Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / Living For Jesus In A Self-Consumed World With Alexa PenaVega

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Living For Jesus In A Self-Consumed World With Alexa PenaVega · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

• 0:02
  Hey there. Welcome back to she speaks life.
• 0:04
  I'm Jamie Elizabeth, and I have a treat for you.
• 0:08
  Maybe you grew up watching the hit movie series Spy Kids, or
• 0:12
  like me your kids, watched it multiple times.
• 0:16
  Well today I'm bringing you a Luxe apena Vega, who you may
• 0:19
  know her as Carmen Cortez and the film Spy Kids.
• 0:23
  Alexa and her husband, Carlos who you may, recognize, and Big
• 0:27
  Time Rush have a YouTube channel.
• 0:29
  They do together. Call David apena bega and are
• 0:32
  the parents of two sons ocean and Kingston and one baby girl
• 0:36
  Rio. You may hear their cute little
• 0:39
  voices in the background as I chat with Alexa about her faith
• 0:43
  story with God and about both her books that her and Carlos
• 0:47
  wrote and published together. And Alexis first book called
• 0:50
  what if love is the point living for Jesus and a self-consumed
• 0:54
  world is about the things. Alexa faced growing up in the
• 0:58
  acting life and how she stopped Chasing after the worldly
• 1:01
  desires and found a personal relationship with Jesus.
• 1:05
  The ultimately fulfilled her. She was also in Dancing with the
• 1:09
  Stars, and she talks about how fun that was competing with her
• 1:13
  hubby Carlos. And in her, second book, we
• 1:16
  cover is called oceans, world, and Island, tale of Discovery
• 1:20
  and Adventure. This children's book is so
• 1:23
  adorable. As the characters, her son's go
• 1:26
  on a hunt for a shell on the island of Hawaii.
• 1:30
  Along with the story, are some educational facts about what
• 1:34
  they encounter on their Adventure.
• 1:36
  Making a fun learning experience and a great Christmas gift for
• 1:40
  any child in your life. Alexa and Carlos are busy actors
• 1:46
  and I'm so grateful for Alexa to take the time and share with us
• 1:50
  everything in this conversation. So here's my guest.
• 1:54
  Alexa Pano Vega. Hi, Alexa.
• 1:57
  Welcome to. She speaks life.
• 1:59
  I am so Happy you are here today.
• 2:03
  I can't wait to talk about all things.
• 2:06
  You got a couple books and your own personal journey in faith.
• 2:11
  So welcome, thank you for having me.
• 2:14
  Yeah, I was looking into where you came from California, being
• 2:19
  an actress and Spy Kids that was big.
• 2:23
  I know my kids were like, oh my gosh, yes we know her and so
• 2:29
  before we dive into Into like your personal story, how you got
• 2:33
  started as an actress and how you turned your life over to the
• 2:37
  Lord, I would love for you to share your favorite scripture
• 2:41
  verse because I know that we can really get to know somebody buy
• 2:45
  them sharing their favorite life verse.
• 2:50
  Okay, so it's in Corinthians, I always laughs I'm like I don't
• 2:55
  actually know it's Corinthians 9, I think 21 or 23.
• 3:00
  I should really find out but it's the first scripture I ever
• 3:04
  memorized. And it happens to be one that I
• 3:07
  just, it's really just stuck with me forever and it says, do
• 3:11
  you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets
• 3:15
  the prize run in such a way as to get the prize.
• 3:18
  Now it's easy of course in our materialistic jaded world that
• 3:26
  we would actually think that the prize is like something of like
• 3:29
  material Value, but the prize is the Kingdom, right?
• 3:33
  And we're all and erase all of us, whether you know, it or not,
• 3:37
  you're in a race. And it's such a reminder to me
• 3:41
  to really walk with God. I am in this race with God and I
• 3:46
  want, when people look at me, I want it to look like I'm in a
• 3:50
  race with God. I don't want to be confusing for
• 3:53
  other people. I don't want people to think
• 3:57
  that I guess, for me, it's just Like this is my race and and it
• 4:03
  is for the Kingdom. So I want it to look like I'm
• 4:05
  running a race towards the kingdom.
• 4:07
  Yes, totally just being example. I think that's so important and
• 4:12
  you know, there's a lot of people watching you guys.
• 4:15
  You and Carlos Carlos is an actor too.
• 4:17
  And so, you know, just being that light for Jesus in the
• 4:23
  public eye it just it means a lot because there's a lot of
• 4:26
  people just watching and you know, that's good and bad.
• 4:30
  But you know what? You can make it into a
• 4:33
  privilege, right? It's an honor to be able to do
• 4:36
  that. So then I mean it's so funny
• 4:39
  because I know they're especially in our industry.
