Even after many years as a special needs momma, having people say the strangest things to me, this question posed to me last week really caught me off guard. It wasn’t so much the question, “How can you smile?” but the fact that it was posed by another special needs mom. She wasn’t joking and she…
I’ve owned a Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knife like this since a school trip to Switzerland more years ago than I care to remember. Over all of those years I’ve used it a lot, or rather I’ve used most of it a lot. When I was looking at it a few days ago, something struck…
Sunday morning. Five us gather around the kitchen table—me, Wally, our son Joel, and two friends, Ruthie and Cheryl. Lots of people come and go from Cloudland, our retreat center in southwest Ohio. Most of them stay in the Barn Studio, but close friends, like Ruthie and Cheryl, stay with us in the house. Joel’s…
Today I want to introduce you to someone. This person is acquainted with grief. He knows what it is like to experience loss. He has been through it. Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking I am going to talk about Jesus and will relate it back to having a Savior who is intimately…
I stood in the back of the church near the pastor as we greeted those who were coming in to hear me speak. One came in saying, “I’m still struggling with unforgiveness, Pastor. I just can’t get over what happened.” And then another shared details of her story, “It’s not fair what we experienced as…
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1 ESV At the young age of 48, I took up a new hobby: running. It wasn’t…
It’s a rainy, dreary day in Nashville Tennessee, a day at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, a day like all the other days for the past two weeks; a day in the PICU. I’m watching my husband comfort our 15 year old son Lucas, who recently endured his third surgery and now Ryan, his dad, is hunched…
Transitions are like riding a Rollercoaster! Most people have had an OPPORTUNITY to ride a rollercoaster, however the EXPERIENCE is VERY different. When you stare up at the towering structure with loops, dips, and drops and then you see the car zoom by with great speed – you see people with their hands up, others…
Sweet joy in the middle of goodness was an unexpectedly delightful part of our trip to an Arizona fruit orchard in January. I walked around in shirtsleeves and sandals, admiring trees laden with yellow and orange fruit. I breathed in the tang of fresh citrus. I sampled variety after variety of grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and…
I’m not sure how seven years can seem like it has gone by in the blink of an eye and lasted an eternity all at the same time, but that’s where I find myself. I’m living in the tension between survival and healing. My life doesn’t look the way I envisioned. My family is stuck…