• Faith

    The Vault

    “I have this thing I call ‘the vault,'” the pastor said as an introduction to the personal story he was about to share. I’m not sure why, but I immediately pictured the kind of vault that is a gymnastics apparatus.…

  • Marriage

    Fighting Fairly with Your Spouse

    โ€œFight.โ€  โ€œDisagree.โ€ โ€œDiscuss.โ€ Call it whatever you want, but if youโ€™re married, it happens. And thatโ€™s okay! Iโ€™m not saying we should unleash our anger and let careless words fly whenever we feel like it. We can, in fact, still…

  • Adoption,  Family

    Battle

    There are some nights when I collapse into my bed in complete weariness. Most nights I am ready for sleep, tired from all the running around and dishes and laundry and logistics and cleaning up, etc., etc. But Iโ€™m talking…

  • Adoption,  Family

    Confession

    A few nights ago, I hit a very low point in my parenting. I was exhausted, worn down, and battle-weary. My buttons had all been pushed, and my triggers had all been triggered. I was tired of hearing lies, tired…

  • Family

    Hard Conversations

    Hard conversations are part of life. And for those of us who really donโ€™t like confrontation, these conversations can be extremely taxing. The easy way out would be just to avoid them altogetherโ€“to โ€œkeep the peaceโ€โ€“, but we all know…

  • Family

    Nose-to-Nose, Heart-to-Heart

    Recently I had to have a difficult โ€œnose-to-noseโ€ conversation with my daughter. She was having a lot of trouble admitting that she was wrong about something, and Kevin and I had been noticing that this issue with her had been…