• 4:41
  There's so many people that are like well wouldn't it be nice to
• 4:44
  be famous and all this stuff and it's like, you know what, we all
• 4:48
  have platforms for more ever. You are, you literally have a
• 4:52
  platform and every single day, you get a choice to do what you
• 4:56
  want with your platform. You can either Speak Life or be
• 4:59
  a light in this. World or, you know, you can
• 5:02
  take. And I'm just hoping that you
• 5:07
  know with just a little bit that we do we can help inspire people
• 5:12
  to live in a way that just shines a light on this world.
• 5:16
  I enjoyed reading your Memoir. What if love is the point living
• 5:22
  for Jesus and a self-consumed world and like we said before
• 5:29
  you're an actress, Yes, you were in many films and it's just kick
• 5:33
  it off with how did acting begin in your life.
• 5:37
  So when I was for my mom so my mom was a model growing up so I
• 5:42
  always went to different shoots with her and she happened to
• 5:45
  have shooter, something in California and her close,
• 5:50
  friends were also in California at the same time.
• 5:53
  So we all just went out and I know that I was just one of
• 5:57
  those kids that you could tell that it was probably going to be
• 6:00
  an Is there something like a very outgoing loved reciting
• 6:04
  lines from movies, stuff like that and when my godmothers
• 6:10
  daughter who's about 10 years older than me, they went to go
• 6:14
  meet with their agent. I was with them and the agent
• 6:18
  was like I don't represent kids but I really feel like there's
• 6:22
  something about you. So I want to try this out and of
• 6:25
  course you know I'm for I don't really know enough about that.
• 6:28
  I'm just like yes I want to be an actress like yes.
• 6:30
  I want to do this. So she is calling her friend who
• 6:35
  was the casting director of a big TV show.
• 6:37
  Back in the day and said, hey, there's a baby on the show that
• 6:40
  baby needs to grow up and that girl, I know exactly who could
• 6:44
  play her and that's literally how it all came about.
• 6:48
  I went into an audition, I met Burt Reynolds and he offered me
• 6:52
  the job in the room and it was the coolest thing ever because
• 6:56
  that never happened and that happened when I was four.
• 6:59
  Oh wow. That's Awesome, that's a great
• 7:01
  story, laughing. Yeah, totally.
• 7:04
  I know I'm well, you hear it all the time.
• 7:06
  It's connections, its connections, my daughter is an
• 7:09
  aspiring actress or herself and she got accepted to be a PHA at
• 7:14
  TCU in here in Texas. It's a university in Fort Worth
• 7:19
  and so yeah, she's got that same, you know, just that
• 7:23
  natural Talent. She was little and you could
• 7:25
  just tell she's got it, she's got the it Factor there.
• 7:29
  So So I know. Yeah, so I know in Hollywood,
• 7:34
  there's the good and the bad right there.
• 7:37
  It's not all glamorous and I think especially we see as the
• 7:45
  audience watching, you know, film or TV actresses battling
• 7:52
  Eating Disorders, which I think is a common thing because it's
• 7:56
  either, you know, you can't be skinny enough, right?
• 8:00
  And now we're seeing it today. It's almost extreme, right?
• 8:04
  Like unhealthy so it's like okay what is going on?
• 8:09
  So Holly when I was reading your find a balance.
• 8:12
  Yeah, I know, I know. So I was reading your book.
• 8:17
  I was reading that you had an eating disorder.
• 8:20
  Were you just in that place where you just felt like I need
• 8:26
  to look, you know, better and better.
• 8:28
  And that's kind of how it started because of The industry
• 8:30
  that you're in? Yes.
• 8:32
  Well, one like personally, you know, I didn't want to not be
• 8:35
  happy with how I looked, but then having the pressure of
• 8:40
  studios and and producers behind you really pushing and and, you
• 8:47
  know, saying things in a way that weight is a difficult
• 8:53
  subject for everybody and you can even hear it today with how
• 8:56
  we promote, what is healthy, right?
• 9:00
  Mmm. But as a 15 year old, you're
• 9:02
  still really figuring things out and navigating things, and it's
• 9:06
  a, it's in itself, an emotional weight, for a 15 year old to try
• 9:11
  to carry and I think you know knowing what I know now about
• 9:16
  health about food about how our body works nude.
• 9:20
  Like just a simple Understanding Nutrition.
• 9:23
  I can't wait to pour that into my kids because it gives you
• 9:26
  such a different relationship with food.
• 9:30
  And a different outlook on your body and your physical health.
• 9:35
  We didn't have one really, these tools people were really talking
• 9:40
  about health in this way. They were just talking about how
• 9:42
  you look to you look skinny. Or do you look fat like, really?
• 9:45
  Those were the only options that was it and write and for us, it
• 9:51
  was, you have to look skinny. This was when, you know, Lindsay
• 9:54
  Lohan and Nicole. Richie were on the cover of
• 9:56
  every US Weekly, looking like super anorexic.
