This is More Than Reality podcast, where we dive into all things faith, family, and marriage, and share that there is so much more than the reality that you see on the surface. Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam and Danielle Busby. Hello. Welcome to More Than Reality podcast with Danielle and Adam Busby. And today is episode three. We are just rocking and rolling through these episodes. We've talked about how we've met. We've talked about getting engaged in our wedding and honeymoon a bit. So today, we're going to take you way back and we're going to break up.

We're not going to break up.

God. Okay, that's going to get out everywhere. We are going to-You're going to choose your words wisely around our audience, apparently. Yeah, no, whatever. Everything is taken out of context.

We have tabloid people that watch all our stuff, and they like to play got you.

What's that one? There's this one page on Facebook. It drives me up the wall. It's like every single day. Explosion news, separate all this stuff. I'm like, What are they making up?

And then you click. It's such clickbait because then you click on it. It just talks in circles, and it never really gets to a point.

It's like she changed her nail color, and Adam didn't like it. It was like the biggest reach. Something I like that.

I mean, the best ones, and you can probably find them on YouTube, are Adam Busby dying. It's a total Photoshop photo of me laying in a hospital bed. I'm going to find this one.

I'm not even going to say what page it is because I don't even want to give him credit.

With a Tric tube coming out of my throat.

Did you see the one yesterday? Where it was a total AI-generated photo of me being pregnant and saying that- Why did you need an AI-generated image?

There's tons of images of you pregnant online.

It was drama, news, explosion, and it's this AI-generated photo of me being pregnant. You could totally tell It's like an animated thing. Adam, it's telling... I'm telling Adam, I'm pregnant, fully grown pregnant.

I just figured it out.

It's just such a bait. Why? This is such a lie. I think I comment on one of them the other night.

I just didn't want to say anything.

No, it was a horrible photo. Anyway, that is not what we're talking about today, but this is our mind's.

Our weekly life of all the stuff that we have to see.

So today, we are taking it back in, which was the purpose of this, bringing in more of reality and teaching you, not teaching you.

Wait, stop real quick.

Is it recording?

Looked out so I couldn't see it. I'm nervous. All right, That's what happens whenever we're recording this ourselves. I just wanted to make sure we were recording.

Yeah. Who needs someone else when Adam knows how to do it all? So we're going to take you way back in this purpose of this podcast is to give you a glimpse into our lives of who we are and how we became who we are and where we are today. But starting with that, we have to take you way back and give you the download on where it all started and how this life all became and who we were and who we are. So we decided to start this podcast to just give you a glimpse of us.

Much more than reality of what you already know, what the preconceived notions are. Honestly, a lot of our story is on TV and has been edited, obviously, for dramatic effects. So much of our story never made it to air. And then you always see little clips here and there on social media or YouTube on our It's a Buzz World YouTube channel. But we never really... Our YouTube channel, we keep everything really light, typically. And it's fun family moments. And it's just heartwarming just fun interactions with the family and stuff like that. We never really go deep on discussions and stuff because it's just a family vlog channel. And so this was going to be the medium for that. Just to where you can really get to know us, it's like a platform where we can grow on a deeper level with our, it's weird to say, fans, with our community that we've built around us, around our family and stuff. And hopefully that brings on and encourages new viewers, new listeners, just to engage with us. We've already seen it just from the launch of our trailer and a couple of other things on social media of how people on our channel are already talking and interacting sharing stories and stuff from their past just by us and our conversation sparking different things and how they're speaking in each other's lives.

And that is what this is all about. Yeah.

I mean, it's very hard for, if I'm honest, it's very hard for us to really be our true vulnerable selves outside of this security blanket because we've just been put in so many different lights, I guess, and we want to be true to who we are, but you never can. It's so hard to explain this. Unless we have full control over what we're saying and what we're sharing, then it's always construed or put in some other way, taken out of context, whatnot. So it's been years of living a life of public theme and whatnot for 10 years. And we have learned a lot and we have been able to overcome and have super great big challenges. And a lot of that, this podcast is now coming out now, years and years later, because we have gone through this curve of having time to just really think about it. And we've been wanting to do this podcast, and I think that we've said this a couple of times on the past episodes, but it's taken a long time to just really get to the point where we've processed, how do we share what we know God wants us to share.

We've been in different avenues and faces around here and there, but we just have always said, we know there's something more, and we have said this from the very beginning. And more than reality really just stems from that. We have said since the beginning of finding out we were pregnant with quintuplet to then being all over the world publicly and just feeling like there's something more. There's something more God is doing within us and for others and through us. We've never have felt that we've hit that mark yet of this full purpose. I am praying and hoping that this is- Fruitful. Fruitful, yeah. And just having more of that light shine, where it's bringing clarity to our lives, where we are showing and speaking and using God's testimony in our lives for the work of others to show. And that's really hard to do whenever you are in a level of always being looked at. You're criticized and all these things. But we're feeling strong in our walk and strong in our faith. And we always have been. But yes, we've been on struggles and challenges, but we're at a place in our life now where we're comfortable.

