I took the hand-made houses that my Grandmother cross-stitched with yarn out of the box as we began to place them on the mantle. It was her "Christmas village" - a delightful little community including a church, store, and homes that she would display each...
I want to be Imogene Herdman for Christmas. In the past, I’ve always identified with Mary. We’ve been pregnant a lot around Christmas in the past decade. Pregnant, or grieving the loss of an unborn babe. I think of her physical feelings, and her discomfort. Her emotions...
For those who are unaware, in mid-October, actress Alyssa Milano shared on Twitter: "Me too. Suggested by a friend: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "me too" as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude...
Our house is brimming with boxes and bubble-wrap: we're moving soon and I'm determined to downsize. I fancy myself (mostly) organized when it comes to things, but paper is a problem. No matter how much I toss, keepsakes, greeting cards, and documents of all sorts are...
The ten hour drive went without a hitch - one of the easiest we'd made to North Carolina as a family, really. We arrived at our family cabin in time for dinner and went to bed. The next day we did what we always do...
Flying the friendly skies with all our children is a humorous experience. Picture this: four kids all pulling suitcases and one of my daughters balancing her car seat on her head. We held my 21 month old boy by a leash on his backpack without...
It was a Thursday when Grandma died. I awoke to my husband's kind hand touching me in the darkness. "Laura, your Grandma is in Heaven," he said. We were to fly to Georgia on Friday to get one last visit with her and say our...
I’ve been through a lot of heartbreak in my life. In addition to the real, lasting losses in my life—the death of my father and my mother’s mental illness—there are scores of disappointments. Awards not won, books not published, stories rejected, and opportunities on which...
A few weeks ago, the word “righteousness” kept popping up in my quiet times. It’s a word used frequently in Scripture (213 times!), but I kept looking at it thinking, “Righteousness … what does God really mean when he says, ”He will judge the world...
I looked down at my dad's response. Right next to it was a heart symbol. In the midst of many things for which I am thankful, my dad and I have had our share of relational struggles. Hurt, disappointment, miscommunication, and anger. Over the years, intertwined with blessings...