• 10:00
  And sure, they were saying they look anorexic, but in a way they
• 10:03
  were all. So kind of like praising it
• 10:06
  because they got so much attention and they were the ones
• 10:11
  getting like campaigns and opportunities.
• 10:13
  And everywhere, you looked skinny all about being skinny.
• 10:16
  So, of course, naturally everything else falls into that
• 10:21
  place in the entertainment World along with like, young girls
• 10:24
  watching. And I was just a young Arrow.
• 10:26
  See what was happening. I wasn't surrounded.
• 10:30
  Added at the time, probably, by the best people to encourage me
• 10:34
  or to give me, maybe educational, nutritional
• 10:39
  information that I could have used.
• 10:40
  So instead, I went to the extreme and I ended up falling
• 10:44
  into an eating disorder, that didn't just wreak havoc for that
• 10:48
  year. It was something I battled on
• 10:50
  and off for that next six years. And it took over my life like it
• 10:55
  just completely took it over. Yeah.
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  Because in a sense, you feel like it's the And I can control,
• 11:01
  right? Yeah, I had complete control
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  over it. I was also getting the instant
• 11:06
  gratification of I can eat whatever I want but not having
• 11:10
  the repercussions or at least not believing.
• 11:12
  I had the repercussions, she's not understanding the life, the
• 11:17
  full like lifetime of repercussions that I would then
• 11:20
  be dealing with. So, you know, for instance, you
• 11:24
  know, I knew that it could hurt your teeth.
• 11:25
  I didn't know, it would like absolutely destroy your teeth.
• 11:28
  So I didn't know like how How badly was Richie.
• 11:31
  So I destroyed my teeth. It took me a minute to get
• 11:34
  pregnant. And at first, I didn't know if I
• 11:37
  was going to be able to get pregnant, there were just so
• 11:40
  many. Hey, I just I destroyed my body
• 11:44
  for a long period of time and I really do believe it was a
• 11:47
  miracle that I was able to kind of come back and out of it.
• 11:52
  I know living in Hollywood and I think just living in general,
• 11:56
  just without the lord, it's just easy to just do the Parting, and
• 12:01
  just living life the way you want.
• 12:03
  And, you know, at that point, like, what made you be like,
• 12:08
  okay, I'm done. Living this life that I've been
• 12:13
  living. That's just leaving me
• 12:15
  unsatisfied and empty. When did you find your faith?
• 12:20
  I have to say. Okay, so, my mom, instilled a
• 12:23
  Heart for Jesus when we were really young, but it was a very
• 12:28
  Sunday morning for Asian of Christianity, there really was
• 12:32
  not any death or roots to it, but I craved those conversations
• 12:36
  with God. So even as a kid, I would talk
• 12:39
  to God all the time without even really understanding.
• 12:43
  What Christianity was about or what it was that I believed.
• 12:46
  Like I just felt this deep connection to God without even
• 12:51
  knowing why. Right?
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  And I think that was paying for such a blessing because I really
• 12:56
  helped build to where I am today.
• 13:00
  And going through with the eating disorder out, actually
• 13:02
  pray to God. I just feel like God, please
• 13:04
  take this away from me, like, I don't want to be doing this.
• 13:07
  I'm ashamed of what I'm doing but also, like, it does bring me
• 13:11
  joy and I don't want it to bring me joy.
• 13:13
  I want it to be gone, right? But I prayed this for for quite
• 13:16
  a long time, it wasn't this overnight thing, but I look at
• 13:20
  what Paul says, leave us in, Ephesians me talking about Armor
• 13:24
  of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of
• 13:27
  righteousness, your belt of Truth, and he goes on.
• 13:30
  And he says, you have your Shield of faith.
• 13:32
  And that was something that I grew up with, I had Faith but I
• 13:35
  didn't have my sword because that was the word of God.
• 13:38
  And I didn't quite understand the word of God.
• 13:40
  I wasn't really reading on my own.
• 13:42
  Yet I wasn't diving into the Bible quite yet.
• 13:45
  So as soon as I got that sword, it was like my demons became
• 13:51
  defeated. I was able to like destroy and
• 13:55
  it wasn't me obviously, it's like God, but what was able to
• 13:59
  Justice? Troy the chains.
• 14:02
  The, the junk that was holding you back and, and it literally
• 14:07
  happened after I started diving into the word that was my
• 14:12
  turning point, and it goes to show you like when you become
• 14:15
  deeply rooted into something, you can have, you know, all the
• 14:20
  bells and whistles, but it's not until you like dive into the
• 14:24
  routes that God has given you where you are able to see the
• 14:28
  fruit of it. Yeah, so true.