We're feeling like God's timing is now, and we're starting this, literally this podcast in the corner of an office at our home. And so it's not about- No real decoration yet.

I know. This is it, guys. We're going to start adding stuff around this, but we're like, we're going to start. We're going to just feel the call to get it going.

We're going to get this going, and we don't care what's behind us.

We stole this plant from somewhere.

How I bought that at T. J. Maxwell. I'm just kidding. If you know T. J.

Maxwell, go laugh at that. I thought it was at the office or something.

No.

But we just stuck a plant back there. From that good store, love. And this is This table was in the living room.

These chairs were in the living room.

No, it was like a big blank spot in the living room.

I actually told Adam, I said, $300, I'll make a set up for the podcast. And then we went and went and saw this stuff, and I was like, I didn't like it in here. The chairs were fine, but not as comfortable.

And so- They were just too small, and they had no arms. And then, I don't know, it looked like- So we just took from the living room. I brought the chairs in here and set up the lights or whatever. And I was like, it looks like an interrogation room. It really does. It was not inviting. It was just like a single chair with no arms.

It's like you're-Mandy, dignified home. I need some props in here. Anyway, so actually, let's get started with episode three. So that was all a bunch of just what's up conversations through our head and a little bit of update on where and what this podcast is about. So sorry about the rambling. Anyway, so today's episode three, and we are going to talk about Adam Busby. Busby. Adam Busby. We are going to break up some episodes of how Adam grew up, who is Adam, and then we will do episodes on me and who is Danielle and how she grew up and blah, blah, blah. That might take the whole rest of the season.

We may need more than one episode for you, actually.

Honestly, I do think- There's a lot of questions unanswered out there that we've avoided for 10 years. Yeah. So we're going to start on the easier side.

We're going to start with me. We're going to take it light, mostly light.

Yeah. And we're going to talk about Adam. So Adam, tell us about Adam. Who was Adam growing up? And What was life like?

So I grew up in, actually, a little town called Moss Bluff, Louisiana. It's just north of Lake Charles. Who even knows where Lake Charles is? It's definitely been on the news a lot for getting hit. It's notorious for getting hit by hurricanes, apparently. My mom and dad. And then I have two sisters, one older, one younger. My older sister is two years older, and then my younger sister is four years younger than me. We grew up on this family compound. I mean, really.

If you think about it. I really do. If you think about it, yeah.

I never thought about that. I never really caught it that. But then hindsight, looking back at my childhood, I'm like, Mom, Mom and dad, were we in a cult? What is this like?

Your mom and dad are not going to like that.

Sorry, Nune and papa. So you come down the road, and right at the top of the hill is my uncle's house. You come down the hill I'm trying to think of how this was set up because it was completely different whenever I was a kid. So you get to the bottom of the hill, and then our house, our very first house was a trailer house. It was one of those trailers, and then they added a house onto it. So it was like half trailer, half house. What? Yeah. Like, the backside of it was a trailer, and then we built a house onto the front of it. So if you're looking at it from the street, it looks like a house.

I've seen people add porches to trailers, but not a house, too.

It was like a full-on... So part of the house- So my bedroom growing up was in the trailer. And then- That's weird.

I've never knew this. I love hearing stories that I've never heard.

And then Clarissa's bedroom was in the house part, and mom dad's bedroom was in the house part.

Oh, Kayla wasn't born yet? Where was she? So they put you in the trailer.

Trying to think where Kayla's room was.

I never knew it was a house trailer. I just thought it was a trailer that was still there on the property not long ago.

Yeah, because we moved to our other house whenever I was in fourth grade, and Kayla was only four years younger than me. I'm trying to think where Kayla's room was in that old house. Anyway. That's odd. But anyway. So we lived in this trailer house, and then just past us, there was this little gravel road, and then my grandparents lived up at the front.

The gravel road that's still there today? Yeah.

So my grandparents lived in this house up by the road, parallel or adjacent to our house. And then you go down this long driveway, and then right behind my parents' house, I had an uncle that lived there in another house, and then you keep going down that road, which this entire road was maybe 150 yards. So it wasn't like a road road. It was like a long driveway. And then I had another uncle that lived in the back, right next to a really big pond. And in the middle of all that, we had this massive swimming pool. And it was like a swimming pool bigger than the public pool.

Why was that pool there?

We just like to swim.

Wait, but did your Did your parents build that pool?

Yeah, my grandpa built that pool. So my grandfather was an astronomer, an inventor, just like, entrepreneur, had a lot of property, started multiple businesses. My grandmother had... Grandma had a fruit stand. When she-in North Lake Charles. They've had it for decades and decades. Back whenever that area, North Lake Charles, was a newer part of town. And so obviously there's a lot of big houses in newer area. And then she just stayed there through the decade, just like as things got older. And then that area went down a little bit.

Like 50 years of this fruit stand. Yeah.

Honestly- And she just refused to leave. And then so-Hurricane Lara is the official Hurricane Lara that came through a couple of years ago, finally took down the fruit stand, and there was no rebuilding of it and whatnot.

