In 2010 our air force family found itself stationed at Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey—about forty-five minutes from the Syrian border. A few months after arriving with our two toddler boys, we found out we were expecting another baby. For some reason (and I’m still not sure what we were thinking) we thought it…
Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing. —G. F. Handel, Isaac Watts This classic Christmas carol majestically heralds the birth of the Savior. To me…
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices… This single line from a popular Christmas carol has always stuck with me long past the Christmas season. Weary. I’m not sure there’s a better word for the state of my soul this season. When I look around, I discover the feeling is mutual. We are all…
Christmas stories abound with images of lights strung across evergreen trees and sparkling snow. I’ve decided that when I sit down to write my own Christmas story, it will be about the expected and unexpected places where joy has warmed me from within, starting with wearing tights and dress shoes to church on Christmas Eve….
“Believe in Miracles” read the sign at the foot of my son’s hospital crib. Our baby was only three months old, and he had already been through so much. Born without kidneys, he was on dialysis, and now we were being moved from the NICU to another room. We knew each day could be his…
Every year I gaze longingly at beautifully decorated trees in the mall and in magazines, and on social media I see pictures of friends’ trees that perfectly replicate something I saw on Pinterest. Inspired, I trek to the hobby store, convinced that I, too, can recreate a tree of magnificence, a tree that will say…