• 14:30
  Okay. So how did you meet Carlos
• 14:32
  through mutual friends or on the set.
• 14:35
  How did that all start? So I met lows we were both at
• 14:39
  lower points and our lives and we had a mutual friend named
• 14:43
  Andrew. Who had actually tried to set us
• 14:46
  up but the timing didn't work out and we didn't think much of
• 14:50
  it but I didn't know who he was. Like, he didn't know that I was
• 14:53
  in the industry. Nothing.
• 14:53
  Like we just went about our lives and we were both are low
• 14:58
  point in our lives and the I got invited to our friends.
• 15:02
  Bible study had been hosting a Bible study for quite some time
• 15:05
  and I finally reached a point. He does me so many times to go
• 15:07
  and for whatever reason this was the time that I was like, yes,
• 15:11
  I'm gonna go, I happen to be in town.
• 15:13
  So yeah, I'm gonna go and I showed up and that is literally
• 15:17
  where I met Carlos and every hang out from that point on with
• 15:21
  either at Bible study or at church or some sort of like
• 15:25
  function that had to do with our faith.
• 15:29
  And that's what our entire relationship was built on and
• 15:33
  founded on, you know, before Carlos, I actually had been
• 15:35
  married. I went through a divorce and,
• 15:40
  you know, we have a very cordial relationship.
• 15:42
  We just did not, but my ex and I like, we just did not work and
• 15:45
  also like our foundation was not built on a faith-filled
• 15:50
  foundation. It was not built on biblical
• 15:52
  values when you don't have that biblical Foundation.
• 15:58
  It's hard to navigate. Life, let alone my marriage.
• 16:02
  I and, you know, it's so funny, because I go back to that verse
• 16:06
  where we're in a race, right? So if me and my husband are in
• 16:11
  the same race together, we could both be running in the same
• 16:14
  direction and it doesn't matter. The chaos that's going on around
• 16:18
  us or anything. That's trying to cause division.
• 16:21
  We're both in the same race running in the same direction
• 16:24
  when you're not in line with your values and your morals, the
• 16:30
  the race that you're running in your running into opposite
• 16:32
  directions. So of course division is going
• 16:35
  to break you. Of course, the first sign of
• 16:38
  like something that could be difficult.
• 16:40
  It's going to just like take you out because yeah we're both not
• 16:44
  in the same race so true. Okay so I read that you guys I
• 16:49
  have to mention this Dancing with the Stars because we all
• 16:53
  watched that show. Oh yeah we love it and I love
• 16:58
  how you're like Carlos was just So natural and didn't even have
• 17:02
  to think about the choreography. And so what was the best part of
• 17:08
  Dancing With the Stars? Holy moly, you know it really
• 17:12
  pulled me out of my shell. I would say it was the beginning
• 17:15
  of pulling me out of my shell a little bit.
• 17:17
  I don't think people look at me and think that I'm in the show
• 17:20
  but I am I really am I've lived so much of my life as a people
• 17:25
  pleaser and it's taking me a long time and a lot of like
• 17:29
  working through and like I still will fall into that.
• 17:31
  Naturally it like being a people pleaser that I'm not actually
• 17:34
  coming out of my shell. I'm just doing whatever makes
• 17:37
  other people happy. That's kind of I think actor
• 17:40
  trait that's just something we do.
• 17:41
  Right? Yeah.
• 17:43
  But that show really just kind of pulled something out of me
• 17:46
  because you are in the most vulnerable state.
• 17:51
  Also, I never thought I would be talking about my eating disorder
• 17:55
  and that was the first place I ever talked about having had
• 17:59
  one. And actually felt like it was
• 18:02
  terrifying at first, but it was also really relieving.
• 18:05
  And in a way it like continue to break the chains of an eating
• 18:09
  disorder like I had no idea that I was still holding onto chains.
• 18:14
  The chains that I still had it was honestly that fear that
• 18:18
  people would find out that I had an eating disorder.
• 18:20
  I didn't want them to look at me as like, this girl who wants had
• 18:23
  an eating disorder because I was still just a lot.
• 18:25
  But even though I went through that, I was still me, like, I
• 18:28
  don't want that. My identity, but it was almost
• 18:32
  more my identity. The more I held onto it, kept
• 18:35
  it, my secret, as opposed to letting the world know that,
• 18:38
  that was something that happened.
• 18:39
  But God healed me and I didn't, I didn't go to a rehab place.
• 18:43
  I didn't go to a facility like was literally just me and God
• 18:47
  and God, miraculously pulling me through that.
• 18:51
  And, and that was it like, I don't ever have to look back and
• 18:56
  really being able to speak that it was, as if I like Crush.
• 18:59
  At the enemy. So I'd say that was probably
• 19:01
  made out of Dancing With the Stars.
• 19:03
  Mmm, praise God. I love that.
