Many of us have been there. A situation forever alters the way we live. We cry out to God for mercy, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Then the thought enters our minds that maybe God doesn’t care. Maybe it started on the first day of school when you had no one to…
For several years, five of my dearest friends and I celebrated an annual ritual that still fills my heart with gratitude and delight. Each New Year’s Eve, we trekked to a local horse farm on the outskirts of town, Bibles and journals in tow. Together, we reflected on the year gone by. What had we…
In 2004 I arrived. It was the year I accomplished everything on my wish list. After my high school graduation, I packed up my red Chevy Cavalier and headed to the city. I shook the small-town dust off my Birkenstocks and marched full speed toward my dreams. I pursued my degree with unequivocal focus. I…
The first recognizable symptom occurs on our wedding anniversary, June 1, 2016. Not a maybe symptom, but a for-sure symptom. Something is wrong. A biopsy reveals what we suspected: endometrial cancer. The good news is the cancer cells are slow-growing, “grade 1.” The first surgeon I see about a hysterectomy pronounces this fact “awesome,” an…
Two years ago, my nearly-three-year-old son Eli had a very specific Christmas list: A door Some steps A hardware store Toast Rocks Even when the Santa Claus at the mall asked Eli what he wanted for Christmas, this is exactly the list he rattled off. (Needless to say, Santa was both confused and delighted by these requests.)…
Words can unintentionally tear a heart into two. For me, those words involved hearing other friends celebrate selling their homes. Two years into the process of trying to sell a house we had left behind for my husband’s job change, and I was in the process of evicting one renter and working out an agreement…