But I mean, Grandma was in the newspaper and stuff.

Everybody knew. They call her Ms. Flo. Ms. Flo.

I love Grandma. When I'm speaking of grandma, it's funny because the Quince and Blake call her Grandma, too, but that's actually great grandma to them, which is amazing. I love the fact that they have a great grandma that they can grow and know. Grandma's 90 now.

It's crazy. My grandma, she has the most energy out of anyone I've ever known in my life.Oh.

My gosh. Yes.

I mean, she's what? 84 now?

She's 91 because we went to her 90th birthday last year. Wait, what?

We went to her 90th birthday party last year. Oh, God. What am I thinking? What am I thinking? Yeah, you're right. So it's her 90th birthday. So she's 91.

And she definitely does not look it like it's crazy. That's some good jeans. Yeah. And she still has long, long hair.

She still drives herself around, still takes care of other people. It's crazy. She had that at first time forever. I think that's one of the things is like, movement is medicine. She never stopped. And you just don't stop moving. And that's one thing that I can- You should put grandma on the podcast. That I can say and I'm speak, probably on. I don't want to stop moving and just go to the gym every day and stuff like that, because I feel like whenever you stop moving, that's whenever all the pains and hurting and stuff kicks in. So just refuse to get it.

Okay, back to the compound.

So back to the compound. So we had this big, huge swimming pool right in the middle of our compound. And then behind that, we had this massive barn. It was like a three-level barn. And at one point, back in the '70s, '80s- But it was a yellow barn or something. It was yellow. Big yellow barn. At one point, since my grandfather was an astronomer, he actually had an observatory up on top with a domed roof, which was super cool. That he built it, he engineered it. All his telescopes, he had one of the largest telescopes in Louisiana that he built by hand. And it was super cool. I mean, growing up in my childhood and stuff, we would have star-gazing nights where he would set up the telescope. I remember whenever I was a kid, these telescopes were so big that my grandfather would build. I would actually have to crawl inside of them and to help paint it and clean it and stuff like that so he could set the mirrors and all the lenses and everything in it. So they were huge.

That's That was the first part of the observatory was the name.

Yeah. So that was later on. Later on in our childhood, he built off of a piece of his property out in the middle of Moss Bluff, in the middle of the woods, he built another observatory, and he called it the Mountain Dew Observatory because he's obsessed with Mountain Dew. And he said- That's just so funny. He drank so many cases of Mountain Dew while he built that. He just called it I named it after Mountain Dew.

That's funny because it's like... I mean, Mountain Dew is still around, which is gross, but it's like- Parker actually asked.

If you think about... Don't give that to our kids. Oh, heck no. But we were getting something fast for dinner after soccer. It's funny. It's before all the primes and all those energy drinks.

That was the pre-energy drink.

Yeah. Cheese. Loaded with sugar, loaded with caffeine. They're like, No, it's Sprite.

No, you're not having that.

Yeah. Our kids don't even know what it is because they've never had it before.

Well, they saw it the other day somewhere, and I was like, You can't drink that.

Yeah, because they think it's just like a lemon drink or something. But yeah, they had soccer practice last night, and we were coming home, and we were just trying to find something quick. So we stopped at Taka Bell. And Parker is like, Can I have Mountain Dew? And I was like, No. And definitely no, because it's 7:30 at night. You have no clue. You will stay up all night.

Please don't give our kids Mountain Dew, ever.

But back to the compound.

So we had- So this was your mom's side of the family, compound. I hate to use the word compound. It really sounds bad, but they all just lived close.

We never caught it a compound, but hindsight, later on, I was like, It's It was a family compound. We didn't have a wall up or anything to keep people out. But actually, we were pretty inviting. We would have huge parties. So my mom and dad were very, very, very involved in our local church. I was born and raised Southern Baptist. My dad was a deacon. I think he still is.

Tell people what a deacon is if they don't know. What's a deacon?

Deacon is like an elder in the church that has a little bit more standing influence over specific needs or whatnot of the church. You have a little bit more responsibilities. You oversee and help with the- As a member of the church here. Yeah, with all the missions and by laws and just whatever the leadership of the church needs. You're that next level of leadership in there. Obviously not paid, but just there to serve the church. And so growing up, And then at the time, the church, we had a preschool, and it was just a preschool at the time. My mom was a preschool teacher, I think a three-year-old preschool. And so growing up, anytime the doors were open, we were there. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And then any time there was any other activity, we were always there. Obviously, with my mom being her position and stuff, we literally had keys to the church, especially even the summertime, whenever she was getting ready for the next school year, we were there pretty much every day. Just super involved in church, highly involved in youth programs and stuff like that. We would go. And My mom and dad were super involved in mine and my sister's lives.

