a reconstructive urology fellow, a mom, and a physician assistant. She has such wisdom to impart as she and her family near the end of their medical training journey! This episode is incredibly timely, as she shares about God's faithfulness with a very unexpected residency match, followed by God's provision beyond what Allison and her husband...
7 Mar 2025
We're Back! A Partnership, A New Team Member, and Surrendering Big Fears | Brooke Avon, Megan Baer, and Nicole Hull
Send us a text We're so excited to be back with you for Season 2! After much time away, we've packed this episode with all the things we need to catch up on - what life looks like for Brooke & Megan, a new partnership for our ministry, a new team member for the podcast, and unpacking her story! Nicole Hull has graciously joined the SLS team and joins us to share what surrender has looked like for her and her husband over the last few years. From experiencing engagement living across the c...
14 Jun 2024
Holding Grief & Joy During Residency (Part 2) | Jackie Nave, Brooke Avon, & Megan Baer
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What better way to end Season 1 of SLS than with part 2 of Jackie Nave’s miraculous story?! Jackie is back to share the rest of her story - how a mass on her placenta during her third pregnancy turned into a placental abruption, and resulted in the most incredible outcome with her miracle baby girl. The gift of having a husband in residency gives us an insight into what it means to arrive at the hospital during shift change, the impeccable medical team caring for her, and the gift of personal relationships with her care team. A NICU stay with a resident husband also poses unique challenges - Jackie shares how God transformed her focus during this time with her daughter. We’re so honored to encourage you with the rest of Jackie’s story!
Scriptures Referenced: Isaiah 41:10, Philippians 4:6-8, Psalm 46:1-2
Songs Referenced: Heaven’s All Around by Life Church Worship
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7 Jun 2024
Holding Grief & Joy During Residency (Part 1) | Brooke Avon, Megan Baer, & Jackie Nave
Losing a child is something no family should ever have to experience. And to walk through it during residency seems particularly wrong. How do we process and work through grief while continuing to be a mom and spouse? And how does our husband return to work at the same hospital we received this traumatic news?
This week, Jackie Nave joins us to share part one of her story. Jackie is a wife to an anesthesiology resident in Hershey, PA, and shares the story of her son, Boden, who was stillborn while her husband was in the midst of residency. Jackie's family experienced the unique struggles of a husband in medicine who works at the hospital where they experienced traumatic loss. Through immense grief and raw emotion, the Lord has used Boden's story to give Jackie opportunities to share about Jesus everywhere she goes. At the end, she gives us the biggest mic drop we've ever heard, to give us a taste of what’s to come in Part 2! We pray that God uses Jackie's story to help you taste and see that He is good.
Scriptures referenced: Philippians 4:4-8, 1 Kings 4:16-17
Songs referenced: I Will Carry You by Ellie Holcomb, Faithfully by TobyMac
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24 May 2024
Learning How to Let Your Husband Be Human | Brooke Avon & Phoebe Waller
WOW do we have a treat for you with today's podcast! Phoebe Waller and her husband (Emergency Medicine attending in Harrisburg, PA) were both missionary kids growing up, and within two weeks they discovered they were pregnant with their first baby and accepted into medical school. Six months after their first was born, they started medical school and found out they were pregnant with their second.
Phoebe shares practical recommendations when moving to a new area, like looking for a church right away, and avoiding an 8th story apartment when you're pregnant!
She also shares how she learned to let her husband be a human, how to sacrifice duty for the sake of enjoying Christ and family, and how to live a sold-out life for Christ while living at home with kids everyday. She has SO MANY good things to share, we hope you can soak up every moment of this message!
Scriptures referenced: Song of Songs 1:7, Song of Songs 3:9, 1 Corinthians 10:31,
Resources referenced: Mike Reeve's "The Love of Christ in the Song of Song's" sermon series, "A Theology of the Ordinary" by Julie Canlis, "Every Moment Holy" - Liturgies for the ordinary moments of daily life.
