• Faith,  Family

    We Need Community

    We were a couple of months overdue for our daughterโ€™s one-year โ€œwell-babyโ€ checkup with the doctor. We had recently moved to a new state and had not yet met with a pediatrician. โ€œItโ€™s not a big deal,โ€ I thought. When…

  • Adoption,  Faith

    The Compassion Experience

    Back before social distancing started, my family and I participated in an event to help us get as close to someone in another part of the world as we could. We participated in The Compassion Experience. This immersive exhibit allows…

  • Family

    Driving Down Memory Lane

    Recently some friends and I got together near my old hometown. At the close of our reunion, I decided to make the old, familiar drive from my high school to the house that I lived in with my family from…

  • 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

    Pain and Perspective

    A few Saturdays ago, I had big plans for the day. I had a huge to-do list, since our big yard sale/fundraiser for our adoption was just a week away. I had items to gather, donations to sort, errands to…

  • Adoption

    Our Family Is Growing

    A few years ago, Kevin and I began to feel that we should expand our family. Itโ€™s not that we thought that having three kids wasnโ€™t enough. We werenโ€™t bored. We werenโ€™t missing the baby days. Rather, we felt compelled…

  • Family

    It Takes a Village

    I used to kind-of laugh at the saying โ€œIt takes a village to raise a child.โ€ But that was before I became a mother and realized how true that statement is. I, for one, could never make it through motherhood…

  • Family

    The Pressure

    In the last year or two, several of my close friends have entered the world of motherhood for the first time. As I went to the baby showers, visited the proud (and very exhausted) parents and babies in the hospitals,…

  • Family

    Half as Hard, Twice as Good

    Iโ€™ve had three babies and only once went to the hospital with a โ€œfalse alarm.โ€ Just a couple of weeks before my due date with my son Caleb, I thought I was in labor. So off to the hospital we…