• 19:05
  I'm so glad. I asked that question.
• 19:06
  That will write. Yeah.
• 19:10
  Like, there was a whole story there.
• 19:11
  I love it testimony. Okay, so you have three adorable
• 19:16
  children, two boys? Yeah.
• 19:21
  So we could we can hear them in the background and you live on a
• 19:26
  boat. I mean, how awesome.
• 19:29
  But Now I think everyone's just going why?
• 19:32
  Three small kids all under the age of five on a boat.
• 19:36
  I'm going they must have had to learn how to swim early in life
• 19:42
  and you guys I guess hop from Hawaii and Florida, right?
• 19:48
  Depending on. Yeah.
• 19:50
  Kind of daddy, where are you? This has been a busier season
• 19:53
  for us. So being in Florida as actually
• 19:57
  been a lot easier than if we were Like flying all the way
• 20:00
  back to Hawaii, just because he's in the orient.
• 20:03
  So this is kind of home base right now, you know, it's a
• 20:07
  passion, Carlos grew up sailing, he got me into it.
• 20:11
  When we got together we would go and all these sailing trips and
• 20:13
  it was something that we thought we would get back into.
• 20:16
  After our kids have kind of left the nest or at least when they
• 20:20
  were older and like everything. We we just like to try things a
• 20:27
  different a little differently. Um, yeah.
• 20:30
  We thought some, you know what, we're just gonna go for it.
• 20:32
  Like, I know, it makes no sense with the season that we're in,
• 20:36
  how busy we are to have our 53 and one-year-old go on a boat
• 20:41
  with us and have these sailing adventures, but we follow a
• 20:45
  bunch of stealing channels on YouTube.
• 20:47
  That we really, really love and, and something that was really
• 20:50
  cool. There's a one-family, they're
• 20:52
  called sailing satara. They're also a faithful family,
• 20:56
  they have been sailing together. I think for like, Six years now,
• 21:01
  their marriage. It kind of hit like a Rocky
• 21:03
  Point. They were no longer happy with
• 21:06
  where they were, the family was kind of just like there was a
• 21:08
  lot of tension and they made a decision as a family because
• 21:12
  they asked the kids to sell everything and live on a boat
• 21:16
  and sail the world. And they did that.
• 21:18
  And they said it was the best decision I ever made.
• 21:20
  Because it kept everybody close, it put things into perspective,
• 21:23
  they were able to travel the world.
• 21:25
  So many fruitful things came from it that we Did that and you
• 21:31
  know industry moves so quickly. There's so much happening all
• 21:35
  the time. Also our industry is not a very
• 21:38
  faithful place so we whenever we're not working or in it that
• 21:44
  we try to go as far away as possible but for us were just
• 21:48
  like we want to reconnect with God.
• 21:50
  How do we do that? The best and honestly like being
• 21:53
  in the middle of the ocean you kind of only can relax.
• 21:58
  Oh totally and the The memories that you're making with your
• 22:01
  kids. I mean, we all know growing up.
• 22:04
  What are the memories we have? It's the vacation or it's the
• 22:07
  Venture that we're having with our parents, right?
• 22:10
  We always laugh, you know, we're both we're both like country,
• 22:15
  Barefoot people at heart and, you know, when our kids wake up
• 22:19
  in the morning, they like run outside, pee off the side of the
• 22:22
  boat and then throw a fishing line and I was crack up some
• 22:27
  nice boat. Probably don't like us very
• 22:31
  much, but our kids are going to remember that.
• 22:37
  Oh, that's great. It sounds like a fantastic
• 22:40
  lifestyle. So did the hurricane affect you?
• 22:45
  Where you're all in Florida? So you know what?
• 22:47
  We were really fortunate with where we are.
• 22:50
  That we only had when's crazy raid at some tornadoes but we
• 22:55
  were saved. We actually stayed on the boat
• 22:56
  the whole time. However, I do.
• 22:59
  Display. There were parts of Florida that
• 23:00
  were super devastated and we work with the Salvation Army and
• 23:05
  I know everybody hears about the salvation or me but you really
• 23:09
  don't know until you volunteer with them just how much they do
• 23:14
  because they don't boast about it and they don't boast about it
• 23:17
  at all. They are so humble and how they
• 23:21
  give its it blew me away. But we volunteered with the
• 23:26
  Salvation Army we went down to over Port Charlotte and we were
• 23:32
  serving meals and talking with people and every day.
• 23:35
  They serve seven thousand meals down there.
• 23:38
  The devastation was so bad. You know, people still don't
• 23:44
  have electricity. There's the fact that they're
• 23:46
  still serving meals because people don't have access to
• 23:51
  obviously Refrigeration even keep their meals.
• 23:53
  Cool, or to heat their meals other than like, you know, their
• 23:55
  Grill and what not and then people who can't afford it
• 23:58
  because it really lost. Everything.
