I’m a bit of a planner. In fact, I’m such a planner I began sketching out an imaginary empty nest life before my first newborn son had ever slept through the night. Before our firstborn had begun eating solid foods, I looked forward to holding his child. Maybe it was the lack of sleep on…
I hold my son’s son, both hands cupped against his wife’s warm abdomen. Her baby rolls toward my touch and she smiles down at me. Maternal delight mingled with innocence shines through her flush of expectancy. Love flows from each of us into the center of her universe, into the womb that nurtures and protects…
Greasy fingers met in a communal popcorn bowl and laughter overpowered the details of dialogue: “Hey, somebody rewind! I missed that line!” It was family movie night, and the flickering image on the screen played second fiddle to the allure of an extended bed time. With cold pizza congealing at room temperature on the coffee…
What’s that old saying? Man makes his plans and God laughs? My husband, David, and I had talked about dreams we had for our empty-nest years: Taking our tandem bike to several exotic destinations. Opening a unique bed-brunch-and-bikes place (since I’m not a morning person, the breakfast idea wasn’t going to fly). Selling our house…
My mother gave me the sex talk in fourth grade, only after my public-school teacher had shown the class an educational video on the topic, to my evangelical parents’ horror. So, to correct my public school’s overreach, my mother planned an excursion for her and me: she would perform her due diligence as a good…
The blue lines on the pregnancy test appeared within seconds to form a bright, blue cross: we’d never done this before, but we knew exactly how to read it. I waved the stick with glee at my husband: “Positive! We’re pregnant,” I squealed. I looked down at the test again: our family was definitively plus…
It hits me how this mirrors parenting. Lately, I have been paddling hard, telling my kids where they’re off track and how they need to change what they’re doing. I tire myself this way. Instead, I should simply set my paddle in, fixed on what I know God is asking of them — of me…
Despite nearly two years of therapy, when our adopted daughter, Ruth, turned 3, she displayed the physical abilities of an infant. Once, during a rare family dinner at a local diner, Ruth, who had cerebral palsy and was deaf, raised her fisted hand to click a spoon against her teeth. “Did you see that?” I…
I have a complicated relationship with parenting books. As a new mother, I read all the books, analyzed all the angles, second-guessed all the decisions, and the only thing that saved my sanity is that Google had not yet been invented. That tightrope walk persisted for years until I learned to view the books with…
A few weeks ago, my middle daughter asked to go to a local trampoline park as a family for her 7th birthday. We arrived at the facility, signed the hundreds of pages of waivers (I exaggerate only slightly), herded the children to a table, stashed shoes in cubbies and pulled on jump socks with rubbery…
Our firstborn was about to enter kindergarten. We had struggled and prayed and labored over the decision of where to send him to school. I was pregnant with our third child, who was due soon after school was starting. The idea of a public school where I could just drop him off and be done…
A simple cheddar cheese sandwich on white bread, purchased from a cart on the street near our hotel — this was my first meal in England circa 1984. Simple, yet wholesome, and perfect for a hungry college student just off her first international flight. There was something so familiar about that sandwich—just cheese and bread….
Not too long ago, President Donald Trump referred to the MS-13 gangs plaguing the United States and most of central America as animals. At least in my feed, I heard a great deal of righteous indignation with his use of the term, especially because he is referring to those who, while marred, are still created…
Life is hard for a prodigal. Their lives are filled with fear, failure and frustration. Yes, much of it is of their own making. Those who love a prodigal are also filled with fear, failure and frustration. In their efforts to rescue and restore those loved wanderers, they practice tough love, they set strict boundaries,…