Self Talk and Parenting a Special Needs Child

Parenting a child with special needs. Just saying that renders me speechless. It's new territory for me (us). It's as if someone dropped me off in a foreign country, walked away leaving me alone and said, "Here you go. Speak the language." It's overwhelming. I've never felt more discouraged or inadequate. I've never been more...

Two Years of Hell

The past two years have been hard. Beyond hard. They’ve been like a “hard as hell” kind of hard. Two years ago our youngest child, a 3rd grader, was diagnosed with learning disabilities. We prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God for wisdom and direction. He led us to public school. We’d been homeschooling...

Dear Matt,

Dear Matt, Nine years. How have I lived 9 years without you? How is it possible I’m still breathing? The overwhelming weight of grief as July 29th approaches, the day you died, Matt, bears down, crushes my soul in these moments. Your death remains devastating. There is no cure, no fix, for child loss. There...

Just Wear the Damn Mask

“Just Wear the Damn Mask” I’ve been quiet for far too long for a number of reasons. But with my city’s passing of a mask wearing ordinance recently, I can no longer hold my silence. I’ve listened to the arguments for and against mask wearing ad nauseam. I’ve heard the mask ball argument fling back...

Father’s Day for the broken

Father's Day was a week ago, but I've still been thinking about fathers. Some fathers, like mine, were downright damaging. I don't mean to dishonor my father or his memory by saying that, but the truth is that many of us grew up with fathers who simply fell short. In my case, my dad was...

Blooming lilacs and grief

We gathered as family on May 20th, 2017 for one of the happiest days of our lives, the day our mom got married. It was a glorious day that fulfilled our 30+ years of prayers. Who knew that just 16 short months later we'd gather again as family for one of the worst days of...