One year ago, my aunt passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Eve. She was such an important part of my life and someone who really shaped who I became. When someone like that passes away you reflect a lot on the lessons they taught you that you never really realized were lessons. The things you just […]
My two sweet girls just celebrated their first communion. It was a beautiful day of them giving their hearts to Jesus and receiving Him in return. I love celebrating these ladies but I’m always a little sad as we approach special events and days for them, because I know when they are on display, up […]
Five years ago, we said yes to a foster placement of two little boys, ages 2 and 1. We weren’t really “open” for foster care, our hearts were still incredibly broken from saying goodbye to the 13 month old we’d raised from infancy. We were still figuring out how to make it through each day. […]
Deep down inside I am a clean-freak. You would never believe that now if you walked into my house or rode in my car or walked through my garden. When you live with 9 other people who are not clean freaks, at some point you have to let some things go, or cleaning is the […]
Here’s the hard truth. I like being liked. Actually, I really NEED to be liked, and loved. I wish I didn’t. But sometimes I completely take my self worth in the degree to which others like and love me. Ugh, so wrong, the world says. You can’t live life trying to please others. You can’t […]
We’ve had a lot of days of thick fog here the last couple of weeks. One Saturday I drove my son to a basketball tournament in the fog and we drove home in fog later that day. For whatever reason, we hardly met any other cars on the drive. It felt like we were the […]
You have a great family. You just gathered for thanksgiving to hugs when you walk through the door, laughter across the table filled with delicious food. You crashed on the couch after the meal with a full belly, comfortable to just be yourself in this place, with these people who love you and cheer your […]
We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary last month! I snapped this photo the morning of, and I couldn’t help thinking, here we are again, holding a baby that isn’t ours. Holding a baby we’ve loved almost his whole first year of life but whose future lies in the hands of others. Story of our life. […]
In my last post, I talked about pushing through the hard struggles, taking on suffering for the sake of the gospel and I promised at the end I would share another post because it’s true that sometimes, even though our heart is willing, we have completely met our limit and we have nothing left to […]
You haven’t heard from me in a few months because we’ve had new little people in and out of our family again. We welcomed a sweet 2 year old before Christmas and she returned home in February. And at the end of January, 2 boys who we already call family returned to our home along […]