Honestly, as a kid, we just had those parents, other kids that didn't necessarily have that envied. My parents were just so active and involved in all of our activities. Even every sport that I ever played, I feel like my dad was always the coach. He was always one to just step in and volunteer and just be a leader and help me through that. My dad was literally always there. It's just one of those things nowadays. My dad is the type of dad that I aspire to be, just to be always there for my kids' activities and events. And stuff like that anytime that I possibly can. I'm not out of town or something like that. I want to be that dad and that involved. They raised us well. Just in church, raised us to know and love God God. I was saved, I would say, at my understanding of an eight-year-old understanding of who Jesus was and what he did for me and knowing that I was a sinner and stuff, I was saved and baptized at eight years old. In Southern Baptist churches, we baptize after accepting Christ. Just understanding- Which is biblical.

That's biblical.

Yeah, it's like biblical baptism in submersion. So you have to know what you're doing and know what Jesus did for you before wanting to be baptized. And so it's just an outward expression of the acknowledgement of what God did. And so I was saved at eight years old and very involved in just youth group and stuff. And we would go on. We were actually involved in a youth choir, me and my sisters. And we would go- Never heard this either. And We would go on summer choir tour.

Oh, let me hear you sing what you sing. What's something you sing? Was it, God loves me, me, me?

That was way not that fun.

I'm joking. That's our kid's favorite song.

So we go on youth choir tour, so we would take our talents on the road, and we would- I never knew you had a singing talent because you definitely can't carry a beat. As a I had a voice of an angel. But we would go to... During the summer, we would go on choir tour. And what typically what the choir tour was, was we would go- Like caroling? No, it was actually a mission trip. Honestly, we would go to very impoverished areas of major towns, and we would partner up with their local community center. We would do a mother's day out, vacation Bible school type thing. People that would bring their kids to this local community center. And it's usually typically in the middle of projects, just because that's how they were normally set up. You would have this lower income area with a bunch of projects, and then you would have this community center in the middle. And so we would go and we would partner up with the community center, and we just do a community outreach and just love on kids and just have activities and bring in fun stuff for them.

And we would just play with the kids. And through that, we would interweave just who Jesus is and what he did for them. And Jesus loves you. And it was just super cool. We had a bunch of really cool experiences with that. We've gone to areas of San Antonio, and then we've gone to Memphis, and we've gone to other places. We've gone down to Mexico and a few other places. I can't draw on a blank. But those moments in your childhood, whenever you just have this this deep connection with being able to pour into somebody's life and see a change made in someone else, see that something that you did made a difference. It was just really impactful in my childhood. Then Fast forward a little bit, just growing up. I mean, childhood was great. Middle school, I would say, slowly started to hit a turning point in eighth grade, probably. It was weird because eighth grade was a year that I stopped going to public school, and I went to a private Christian school, which was crazy. I don't know, for whatever reason. There was a lot of great kids, really good kids that went to this Christian school.

But also there was a lot of really... It was like a polar opposite. It was like a lot of really good Christian kids that came from very religious backgrounds to some of the worst of the worst that got- Kids that got kicked Out of school. They got expelled from public school. Their only option was their parents send them here and paid for them to go here so they could continue school. So you had polar opposite dynamics in your classes. And so I was involved in sports, which typically ended up being the kids that were usually expelled from other schools were athletic. They played sports or whatever, and they were really good at sports or whatever in other schools, but they just got kicked out. And so now they're at this private school. And so you spend the most time with those people that you're in sports with, whatever, and those become influences on you. And just making bad decisions and stuff as a kid and just doing stupid things. So would you say that because...

Would you say that the people you were around...

Oh, 100 %. If you think about influences, the people, the top five people that you spend the most time with are the ones that have the influence on your life. At the time, at that age, and what I was involved in in sports and stuff, I mean, those were the people that were around me the most. And probably half of them had been expelled from public school and were just not the greatest examples.

So you are who you hang around.

Yeah, for sure. And I think that started, I don't know, started to plant seeds in my heart that started driving wedges between things that I believe and just things of this world, and started to drive wedges in there. After eighth grade, came into high school. Just slowly in high school, Obviously, girls become a priority in sports and stuff like that. And then you just start hanging around and pouring your time into-The wrong things. Yeah. I feel like I I wasted a lot of my high school years just chasing girls and a girlfriend or whatever. And also in high school, I was in this technical program through high school. So my 11th and 12th grade years, most of my day, I was going to a local community college. And so I missed out on a lot of just seeing my friends, my friends that I go to church with and stuff like that, and just not being around them at school, which created some isolation. All of these things contributed to just me just sinking further and further away from my faith Just because the people who you're around, you're good influencers or whatever. If you're not around them, we're created for community and to love on and encourage other people.

And I didn't have that around me. I was going to school with a bunch of college kids, and so I didn't really fit in with them because I was just this young high school kid. And then whenever I was at school, I was coming back to school to play soccer or whatever, and I was just going straight to soccer practice or At the time, one of my girlfriends played for the girls soccer team. And so I was just always with her and everywhere I went, it was just with her all the time and not so much around my own friends. Which is just one thing led to another and just making bad decisions. And it just sent me down this wrong path, which just parlayed into my college career. And it was just more of the same. And then just got caught up in the party scene and just going out to clubs and got involved in the car culture and car scene and stuff like that, which just steadily, it was this weird-Car scene.