• 24:00
  So, all of their money is going to be hotels or, you know,
• 24:04
  everything that they can scram scramble together.
• 24:07
  And there was this one man, and the people at the Salvation
• 24:11
  Army, told me they're like, you'll probably meet one person
• 24:13
  that's gonna like, break you, but it happens every time, you
• 24:17
  know, there's a new volunteer like there's that one person
• 24:20
  that sticks with you forever. And I met a man must have been
• 24:24
  80 years old. Is it was Jim, and he drove up
• 24:27
  in his car and he was a little too old too.
• 24:29
  Kind of get out, it comes to the truck.
• 24:31
  So I ran over and you ran over to his car and I said, hi there.
• 24:36
  How can I help you? How many meals do you need
• 24:37
  today? And he just he stopped.
• 24:41
  He was like, wait, so you are serving meals.
• 24:45
  I was like, yeah. How many do you want?
• 24:47
  And he just started crying. And I'm like, oh no, no, no,
• 24:52
  wait, how do I, how do I pour it into this guy?
• 24:54
  I don't know what to do. Like, my heart wasn't prepared
• 24:57
  this and he goes How many I can have more than one?
• 25:02
  And he just starts to sob and I lost it.
• 25:06
  I was just like so you can have as many as you need.
• 25:09
  And of course I'm crying and I'm asking how I can pray for him
• 25:12
  and how we could be there for him.
• 25:15
  We get the meals, we put him in the car and he's just like, I
• 25:17
  don't deserve this, I don't deserve all this help and I'm
• 25:22
  just like full blown away. But this old guy couldn't
• 25:29
  believe the generosity of just people wanting to serve him and
• 25:34
  love on him. But then like him feeling I'm
• 25:36
  deserving of people serving and loving on him.
• 25:39
  And I'm like, man our God is so awesome.
• 25:42
  We all are undeserving of that and yet.
• 25:46
  Yeah, he pours into us and he loves on us and he frees us like
• 25:49
  constantly and I just it broke me that a man at that age could
• 25:54
  feel that way and it just put so many things before.
• 25:58
  Active for our family. I know that's not the question
• 26:03
  you were asking but but like the answer was, the short answer
• 26:08
  was. No, it didn't affect us, but it
• 26:10
  did affect a lot of people not too far from us.
• 26:13
  So we all went to volunteer as a family.
• 26:15
  And, you know, they always say like when you serve like sure
• 26:19
  you go there to bless other people.
• 26:21
  But you're the one who walks away, like, more or less than
• 26:23
  anyone because of what you get comes birthday and my kids were
• 26:27
  serving me. Just serve together as a whole
• 26:29
  family. And it was it was the greatest
• 26:32
  experience we could have had as a family.
• 26:34
  I highly suggest you guys get involved in any way that you can
• 26:38
  anybody listening? Yeah, I mean that's what life's
• 26:40
  about right glorified and serving others.
• 26:43
  Like I mean you know, and it was such a devastating hurricane and
• 26:50
  I we vacation there a lot down at the keys.
• 26:55
  We've been the Naples, we've been to the other side Fort
• 26:57
  Lauderdale but My husband loves fishing and we go down the keys
• 27:02
  and they get hit a lot. And so but nothing like that.
• 27:06
  I mean this was very devastating.
• 27:09
  So Florida, always has like, big potential, hurricane Yakima.
• 27:14
  So like when you hear that so awkward you just become like
• 27:18
  kind of jaded to it to where you go.
• 27:20
  It's fine. It's not going to touch us.
• 27:22
  Yeah, well and it's tough. It's not that the news is so
• 27:25
  wrong, you just never know. You can't really predict the
• 27:29
  weather. You could only do so much.
• 27:31
  Yes, exactly. Okay, let's talk about your
• 27:35
  newest book. Oceans world, right.
• 27:39
  And I absolutely love this, this is so adorable.
• 27:45
  What made you guys write this book?
• 27:47
  How did this idea come about? So I have to actually give
• 27:51
  credit to my husband because he is, he's the genius behind this.
• 27:56
  I had ocean. And we were trying to find
• 28:00
  things that we liked as parents to have him watch and you know
• 28:04
  we were a little older for Dora the Explorer but it was
• 28:06
  something we were familiar with us.
• 28:07
  We're like okay we'll have them watch Dora.
• 28:09
  So we're watching Dora all together and he's like yeah this
• 28:13
  needs to be better. He's like not the door is bad
• 28:15
  but this is old, we could do better.
• 28:18
  Let's make something better. And I started laughing those
• 28:21
  like, see what to make a kids show.
• 28:22
  He's like, heck yes. I want to elevate this.
• 28:24
  Like we can make something so much cooler than Dora.
