EP9: Making Room for Love: How Family Grows When We Expand Our Hearts

Making Room for Love: How Family Grows When We Expand Our Hearts

Amy shares a heartfelt reflection on how making room in our hearts and homes can lead to deeper connections and new beginnings, inspired by her daughter's wedding weekend.

Making space in our hearts and homes

The significance of family traditions and new beginnings

The role of love and hospitality in building connections

Lessons from a wedding weekend about expanding family

The idea that making room is about trust and hope

Making space isn't about losing something, but about trusting that something beautiful will fill it.

Love and family are about expanding, not dividing.

Children and even little ones remind us what truly matters—connection and love.

Home is where love gathers, and it expands with new family members.

Making room allows for new stories, traditions, and chapters in life.

Amy’s Quotes:

"Underneath every culture and tradition, we all want love"

"Expand. Make room. Welcome people before they've earned it"

"Love quietly teaches us our hearts are capable of more"

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and personal reflection on making space

00:29 The importance of making space in our hearts

02:02 Welcoming new family and traditions

03:19 The significance of family differences and shared hopes

06:03 Children's reminder of what truly matters

07:41 Expanding home and making room for love

08:54 Reflecting on who life is inviting us to make room for

09:31 Closing thoughts and invitation to share love

09:53 Upcoming book and final message

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Transcript

Welcome And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, fearless friends. Well, we are back with another Right Size Reflection with Amy. And I'm really, this one really is a personal one. Um, very personal one because it just happened. And uh before we getting into our quick little episode today, I wanted to make sure that you're following us on all the socials, Fearlessly Facing50 over on Facebook. And you can go to the Amy Dotschmidt, S-C-H-M-I-D-T on Instagram. And you can also, you'll be getting a newsletter, um, which you can subscribe to very easily off of my uh Instagram bio. I guess you go there and then you can find it there. It's it's really it's a once-a-week newsletter that comes out with all sorts of tangible takeaways just for you to live the right size life. So um let's dig in.

Making Room Around The Table

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Let's dig into today. I I think you're gonna enjoy this one. Uh, making room around the table. The greatest hospitality isn't found in a perfect home. It's found in how people feel when they leave it. And at one point, you know, at home for the weekend, I walked into the kitchen and just paused. Everyone was talking, my future son-in-law's family was laughing, and I remember thinking this is how families begin. Not in a ceremony, but around a kitchen island. I didn't want to interrupt the moment.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I just wanted to remember it. The podcast where we make space for what matters most.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

I'm so glad you're here. You know, we spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about making space. Making space in our homes, making space in our calendars, making space for our health, and making space for new dreams. But today I want to talk about making space in our hearts. Because this past weekend, something happened that reminded me sometimes the greatest gift of this season of life isn't what we're letting go of.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

It's who we're making room for.

Hosting Future In-Laws In Door County

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Even saying those world words still still feels a little surreal. I get booster, goosebumps, and it and I'm like a joy bubble. Uh, this past weekend, Tim and I welcomed her future in-laws to Door County, Wisconsin. It wasn't their first visit to our little corner of Wisconsin. It was their first visit to the Midwest ever. Although we'd met twice before this weekend, felt really different. It this wasn't simply a visit. It was the beginning of two families learning one another. And if you're anything like me, you know what happens before guests arrive. I found myself fluffing pillows, you know, planning some meals, although you know I'm not a great cook, but I did plan some meals, making sure the guest room felt welcoming. Wondering if they'd love Dor County the way we do. But underneath all of those little details, there was one quiet prayer.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

I wanted them to feel at home. Not because they were guests, but because I wanted them to begin feeling like family.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

You know, when our children are little, we spend years building traditions. Certain recipes become sacred and certain places become our place. Certain jokes get told every Thanksgiving, or you assume those traditions belong to your family forever. Until one day your child falls in love and suddenly another family enters the story.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Not to replace yours, but to add to it. I don't know why, but that realization really caught me off guard in the most beautiful way. Our families couldn't look more different on paper.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Um, they're Korean American. We're rooted in kind of, well, we were raised in the Midwest, my husband and I, and then we moved out east, and we have different histories, and there's different cultures, and there's different stories. And yet, as we sat around the table or in the living room, or shared meals, or talked about our children and dreamed about the life they're building together, those differences quietly disappeared. Because underneath every culture and every tradition, every family is the same hope. That our children are loved.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Oh, and that they're safe and that they found someone who feels like home.

Wedding Talk Interrupted By Kids

SPEAKER_01 5:37

All of us were gathered around, and we're talking about wedding budgets. Oh boy, wedding budgets. If you've been there, you know. You know that conversation, guess lists and costs, and logistics, and the practical thing that every family eventually has to work through. Those courageous conversations. And it had gotten pretty serious. And then the doorbell rang. And we could see through the glass door, this little, these little eyes and this parade of little faces came marching into the room. My great nieces and nephews blowing whistles and throwing things one after another. They had absolutely no idea they had interrupted this important conversation. They weren't thinking about seating charts or budgets or timelines. They were excited to tell us whatever adventure they'd just been on. They were in a parade, and within seconds, everybody in the room started laughing. We just lit up. The conversation we'd convinced ourselves was so important completely disappeared. And honestly, I am so glad that it did. Because children have a remarkable way of reminding us what actually matters.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

They don't ask, which side of the family are you from? They don't care whose traditions belong to whom. They simply make room. They simply make room.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

As I watched my great nieces and nephews parade around the house, I realized maybe they were teaching all of us something.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Expand. Make room. Welcome people before they've earned it. Love before everything feels familiar. See family before labels. And isn't that exactly what life keeps asking us to do?

When Home Expands With Love

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Right size connection.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

One of the central ideas in the upcoming book, Creating the Right Size Life, is that making space isn't about losing something. It's about trusting that something beautiful is waiting to fill it. When we became empty nesters, I thought we were making room because something was ending. This weekend reminded me we were actually making room because something new was beginning.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Not another house, not another possession, another family, another story, another chapter. As I looked around all weekend, I had one of those quiet moments where you just don't say anything.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

You simply watch, you observe. And I thought this is what home looks like now. Home isn't just where my children grew up or where my children are. Home is becoming every place where love gathers together.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Home is expanding, just like our family.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

And what a gift that is.com with the word list in the subject.

Right Size Reminder And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 9:53

And remember, the right size life isn't about having less. It's about making more room for what matters most. Until next time.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Take care, fearless friends. Let's make space for what matters most.