CONNECTING HEARTS THROUGH WORDS
Sometimes you choose change, and sometimes change chooses you. When I wrote the very first post of this blog in 2015, I had no inkling of the major life changes that were to occur for our family in the next decade. In the spring of 2015, we had one graduating college, one graduating high school,... Continue Reading →
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 →
We grasped hands and held tightly, probably longer than appropriate considering we were mere strangers at the start. But our short yet profound conversation bonded us in a serendipitous way. "Mind yourself," he said, with a sudden solemnity before releasing his grip. "God bless you." God bless you too, dear sir. We stepped down from... 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 →
I hold my husband's hand and remember that our lives, and those of our kids and grandkids, began because of God’s love for humanity and, specifically, for the passion and adoration He’s given us for Him and for each other. Strong marriages make strong families which, in turn, make strong societies. Having an affectionate, faith-filled... Continue Reading →
Words don’t suffice. There aren’t enough that can express. A and E, let my heart talk to yours. You are so adored by your hard-working and fun-loving parents, grandparents, aunties, and uncles: Life will be a great adventure. Along the way, we’ll surround you and pray you'll be surrounded by God’s angels too. Your Nonny... Continue Reading →
May 14, 1985 Dad died in the hospital today. Why, why, why, why, why? Why wasn't I taken instead? Mom, Karen, and the boys could live fine without me. How will any of us survive without Dad? June 9, 2023 Dear Younger Me, These are such good questions. Thirty-eight trips around the sun later, and... Continue Reading →
After I repeated the expression, you told me it brought you to tears. “All of God’s grace in one tiny face.” We'd talked on the phone for an hour that afternoon—me swatting bees on the deck of our rental house in Indiana and you back home in Illinois in your cozy recliner, looking at birds... Continue Reading →
We've been desensitized to reports of innocent people being shot. We hear a new story every night. It has become our status quo. But most anyone with a beating heart can express that it feels so far gone, we wonder if our course can be changed. There have been nearly fifty mass shootings within our... Continue Reading →
“I can’t smell my coffee” was followed later in the day by “This ketchup tastes awful!” No, please let it not be so! We’d been lucky enough to avoid COVID this whole year—Why now? Why just days before Christmas with plans for a beautiful gathering with our family and surprise visitors, our daughter-in-law’s parents from... Continue Reading →
It began in the spring of 1985. Actually, let me back up. It began, specifically, at 12:30 a.m. on December 26, 1984—the first time Craig and I said "I love you" to one another. I was a month over seventeen, a senior in high school, and Craig had just turned nineteen the week before, a... Continue Reading →