• 28:27
  Yeah, that's kind of Of where the idea sprouted and the idea
• 28:32
  started with like a television show.
• 28:35
  Then when we were writing our Memoirs, they asked us if we had
• 28:38
  any other book ideas and Carlos goes, actually, I know this, I
• 28:42
  don't know if you guys have like a kids section but we have this
• 28:45
  idea for a TV show that we figured we would turn into a
• 28:48
  book first and they loved it. So they gave us the opportunity
• 28:52
  to write it and you know, as you know if we split our time
• 28:54
  between Maui and Florida. So this first book, It's kind of
• 28:59
  just paying homage to the island, you get to learn a lot
• 29:02
  about the, the different kind of Island facts there.
• 29:09
  What we love about it is, you know, we want our kids to learn,
• 29:12
  but a lot of times like, when something is a little too
• 29:14
  focused on earning your kids zone out, so we wanted to just
• 29:19
  do these, tell a story, but do these little fun facts, these
• 29:22
  little kind of like lips of information that your kids can
• 29:25
  soak in there not too long, it's really quick and and ocean loves
• 29:29
  it. That's actually his favorite
• 29:31
  part to read. We always crack out because if
• 29:33
  we can read the whole story, but he's like, no, Prince of fun.
• 29:34
  Fact, how high can a dolphin jump?
• 29:36
  How far do MIT whales migrate like he wants to know all of
• 29:39
  these questions are answered, all these questions.
• 29:43
  So so we've had fun part of putting that together and and to
• 29:47
  be able to make it our family and our kids.
• 29:50
  I mean, they think it's like the the bee's knees, it's the
• 29:53
  coolest thing in the whole world.
• 29:56
  Totally and to have the book named after him ocean, right?
• 30:01
  And child King said he's like. So when does cute?
• 30:07
  Yeah, buddy. Your book is coming.
• 30:08
  Your book is coming next, okay. Yeah, Kingston and then you'll
• 30:14
  need Rio. I do like baby Kingdom Rios
• 30:18
  room, like we're like brainstorming but something
• 30:21
  really, really. So again, I have to just keep
• 30:24
  giving props to my husband because he really is He's a
• 30:26
  genius. That's why I married him, he got
• 30:29
  together. So my husband's in a band called
• 30:31
  Big Time Rush there, a boy band, they're super fun of and they
• 30:35
  write really great music. They actually teamed up and
• 30:40
  wrote a theme song to this book. It is adorable.
• 30:44
  It's so sweet. And then we have our friend
• 30:45
  maffeo. Making an appearance on it as
• 30:47
  well. So it's a Spanglish song all
• 30:50
  about oceans world. And if you buy the audiobook,
• 30:55
  you actually We get the song because you can't the song isn't
• 30:58
  anywhere. You can't you can't find it
• 31:00
  except if you pre-ordered the book or if you get the audio
• 31:02
  version of the book. Awesome.
• 31:04
  That's good to know. I know I loved is written really
• 31:09
  well. I love the fun facts.
• 31:12
  I was even learning some things. Yeah, well I oh I didn't know
• 31:18
  that well because we didn't know these things.
• 31:20
  So we're like looking it up and going, oh, that's cool.
• 31:23
  I didn't know as we're writing, we're learning.
• 31:26
  The same time, but also again, like my old, my kids were born
• 31:30
  in Hawaii. Well, ocean wasn't, but we moved
• 31:32
  when he was 4 months old. So we really also wanted to
• 31:34
  throw a lot of Hawaiian culture in there as far as like how they
• 31:39
  say things like so just calling a turtle turtle we call it a
• 31:42
  whole new and explain what that means in Hawaiian.
• 31:44
  And it's just such a part of our life that we wanted to kind of
• 31:49
  be able to implement that. And then, you know, we're
• 31:51
  writing the next book and that takes place on a catamaran and I
• 31:54
  didn't Thena so we're able to To get the boat in there, but then
• 31:58
  also our Hispanic roots and they're so good.
• 32:02
  Yeah, I mean, when I was reading it even, I was getting brought
• 32:05
  into Hawaii. I've been to Maui before, and
• 32:09
  I'm like, wow, this book just makes you want to live there.
• 32:18
  Yeah, it's just beautiful and this book just takes you on an
• 32:22
  island Journey. That's what it does from
• 32:24
  beginning to the end. Absolutely love it.
• 32:28
  Okay, so you got a multi-picture deal with Hallmark.
• 32:36
  So tell us about that. Is that with writing producing
• 32:40
  or everything? It's kind of a little bit of
• 32:43
  everything. They've been.