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10 May 2024
Why Remembering is Integral to Seasons of Loss & Difficulty | Katherine Jackson, Brooke Avon, & Megan Baer
Katherine Jackson, wife of a second year gastroenterology fellow and mom to two sweet girls, joins us to tell her story! She shares the honest questions she asked as her firstborn was diagnosed with Phenylketonuria (PKU), she ministered to a mom with Stage 4 cancer, and walked through secondary infertility and miscarriage. All during residency and fellowship. She explains how her husband’s medical training equipped them to have difficult conversations with friends who were hurting - God can use us no matter the season!
Though her stories are heavy, she shares scripture that brought light to her soul, and we can’t wait for you to hear her wisdom!
Scriptures referenced: John 16:33, Psalm 42, Psalm 43
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26 Apr 2024
Defining the Terms (Medical Terms That May Confuse You) | Megan Baer
How are medical students different than residents? And what is a fellow? Your spouse is a PGY what?? Today's episode defines some of the (confusing) commonly used terms in the medical world! We reference them in our podcasts, so we thought it important to also define them.
Terms defined: Medical student, Step Exams, Match Day, Resident, PGY?, Fellow, Attending, Call shifts, Golden vs. Silver vs. Black weekends.
Scriptures referenced: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
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12 Apr 2024
God’s Provision (and Joy!) during Med School, Residency, and Attending Life | Megan Baer & Abby Partin
This conversation was such a joy! Abby Partin is wife to a current Family Medicine Attending, mom of three, nurse, and faithful servant at her local church. She shares how God faithfully provided during challenging seasons like having a baby during med school, transitioning to SAHM/toddler life during residency, and having a baby during her husband’s hardest residency rotation. She gives both Biblical and practical advice on believing the best in our husbands, “sharpening our sword” of memorizing scripture, and how to cultivate our marriage in the tough seasons of medicine!
Scriptures referenced: Joshua 4:20, Philippians 4:7, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Psalm 100:1-2, Psalm 121, Philippians 2:3-4
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29 Mar 2024
How to Trust God Through Back-to-Back Intern Years | Megan Baer & Dr. Holly Schonewald
We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Holly Schonewald, OB/GYN Resident doctor, on today’s podcast! Married to an Internal Medicine Resident doctor, Holly shares her unique perspective as a resident married to another resident. She digs deep into learning to trust God through two back-to-back intern years, spousal burnout, having a baby, and a future of medical missions. Holly gives us the most beautiful picture of Paul's explanation in Philippians 3: though she has reason to put confidence in her status as a resident, she counts that as loss for the sake of knowing Christ magnified in her marriage. We are thrilled to share our conversation with you!
Scripture references: 2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalm 121, Psalm 46:10
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15 Mar 2024
God's Love for Me Doesn't Change (Match Day & Infertility) | Megan Baer & Brooke Avon
Match Day uncertainty, infertility, and navigating life in general can test our understanding of God's love for us. In this special Match Day episode, Megan interviews Brooke Avon, whose husband is a current 4th year medical student going through the match process. Brooke shares how the Lord has grown and pruned her, reaffirming His love for her throughout the match process and navigating infertility.
We are excited for those of you who are experiencing Match 2024 with your spouse. We are praying for you, for peace and joy regardless of the outcome!
Scripture references: The Death of Lazarus (John 11:1-27), Psalm 42:5 & John 16:33
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1 Mar 2024
How Memorizing Scripture Sustained Me Through Intern Year | Brooke Avon & Megan Baer
Intern year, a new baby, adjusting to life as a full-time mom, and running a marathon all have one thing in common: they all need the refreshing hope found in the Bible. Join Brooke as she interviews Megan Baer - they discuss the challenges during intern year of residency and how fruitful scripture is when we commit it to memory.
Scripture references: Psalm 121
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1 Mar 2024
An Introduction: How Surrendering Like Sarah Came to Be
A short introduction to tell you more about who we (Brooke and Megan) are, where the idea of this Podcast originated from, and what our goal is in recording each Pod. We are SO glad you're here!
Scripture references: Genesis 12:1-9
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
14 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
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