One Word
We sit straight across from each other in a chic café. And she begins to tell of the grief journey her heart has trod through these past two years. Two years? I have known her for sixteen. How can one woman go through so much and still love God so great? The years have taken […]
Learning to See
Life is about learning to see. Off we go again this morning on our country drive to Nick’s reading tutor. He reminds me to bring my camera because it’s foggy and he thinks we might capture some cool shots. As we drive, we look for lessons. We’re learning to see God everywhere, in everything teaching […]
Weathered and Worn
I take my camera and my son and head off to tutoring on a Wisconsin winter morning. Driving through fields, weathered and worn barns call out for notice. Yes, there are new but it’s the old I want. I don’t want to see perfection. I want to see holes and cracks and ragged edges. I […]
Flat Out Oblivious
Christmas is long gone but the tree is still up. Do I not want the beautiful season to end or am I just too lazy. Both. There’s something about de-decorating the house that feels like stripping naked in below-freezing weather. Like really—who wants to do THAT? So who cares if the tree is one flick […]
Branded
5:15 AM. Alarm goes off. A new day. I start by wrapping myself shoulders-to-ankles in cozy white terry cloth, slipping my feet into pink, and following yellow lab Rose downstairs to the front door. Tail wags. Front porch light illuminates newly sugared planks and a sparkling yard. She steps out, branding the wood with her […]
LOL! (Laugh Out Loud!)
Did Jesus laugh? Everything good comes from God so I believe that God has a wicked sense of humor. Well, maybe not WICKED—but definitely GREAT! Here’s some proof. Consider Nick, nicknamed Cola—Russian name Nicolai. The first thing the orphanage director said about Nick when she placed him in my arms at nineteen months of age […]
Hiding Places
She didn’t look well. She talked about her week while avoiding my eyes. Something was up. She was hiding. I could tell. And then, out it poured like a thunderhead bursting. The shame. The guilt. The thing she did that she vowed she wouldn’t do again because she wants to follow the Lord, not just […]
Blessings
A friend and I pushed carts through Costco last weekend. I gave thanks for bananas and berries and lettuces and broccoli—all from others parts of the world growing while my garden rests under ice. I gave thanks for grains that make warm, chewy bread. And the cows . . . I gave thanks for cows […]
Promised Hope, Present Joy
Here we are in the middle of winter. The great thaw of last week ended abruptly as northern winds swept down and clouded skies dusted us with white once again. No signs of a bright and colorful future right now, just variations of brown and gray. Why do we have faith that winters are temporary? […]
Search and Rescue
It felt like spring in the middle of January. Warm air created wispy fog ribbons on the still snowy farm fields beginning to melt. My mind jumped to a special time last spring just after the winter white had left for good. It was Nick’s 14th birthday and fourteen adolescent boys poured out of our […]
True Friends, Real Life
With thanks to my dear, true friends—amazing women of God—who have encouraged and supported us in parenting fearfully and wonderfully made children. Today, I’m downright ugly, I think. And I want to cry hard but tears won’t come. I’m numb but churning at the same time. Am I the only one? Am I the only […]
Follow the Leader
Forty-four acres of fresh white beckon us, “Come!” Winter snow blankets hush, creating still all around. And my soul quiets. I long for such moments away from the noise. “Come away with me! Come to the quiet!” I hear His voice and my heart throbs, “YES!” This I want—to be with Him in the quiet, […]