Car scene, meaning... Explain that, because not everybody's going to understand what you mean, because it's not really the same like that anymore.

So, yeah, the car scene, it was... I mean, I guess the easiest way to explain it is it was at the very height, very beginning, and I think we touched on this, how we met. It was the very beginning of that whole Fast and the Furious craze. So whenever Fast and the Furious one, it was like the top box office hit at the time, everybody was into that.

I remember-Is this your graduate high school in 2001?

2000. 2000.

2000, yeah. Yeah.

And so got involved in that whole car scene. In high school, I was in a really bad car accident. I was actually working at a casino at the time. I was actually doing ballet at Ila Caprice Casino in West Lake, Louisiana. I was on my way to work one morning, and I was driving pretty much a brand new Ford Ranger extended cap truck. I was actually making good money working in ballet and stuff. I mean, getting a lot of tips and stuff. So I bought my own truck and had a really nice sound system in it. I was on my way to work one morning, and this lady pulls out in front of me, directly in front of and turns on to the road that I'm on in front. And I had nowhere to go. It was two-lane road, and all I could do was just slam my brakes on, and I didn't have my seatbelt on. My truck immediately went sideways because it's one of those small light trucks, and so the back end just spun around super quick. The back end of my truck just slammed into the back of her car, and then my truck just started flipping.

There was a girl on the corner. She was She was actually talking on the phone out on her porch, and she saw the whole thing. She's like, your truck flipped at least six times. And it came to rest upside down in this deep, probably six, seven foot deep ditch. It was Half the bottom of it was full of water. All I remember whenever the truck came to arrest, I was laying halfway in, halfway out of the passenger side window. If it would have flipped one more time, I would have been ejected. I was covered in just water, mud. I remember the ambulance and fire department, police cars getting there. They're coming to get me out of the car. They kept just dumping water on me because I had blood coming out from everywhere. They couldn't tell where it was coming from. There was so much broken glass just in my skin, just everywhere. And I was covered in mud. And so you couldn't see where the blood was coming from. It was just like they would pour water on me, and all of a sudden, it was just like skin turned red again. And they just couldn't tell where it was all coming from.

And so they were just trying to figure out what they needed to treat and stuff like that. But I remember looking back. I remember laying in the back of the ambulance, going to the hospital, sirens and stuff, and just blowing through red lights and rushing me there. And Truly, it was a miracle that I survived that wreck. No seat belt. It was just one of those things of God protecting you. There was one other moment in my life where I truly feel God's hand and God's present, which was on me at that time because he knew of a bigger picture and a bigger purpose later on in life. And he spared me. There was one other moment, back, actually, whenever we were in... I'm going to back up. Back whenever we were doing choir tour, actually, in San Antonio. We stopped and it was during summer. And in Texas, we have these, they call them tube shoots. And so it's like a river, a spring-fed river, and they'll dam up a part of the river. And then on the top of the dam, they'll build a water slide. So the water is being stopped by the dam, but it's rushing and raging through the slide.

And so you ride down in the tube And then at the bottom of the tube, it's like white water until it just eventually calms down. I think I was in... I may have been in eighth grade at the time, seventh or eighth grade. And I remember going down that tube shoot and went down, got to the bottom, my tube flipped upside down, and I was just trapped under this just white water. And I was fighting and fighting and fighting and couldn't get to the surface. And we were just tumbling, tumbling. And I felt Obviously, I had my eyes closed, but I felt a hand reach and grab me and pick me up out of the water. And whenever I woke up, I was draped over the top of the tube. And so whenever I got draped over the top of the tube, I immediately wiped and looked to see who it was, and there was no one around me. The only explanation I have is that was a Guardian angel, an angel. It was whatever. Whatever it was, it It was miraculous because there was not a single person around me or not even anyone who could have remotely done that.

It literally picked me up out of the water and put me on this tube. And so that was the other moment in my life where I feel like God protecting me. Back to the car accident. So rushed me to the hospital, treated all my wounds and stuff like that. I actually went through, had issues with my back, hurt my back pretty bad, and I had to go through physical therapy for probably three or four months, just doing stuff with my back, strengthening my back. But through all that, I got a really big insurance settlement. And then that's what led to Because I'm young and stupid. And then bought a Honda Civic and put tens of thousands of dollars, probably close to 30 something thousand dollars just into aftermarket parts stuff. And had probably one of the coolest cars in town. Just did all stuff to it. Upgraded pretty much every single thing that you could have possibly upgraded, even ordering custom engines from overseas and all this crazy stuff. And so that just got me heavily involved because then it just became the status thing of like...

Well, and to know Adam is to know that once he gets his mind set on something, he's all in. Like, it's all in. It's above and beyond for any type of hobby or anything. So it's funny to hear this story, and I've heard it before and stuff, but to hear the story and think, wow, we have a 13 I mean, Lily is one of our older niece and Jordan. They're driving. They are about to be fully reined driving themselves and just thinking of that. It's so scary. You just I don't ever know. You know? Yeah.

