Mini Episode: Teri’s Son Just Got Married!

About this Mini Episode

Today we have a special announcement from one of our regular Brainy Mom co-hosts, Teri Miller. She joined host Dr. Amy Moore and fellow co-host Sandy Zamalis to share some big news about her family and we made sure the cameras were rolling to capture this special moment among friends for our regular listeners who have come to know our podcast hosts.

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Read the transcript for this episode:

AMY: All right. So, Teri, you have some really big news, brand new news that’s super huge news.

TERI: Yes. So brand new news here. My son just got married.

SANDY: Wow!

AMY: That’s huge news! How old is Caleb?

[plays snippet from ceremony]

TERI: Oh my gosh! So they, yeah, so this is my son, Caleb. Listeners have probably heard me talk about my son, Caleb, that had lots and lots of medical problems and actually went through a brain training program with LearningRx, which is our sponsor, and it really changed his life. But he’s just got a miraculous story and he lives in Florida. And he and his fiancé came here to Colorado just a few weeks ago and they, he did, my son did a big proposal and we did all the pictures that was out in the meadow out in the woods by our house and it was sweet and precious and they’re talking about planning the wedding for a year from now and then got to talking when they were back home in Florida and they realized it was going to work a lot better if they just went ahead and got married. So they did. They just went to the courthouse and got married and they are, they’re a storybook. I mean, they met on Valentine’s day. My son works in the hospital. They met on Valentine’s Day. His fiance, Imani was in there as a heart patient. And my son is a neurocardiothoracic patient. He’s had 15 neuro and cardiothoracic surgeries. So my now daughter-in-law, she’s had a handful of surgeries for her heart condition, and I mean, it’s just storybook love and romance. They were just dearest friends very quickly, just very, very best friends for months. And it’s, it’s just an incredible story. And they, they understand each other because of their medical struggles like no one else on the planet could. It’s just incredible.

AMY: Congratulations.

SANDY: Congratulations.

TERI: To my first born, my first-born son, Caleb, congratulations, Caleb and Imani. Pretty sweet.

AMY: So you’re the first of us to experience, well, I guess Dr. Jody has adult children who are married, but she’s not actually on with us right now. So of the three of us, you are the first to have experienced what it’s like to have a child get married and to add another child to your brood. So you now have 10 kids. Yeah. So what is it as a mom, what are you feeling right now? What do you, I mean, and let me just preface this listeners as a therapist, I try to keep people out of their amygdalas. And so I don’t typically ask that. How does that feel? But this is kind of different, right? This is like this major mama milestone. And so what, like, what’s going through your mind right now? What’s in your heart?

TERI: I think I was, you know, like my initial, when I knew that they were gonna go ahead and go to the courthouse and get married, I’m like, “You guys, I trust you. You know, I believe in you. This is going to be beautiful, whatever you need to do.” You know, they are very, very, they have a very strong faith. And I would support that and do as well. And so I said things like, “Hey, you are right in the palm of God’s hand. I trust your choices and this is beautiful, you know, congratulations” and I knew this was coming up, but then the timing of it this morning was a little bit of a surprise was kind of like, kind of last minute. And so, then getting, having him on the phone when he’s at the courthouse and I can hear in the background, the people and they’re getting them the last documents. I, and then watching the little ceremony video. Yeah. So. Just shocking emotion. I bawled like I’m pretty much, I have pretty much a grip now, you guys, this was like 20 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago that I was like doing the massive ugly cry. When I don’t really know why I don’t know why, because it’s all good. It’s wonderful. And yet I just feel like my baby just said to somebody “’til death do us part,” you know?

AMY: Yeah.

TERI: I don’t know. Just incredible. And I love Imani. I’m so thrilled. She’s precious. And I’m so, so thrilled to call her my beloved daughter now. And yet it’s incredibly emotional. I don’t know why. Something about my son belongs to somebody else, which is great with all this medical stuff. I’ve been saying for a long time, like, dang, he needs somebody else in his life. So I can pass all this fear and trauma. It can pass the torch to somebody else and it’s all good. And yet it’s very emotional.

AMY: Well, I mean, your relationship changes now. Right? It’s going to look a little different. And so while there’s some excitement of gaining, you know, a daughter, you know, you probably do kind of grieve, you know, how you know it now, right? Like this is the relationship that I currently have with my single son. It’s not going to be the same now. And you know, we’re no longer number one, right? Like, like as moms were replaced as number one. I mean, and those of us, you know, walking with Jesus, that’s biblical, right? Like that’s biblical to put our spouse as number one now. And so that has to hurt a little.

TERI: Yeah, which is weird. Cause it, I mean, like it doesn’t. It doesn’t, and yet there must be something in me that is a little bit like, I don’t know that passing the torch. Okay. So we did, when they were here for the engagement, my son, Caleb, and then my other daughter, Serene, they did, like, a photo shoot with Imani and I, because my son was, like—I’m just gonna bawl.

AMY: And Imani’s mom had died, right?

TERI: Imani’s mom died when she of the same heart disease that Imani has. Imani’s mom died when Imani was just 15. And so Imani and I have very quickly become very close, but Caleb said to me, “These are the two most important women in my life.” And so we did this. We did this beautiful photo shoot. Oh, that’s Imani and me.

AMY: Now I’m going to cry.

Yeah. So even that, just for that to be, I mean, that’s such a gift for my son to say that, you know. And I don’t, I don’t take it for granted at all that my firstborn son would say now that he’s found the love of his life, he would say, “I love this picture, mom, because these are the two most important women in my life.” Until he has a daughter.

SANDY: That’s really, that’s true.

SANDY: Well, congratulations, Teri.

TERI: Thank you. Congratulations to Caleb and Imani. So amazing.