• 32:45
  There was a homework has been such a big part of our family
• 32:47
  for years. One of the reasons why we love
• 32:50
  working with them is we keep having kids and they keep
• 32:54
  letting us bring our kids It's just ahead and hang out together
• 32:58
  and they've also allowed us to keep our core values and all the
• 33:03
  movies we make for them. So while they may not
• 33:06
  necessarily be Christian movies, all our values and our morals
• 33:11
  are in the projects that we make with Hallmark.
• 33:13
  And that's super, super important to us.
• 33:18
  We haven't had to Veer or bend for anybody and and, you know,
• 33:23
  we wouldn't and they've really Instead of like running the
• 33:28
  other direction, they've really been like great.
• 33:30
  Let's figure out how to make projects that you're proud of
• 33:32
  that. Align with your, your beliefs
• 33:35
  and tell great stories. And I.
• 33:38
  So appreciate that about that Network.
• 33:41
  They've really been allowed us to kind of take the reins
• 33:43
  creatively and tell the stories that we want to tell.
• 33:47
  It's a fantastic team that they've put together over there
• 33:50
  for us. So we were able to produce kind
• 33:53
  of help come up with stories along with you know, act in The
• 33:56
  movies? Yeah, so fun.
• 33:59
  Okay. I love to end our time with a
• 34:02
  takeaway. Is there something that you can
• 34:04
  leave our listener with to either Ponder on or take action
• 34:09
  in? And then let's hear where we can
• 34:12
  get the book and the audio book and connect with you love it.
• 34:16
  Okay. So take away would be this.
• 34:19
  Your best. Testimony is your consistency
• 34:23
  and how you live for Christ. A lot of times people who are
• 34:29
  not Believers, they're going to look to the brightest light in
• 34:32
  the room when they need a leg up or when they need advice.
• 34:36
  And they see when people are on a roller coaster ride in their
• 34:39
  faith, if you can be a consistent person in your walk,
• 34:44
  that speaks volumes to who God is and what the kingdom stands
• 34:48
  for. So just be real.
• 34:50
  It's consistent as you can be in your walk.
• 34:52
  So good. The book should be available
• 34:55
  anywhere books are Sold. Obviously, for all you online
• 34:59
  Shoppers you can order it from Barnes & Noble online or on
• 35:03
  Amazon. And I'm sure there are a few
• 35:06
  other online retailers that have it as well, but I'm not as
• 35:09
  pretty as my husband is to that. So I'm just going to leave it
• 35:11
  there. Yeah, so God well I love the
• 35:13
  illustrations and oh fuck oh shit, that's World.
• 35:17
  Kirsten killed it. She's fantastic, love it and I
• 35:20
  think that's important obviously with a children's book you never
• 35:25
  got there. Some slightly different textures
• 35:28
  which was really important portent for Low's to have.
• 35:31
  He's like I want kids to be able to feel the seashell.
• 35:34
  This whole book is about finding this important seashell and he
• 35:38
  said, I want it to be different than the rest of the book.
• 35:40
  I want the kids to feel it. I want them to know that this is
• 35:43
  stand out that he was very particular about like what it
• 35:46
  felt like and what it looked like it.
• 35:48
  I'm very proud of him because he really put his heart into the
• 35:52
  little details with this book and obviously we did this
• 35:56
  together. Sir.
• 35:56
  But I just love seeing him care so deeply and dive into it,
• 36:01
  right? Put in his creativity.
• 36:03
  Yeah, love it. Well thank you.
• 36:06
  Alexa for coming on here and us getting to know you more and
• 36:12
  your story. I mean, it's just so
• 36:15
  interesting. We love to hear how people grow
• 36:18
  in their faith and laces. That, you know, it's not as what
• 36:23
  you're saying faith-filled. And how do you stand firm?
• 36:26
  On your with your faith, right? As you go through that, what you
• 36:31
  love to do is act and Beyond films.
• 36:34
  And I appreciate you and just many blessings to you and Carlos
• 36:39
  and your family. Thank you so much and thank you
• 36:43
  so much for your prayer prior to this interview is really is
• 36:47
  really beautiful. I was, I wish I could start
• 36:50
  every interview like that. Well, maybe you can just start
• 36:55
  it. Gonna make it happy like yeah,
• 37:00
  yeah, there you go actually well.
• 37:03
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 37:07
  Thank you so much for listening today and I trust that God has
• 37:11
  encouraged you through this story.
• 37:13
  Did you know this podcast is on YouTube, hop on there and
• 37:17
  subscribe and you can see a live recording of each episode and
• 37:22
  for more information on this ministry and to access free
• 37:26
  downloads, please visit my website at Jamie Elizabeth.com
• 37:30
  that's ja yme Elisabeth.com and let's connect Beyond this
• 37:36
  podcast by To my Instagram handle.
• 37:38
  Jamie Elizabeth she speaks life or Facebook until next time my
• 37:43
  friend. I hope God reveals himself
• 37:45
  through your own life story.