CONNECTING HEARTS THROUGH WORDS
You don't know what you don't know. And I didn't know what I put her through. My mom waited eleven hours to hear from me. Eleven hours that should've been six, while she was home in Illinois, and I was a high schooler on a January drive with friends, from there to Iowa, to visit... Continue Reading →
On August 28, 2024, China suspended its international adoption program. As of November 1st, approximately three hundred American families who had been matched with a child in China are now separated from them indefinitely with the status of their adoptions uncertain. We understand and lived through a similar heartache when our adoption of a young... Continue Reading →
1 Corinthians 13 : 2 (NLT) “If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing.” Our family of seven, a trio of grown "kids" and... Continue Reading →
Do you have one loved little one, like me, that’s always screaming for your attention ... always interrupting things? Do you have one that no matter how hard you try and how calm you attempt to make your surroundings, will always squawk just as you’re sitting down to dinner or getting settled in to read... Continue Reading →
“I love you, Mom.” “Hmmm?” (A little louder) “I love you, Mom.” “I love you too ... so very much.” I’d been deep in thought, listening to the song we were slowly dancing to. (The photo above is Brett and Abby, September 14, 2019. Our mother/son dance was prior.) I knew this moment of ours... Continue Reading →
"Just turn on the power and everything is all set. You don’t need to change a thing. I have it on the correct setting and volume." "If it’s not turned on," she said, "he won't sleep and will be distracted by the children playing outside." I was babysitting for my niece and nephews and followed... Continue Reading →
The risk of loving big is that big goodbyes can wreck you. If you've lived long enough, you've experienced it. The reverberating pain of saying goodbye to someone you love. I've been to more funerals than I can count. My beloved father passed away when I was a teen and three more people I loved... Continue Reading →
What do you think people will say about you after you’re gone? What do you want to be remembered for? What will your legacy be? Back in high school, my classmates and I once had to write our own obituaries for a homework assignment. I remember feeling it was extremely morbid, but now I... Continue Reading →
Like putting sore, tired feet in front of the fire, homeschooling has brought peace and rejuvenation to our hearts and to our household. And sleep! Ahhhh, did I mention sleep? We were running on caffeine and fumes for far too long, and this past winter I finally saw the light. We had a cold evening last... Continue Reading →
I once read that you start saying goodbye to your child the moment you give birth. Trusting another to watch them for an hour, their first crawl and first steps, the beginning of pre-school, start of kindergarten, first time sleeping away from home—on and on the goodbyes go. The initial times my younger son and... Continue Reading →