And so it became like this, oh, but also back whenever I was in the hospital, actually, getting treated after the car accident. After the wreck? After the car accident. I'm getting treated. A police officer came, and he was asking me all kinds of questions about the wreck. He was doing his investigation for the wreck car accident, and he asked me if I had my seatbelt on. I think this is past statute of limitations or whatever, so I can't get him in trouble. But he asked me, he's like, Did you have your seatbelt on? And I told him no. And he just looked at me and he's like, You had your seatbelt on. And I was like, I didn't. And he looked at me again. He said, You had your seatbelt on. I was like, Oh, yeah, I had my seatbelt on. And he filled out his report. So I didn't get in any trouble or whatever. And then he told me, he's like, Had you been wearing your seatbelt, you would not be here. And I think that's To this day, I'm iffy on wearing my seatbelt a lot because I was in a really bad car accident.

And if I would have had it on, I would have died. Because whenever he took me back and actually I saw my truck, it had flipped so many times that the roof, if a seat belt had kept me up in my seat and upright in my seat, the roof of my truck, say this was my seat, for those of you on YouTube, because you're not going to be able to see this But the roof of my truck was bent down, my windshield was completely caved in down and literally crimped over the top of my seats. And so if it had kept me upright, literally the upper half of my body would have been completely crushed, and I would have died for sure. I feel like that's just one thing of just God intervening. And just that day, for whatever reason, the decision I made was not wearing it. I was saved because of it. I'm not advocating everybody don't wear your seatbelts. No, wear your seatbelt. And wear your seatbelts. But I mean, that day, I wasn't wearing it, and it saved my life. And so that's probably a fluke. And it's just one of those things.

It's a freak accident that actually in a freak, I don't know, whatever you'd call it, not doing the right thing. It ended up just being a fluke.

So at this time of your life, You said eighth grade. I'm going to recap. You said eighth grade, you were saved and believed in Jesus, got baptized. No, not eighth grade. You said eight-year-old, right? Mm-hmm. Eight-year-old. So all this time's past, made decisions, not the best of decisions, and you're still on that journey. Where are you in lines with church at all?

I was still going to church every now and then, but definitely not like I was in the past. I just feel like it was just going through the motions through this time. It wasn't really anything of depth at that time. I would even bring girlfriends and stuff to church with me, but it wasn't even about... I didn't even really care. It was more like just to spend time with my girlfriend and to have somewhere to go or whatever. Half the time it was on the way home. We're parking somewhere and making out and stuff before she taking her home. But that was my interaction with church at the time. It was more for my own social- Checking the box. Checking the box benefit or whatever. I was going to church just because- You got to in the car with your girlfriend. It was just the thing that I'd do. Whenever I'm home or whatever on the weekend, I just go to church because that's what we always did growing up. It was just this habit or routine, even though I wasn't really engaging into that world, that life, into my faith. Just fast forwarding, got into car culture and just always going out car shows and making trips.

I mean, just doing stupid stuff, like car races and just going a group of cars, probably 10, 15 cars in this car club, all just crazy decked out cars, and then just making a road trip to like Baton Rouge or Houston or Beaumont or whatever. And then all of us, probably average speed, 100 miles an hour, the whole way there, just doing stupid stuff. I mean, just making extremely reckless decisions. I don't know how I'd never been-Injured or hurt again. Arrested or injured or hurting myself or anybody else through that time. I don't know how. It was just the dumbest Seriously doing the dumbest things. We'd go to car shows or car races or whatever, and we would be out late at night. We'd come out to Houston or whatever. And obviously, this car culture was huge here, and street races were huge. I don't know how many times we've been pulled, guns pulled on us at car races. I don't know how.

And you kept going back.

Yeah. It was just this weird addiction.

I think it would give you this addiction. It was like this addiction.

It was for sure a rush.

It was for sure a rush. Adrenaline and all that. So it just was this high on the danger, but the thrill and the excitement in that rush.

Which was crazy because I was like, I never really got into drugs through that time, even though they were around and stuff like that. Never really took into the drug scene through all that. We would drink, but never really did anything else. In the middle of that is whenever I ended up getting that job at Target, and then met Danielle. Target. And so we talked about that in the last couple of episodes of just us meeting while working at Target. And she was my saving Grace through that. Yeah, she helped me. She completely rescued me through that, or from that.

Which I'm not actually sure how, because I If I think about it, we didn't know each other, we didn't go to the same high schools. The meeting at Target and working there at the same time, we had zero interest. And we were complete opposite. Opposite people. The differentnesses that we think we had with what we thought we liked and what was normal to us was the complete opposite of who we became when we were together, I guess. Does that make sense? Yeah, for sure. You were not a typical person that I would go out of date with.

And vice versa.

Yeah, we weren't who we sought out, I Yes. But so when you say, Oh, saving Grace, or whatever, it's interesting because it's almost the complete opposite of what you thought.

