I met my first birth mom four years ago. I remember the drive, the feelings and her face. I got her little girl dressed, drove to the mall and unloaded the car with nervous hands and an even shakier heart. As I rounded the corner of the playground where our…
I was lifting weights today-yes, at the gym. Stick with me here. Pandora was blasting music into my eardrums as I danced along in my head. Music can take you places and I need to be taken anywhere but the treadmill to be inspired. As the melody changed…
Having six kids under the age of ten is strangely similar to living life in a petri dish. There are simply not enough Clorox wipes to touch every snot-smothered surface during this time of year. Between public school, daycare and the church nursery, we are maxed out on the…
Three weeks after I gave birth to my first child, I sat sobbing in a glider. I was sitting in a nursery where everything was new-cute crib, tiny clothes, fresh baby, new life. And with all of the unfamiliar came a surge of scary emotions. My new baby…
We spent some time last week with a few missionaries. They were at church as part of an annual celebration of support and awareness for worldwide missions. We met in small groups for a picnic and some shared personal stories from their ministries. A question was posed to one of…
*photo credit: Lexi Read I’m an expert on change, not because I ever wanted to be, but simply because it’s what I know. It’s my close counterpart and my experience qualifies my expertise in this area. When I started this season, I believed I…
I held your baby tonight. She was sick. Fever raging. Through her tears, she was mumbling but I couldn’t understand what she needed because toddlerspeak isn’t easy to decode for the not-the-mama. She’s only been in my arms for a short…
Most nights, as my neck finds the curve of my contoured pillow, I close my eyes and breathe in the quiet that has finally found me. The stillness is almost surreal after a day of so much noise. It’s in the silence where moments of my…
As I grew into adulthood, I often wondered, prayed about, wrestled with and sought counsel over my calling. I looked to the lives of so many valiant souls that crossed my unsettled path for direction and motivation. What was I going to do with my life? What was my calling…
One simply complex decision to take the next step to sign up for foster parent classes flowed into licensing and saying yes to our first placement. Since then, we have stood countless crossroads, sometimes paralyzed by the whirl of opinions and choices and what ifs. And nothing, NOTHING, is ever…
