CONNECTING HEARTS THROUGH WORDS
We’re looking for love We’re looking for connection We’re looking for acceptance and approval We’re looking to hang on We never want to let go We crave community We crave loyalty We want to be known And admired And remembered We seek beauty We seek passion We seek comfort and contentment We desire good health... 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 →
Can I be honest? I’ve been pretty discouraged lately. Or, more specifically, discouraged with how technology has changed us. Yesterday, I was in a waiting room and it hit me like it does every time—we don’t talk to each other anymore. Twenty heads bent down looking at their screens. If conversation is initiated on a... 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 →
It happened in a blink, the way these things usually do. We were babysitting Brett and Abby's puppy, our grandpup; a rascally, endearing, sixty-pound Sheepadoodle named Berkley. They’re in love with that guy (we are too) and had trouble leaving him for the dog-free overnight they were embarking on. I finally said, “Okay now, just... Continue Reading →
My first overriding emotion was embarrassment. When I heard one say to the other, “It was a domestic dispute,” I felt the blood rush to my face. The emotion immediately following was anger. “No! You don’t understand. My dad has a brain tumor. He’d never hurt us or our mom!” The kind paramedics looked at... Continue Reading →
Seeing his arm, waving like a windshield wiper out of his enormous truck, woke me from my buoyant reverie. I was singing along to “Beautiful” by MercyMe, my daughter by my side, and admiring the bright sun, fall colors, and cornflower blue sky when we slowed to make a left. There was unending traffic coming... Continue Reading →
Being petrified of flying has its advantages. Okay, advantages is an overstatement, but there is one reason I'm thankful for my intense fear. When I'm up in the clouds and my heart is hammering in my chest, I can pray to God for hours on end—which is exactly what I did this past July on... Continue Reading →
Today is my middle child's twenty-first birthday. Only yesterday, I was dragging myself around the supermarket in tears because it was his first week of kindergarten, and I felt like both my arms had been amputated. Two kids were now in school, and I walked in circles for weeks until I figured out my new normal. Today,... Continue Reading →