Yeah.

What you thought was your likes, I guess, which was interesting because it was the exact same for me. So it is weird to see God knew.

You were unlike any girl that I'd ever dated, and I was unlike any boy that you've ever dated, which is crazy.

Complete opposites to people who would never have chosen to date each other or even look at each other with a mysterious eye or intrigued. It was God's knowing these two people, they're going to get together. And so that's what's so funny is that even just these days, Blake will tell me, Oh, there. Well, that boy's cute. I'm like, Okay, why? And she's like, I like his hair, that brown, shaggy hair. And I like this. And then I'm like, Oh, my God, you sound just like me. I was like, You know. And then I married this blonde-haired, highlighted, blue-eyed man. So you never know, Blake. It's just funny. But I'm not saying even just by the looks of a person, just personality and differences of activities and what you were involved in. We were just so far from the same crowd, and it's It's just funny. I still think it's funny. It's so weird. God literally picked these two people to be together, which is something I always think of, especially Not always think of, but especially in times of struggle or when marriage, because marriage is real, marriage is hard, and we've been married 18 years, and it's not always been easy.

And there's been times of this fight, and you're just like... But there was always this, I believe in our marriage, and I believe in the covenant that we set under God and with God. And no matter how hard it's always been, that's always been a pinpoint to me. It's not about just the struggle that we have today or tomorrow, or what we've had in the past. We've made this covenant with God, and we will always fight for this marriage. And I I say that because I believe that and I feel that, and sometimes it's hard to want to fight that feeling that you have inside because-We're selfish. We're selfish, and we want to fight it. But it's something that I've always felt And so I say that knowing that as we look back at the beginning of our relationship together, we were two people who would have never looked at each other. And here we are.

Yeah. And so we started dating. Obviously, you heard this whole story.

Yeah. So you can go back to the previous episode in here.

So actually- Two episodes, maybe. Two episodes prior to this one was just how we met. And so you heard a lot of that through there. But through that time, we also started going to... And you're going to hear more about this in Danielle's story. But she was raised Catholic, very, very, very strong, devout Catholic family. And then I was raised Southern Baptist. And so those were two very different religions. They're both Christian, but very different in just beliefs and structure and all that stuff. And so as we were starting this new life, this new journey of just being boyfriend and girlfriend, we both decided that, okay, if we're going to make this work, let's find our own thing.

And this is very fast-paced, speeding up story, too. We've been dating for years, and we're like, he would take me to church. There was times he'd come to church with me, and it just wasn't something we saw each other changing our life into. So as we were serious into dating, it was like, can we just go somewhere that we both can feel God, understand God, know who God is? And he grew up married differently than I did. So I didn't have this the whole understanding of the gospel and what the gospel was. And so I wanted us to just go where we didn't feel like we had to go. We wanted to go. Yeah.

And so through this time, I had completely broken ties with that whole car scene and stuff like that. It was just like all Danielle all the time.

Oh, I became your obsession. Oh, yeah. Still are. Yeah. So that was a big turning point, I would say, in our relationship, because I remember... Wait, hold on. I got to rearrange my sitting. Early on in our dating, you were in all that. You were still in the car club thing, and that was something that was not attractive to me.

You drew your line in the sand. I did. You came to one thing with me.

You brought me around one time to that scene, and the people…

You're like, No, not again.

Can I be real? I will never forget this day. This has never happened in my life. I remember us. You're like, We're going to stop at such and such as house before we go to the show, whatever. I'm just like, This is so out of my place. I'm like this Tom girl. One, there's all these skimpy dress. I'm not even saying pretty because there was nothing pretty about it. It was just trashy. And like porns on the TV, everybody's drinking and there's... And I'm just like... I mean, it's like I knew this was happening, but to be faced in that. And I'm not like... I was not like a virgin to the scene of drugs and alcohol because I was around that at times through high school. And if you go to a high school party, I just never chose to do it. But just in that moment, stepping into that with you, it was just a clear, defining moment. I remember I remember telling you, This is uncomfortable to me, and I want to leave. And that became a, Hey, I don't want to be involved with that. It's either, If you're choosing to do that, I don't want to have anything to do with you.

And I literally told you, It's either, You can do that. It was a line in the sound. And I don't agree, and I don't like that, and I don't really want you to do it. But if you want to, then I'm out.

And from that day, I never looked back. And I turned from that, and And then we started to build this relationship and this life together. And so eventually, we wanted to find our own church that we could call home. We're college-aid, so we're looking for more We're looking for people who are Our age.

Our age and just wanting to find people that, I don't know, that had a better pace of life and understanding and just purpose-filled. And we weren't necessarily seeking that within the two churches we were brought up in and whatnot. So this phase were like two different religions. Let's just find a common ground. How can we do this, especially if we're going to be together for life and all that stuff. So we did find a church.

