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All Our Words Belong To Him

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I felt Him whisper it to me back in December. A word that slipped in and out of my thoughts. I tucked it away until January, the time I set aside each year to fast and pray for the coming months. As my hunger set in, I asked the Lord to confirm the word I couldn’t seem to shrug off. To be honest, the word scares me a little bit. Not in the way “surrender” did a few years ago. Whew, that one really pressed in hard. With hands stretch out, I gave over to the Lord areas of my life […]

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I Had a Baby in Africa

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On their special day, we lay in bed and tell their birth story, almost as if we’ve never heard it before. We remember the same details and giggle at the same parts. Our Tessa has a special story. It’s one we recall with such fondness because so many of us actually remember it. We experienced her as a family, in a place where we had learned to cling to one another, and the memories are every bit sweet. Having a baby in Uganda was never on my bucket list, but I’m so glad it was on the one God wrote for me.  My prior […]

This Two Becoming One

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Sex is an act of hospitality – the giving of oneself and the receiving of another. In our sex craved culture where people are objectified, where pleasure is something easier achieved by yourself, and pornography is rampant and acceptable as television humor, it’s easy to forget just how intimate and divine the coming together of two bodies really is. When I married, no one told me sex would reveal some of my heart issues. I had no idea it would be a source of conflict in my very happy and satisfying marriage. I did not anticipate the reality that babies […]

Do You Miss Me??

Wait…don’t answer…unless, of course, you do! I’m not going to assume you’ve noticed, but I haven’t posted in such a long time. I’ve missed the writing. It’s my way of quieting my mind and processing life in a way that documents moments and struggles and growth so I’ll always remember. Life has truly sprung forth with Spring, and I just haven’t been able to slow down long enough to scribble it down. Farm chores are in full swing! Six pigs arrived this month and we are super excited to offer pastured raised pork to more people this year. We’ve doubled […]

Advent Conversations: This is How We Welcome

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[bl]L[/bl]ast year, the Lord inspired some Advent thoughts that became 11 conversations intended to help us engage a season of active waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus. I’ve spent some time editing and reorganizing the conversations, and I’m excited to share it with you all. If you’re looking to engage the Advent season, I really think you’ll be blessed by these conversations. Here’s a glimpse into the thoughts: There are 11 conversations, which means about 3 per week leading up to Christmas. These Advent conversations can happen between two people, a family, a small group or simply between you and […]

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Happy Twenty Something Me

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Dear young mamas, I can’t help but notice the tired in your eyes. And the way you have to be alert. Always. Watching where they go, what they pick up. And how you sometimes take a deep breath through your genuine, but half-hearted smile as you say Good in response to the usually rhetorical question How are you? And I can’t help but wonder if you wish, instead, to admit fatigue and a little loneliness. Or maybe that you’re disappointed your body doesn’t look the way it used to…and you wish you didn’t care as much as you do. Or […]

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On the Fifth Morning

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The morning started out terrible. I made a different spinach smoothie than I normally make…which didn’t go over very well with the children. So there was complaining and pouting and slow sipping….which didn’t go over very well with me. As I scrambled eggs, the children scrambled to take specks out of each other’s eyes, completely blind to the plank they had each brought with them to the breakfast table. The bickering escalated, and the louder they got, the louder I got. Before I share what happened next…don’t worry, all five children are still alive and well…I want to first say […]

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Our Theme for the School Year

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I could get specific about how we desire an environment of creation over education, how we seek inward transformation before learning outcomes, and how we appreciate assessment through participation rather than examination. Or I could confess how I would be a TERRIBLE school mom who would always drop my children off late, never sign permission slips, and rarely check or enforce homework assignments. But the bottom line is, we homeschool because we love the time it gives us with our children. SO much time….sometimes too much time…like this might be the end of me time….but mostly irreplaceable, precious time in […]

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Dear Mark,

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Today we get to celebrate you. Lucky us! I think back on all the provisions God had to make to bring your life together with mine. He sure is faithful. And good at soul matching. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and while I create my morning coffee, I look out the window to see all your hard work of redeeming the land, our red barn tucked to the side, and the path that leads to my parent’s house. I look over to the kitchen table we designed together in Africa, and see our five rainbow children circled around […]

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and we were never the same

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His name is Myles because we traveled far to love him. Not just with our feet, but in our hearts. When we stepped foot in Uganda, it wasn’t to adopt. It wasn’t to visit. It was to live. For four years, inhaling the thick dusty air that would breathe life into our family. Authentic life. Not the comfortable one we grew accustomed to. Not the clean one we spent hours maintaining. Not the one full of American dreams, and self-fulfilling expectations. No, this life was dirty. Messy with poverty. Broken with countless needs, the real kind, the kind where people […]

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