Yeah. And so we found a really great group of college students. It was this local church who had just this... And it was weird, but they just had this rocky college ministry that just ran the church. And they had like typical normal Sunday mornings, but the college ministry here was just absolutely on fire. And so we started going there, and it was just like a non denominational Christian Bible believing church. And so it wasn't like we were going to another Baptist church or going to found a Catholic church. We found something completely different. It wasn't completely different, but we found something that was just more unique to us, true to our beliefs. And so that's what we started going to. And then we stayed there until we got married. And moved here. And moved away from Louisiana. So, yeah, I mean, fast forward to just because you've heard a lot of that, of just the last two episodes of us getting married, moving to Texas. And here we are Texas, living in Texas. I don't know how much we should go into my story once we get into Texas here, because then it's both of us.

I think that brings us to just where we are together. We're here in Texas now. And then I think, because future episodes, we're going to continue this story. But this story now, at this point where I am in my story, Danielle is with me. And so I think from next episode, and shoot, this may take a couple. I don't know.

We need to wrap this up.

Danielle may take a couple.

I might have to think about how to separate.

And Danielle is going to have to pray about this a lot this week, I would imagine, and just words to say and navigating and stuff like that.

Yeah, I'm getting anxious just thinking about talking about my life.

Just because Danielle's childhood and stuff like that, obviously, was very different. She did not have the same situation that I had growing up. Very much so different. So there's a lot more to cover there, for sure.

So stay tuned till the next 15 episodes of Danielle's life.

The next 15 episodes, the saga of Danielle Busby.

All the questions that people always assume and things like, I don't know.

What's a question that you see often that we just avoid? I'm going to put you on the spot.

Well, I mean, there's two, honestly.

Okay. Two is-We're going to tease Danielle's next episode.

I think the number one question and the one thing that we've never talked about is, Where's Danielle's dad? That's probably the one avenue that I've never spoken about, whatnot. But then the next one is, Where's Mimi? Those are things that I hope to be able to share properly. I don't know how to say Anyway, it's hard, but I will get there. I'm going to do this. This is more than reality.

This is what it's all about.

I am. I am feeling confident and feeling assured that it's time to share. I just am still struggling with how and making sure I'm saying things correctly so that I'm not hurting someone or also thinking about our children hearing these things and just wanting to be mindful of what they will hear and not let it shock them or something that they haven't heard for the first time. I don't know. There's just a lot that goes on behind, but I'm going to put my trust up in God's hands and say, just please give me words to speak and share if this is what he wants me to do. So thanks for sharing, Adam. Yeah. A little bit of your life growing up.

You heard Adam Busby's backstory. So this is More Than Reality podcast. And thank you guys for just listening and to be a part of our story, because now you all are a part of our story and a part of our journey. And thank you guys for liking and subscribing and doing all the things. And if you would go on Apple or wherever you can leave a review and leave us a great review and just tell us how good we're doing. And that would mean so much to us. And thank you guys for being a part of it.

I will tell you, one thing about being a public family is that you don't get to have the closeness that you do with all the people, all the people that love you and whatnot. So we do get tons of emails. We get comments, good and bad. But reviews and just positive encouragement is what keeps this going. So there will be comments and people and whatnot. And that's people, freedom of speech, right? But encouraging one another and lifting up one another. And those are things that help us, encourage us. Yeah, it's life-saving. I'm leaving reviews and just encourage a brother and a sister. That's what we need. I'm telling you that because these are things we pray about. We need encouragement to continue to do things about being bold and whatnot. So leave I'll send that in the reviews. Those things are meaningful, and they're helpful to encourage us. So we thank you guys for listening.

Yeah. And one thing, so what we're going to do post this episode, we're probably going to go on social media. Obviously, you follow Instagram at Adam Buz, A-D-A-M-B-U-Z-Z. Instagram for Danielle is @debusby, and also @morethanreality. Pod on Instagram. And what we're going to do is we're going to post some Q&A stuff because I know after each of these episodes, you guys are going to still have some questions. And so what we want to do is, obviously, we want this to be a deeper community of just our community. And so we want to grow with you guys on a deeper level. We want you to understand. We want to be able to answer questions and talk about things because this is the platform where we're going to do that. And so we're going to leave it up to you guys, and we're going to ask for some questions. Just as you listen to this and some things pop up and you want to know, hit us up and tag those questions in there so that we can go back and we can review. And honestly, it'll give us a good groundwork for a Q&A episode, post these individual episodes.

But also it'll give us some insight into possible future topics for later on episodes. I know some of these topics that we will end up covering will take probably entire episodes. And I know for sure, certain things whenever I opened up about my bout through depression and just decided to just lay it all out there for the world on TV and did not tell Danielle I was going to do it. Stuff like that. I mean, that would probably take an entire episode of just talking through that and how I sought help and stuff. And we're going to post those on social media. So make sure you follow us both on social media. Follow more than Reality Pod on Instagram. We're also on Facebook, YouTube. Follow, like, subscribe, leave reviews on all the things, and we will see you in the next episode. This is more Than Reality podcast.

And you'll hear us in the next episode. Thanks, guys..