April always reminds me of my hospital stay leading up to my son Clive's birth five years ago. This is a picture from my first day at the hospital during that stay. Life isn't normal right now, and we are being transformed through our experiences. Some days we may just be able to hold on. … Continue reading Transformed through Suffering
I recently made a special little book for 11 month old Coralie. It's so important to me that she grow up knowing about her big brother and sister, and this seemed like the perfect way to share them. I wrote lots of social stories (short books) for my students when I was teaching Early Childhood … Continue reading Remember a Sibling in Heaven with a Mini-Book
I've shared before that there is such a beauty in the place of brokenness and surrender. When I have--or rather perceive to have-- control over life, there is less need for dependence upon Christ for daily sustenance. In the beatitudes (Matthew 5), Jesus says:Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of … Continue reading blessed in the brokeness
A year ago, we held our son as Jesus welcomed him into heaven. It wasn't the hardest moment. There were many harder ones before, and many more painful ones to follow. There was peace as we sang over him and let him go. I was flipping through my journal from last year, and saw my … Continue reading a year later
I’m long overdue to write something. Rachel writes a lot and I’m so proud of her for that. She does such a beautiful job of describing her journey and our journey. It’s not an easy road to describe. In a lot of ways it is impossible to describe to those that haven’t walked it, but … Continue reading Sam’s Thoughts – Vol 2.
Some of the most beautiful, trusting moments with God come with being open-handed with everything. My life, possessions, money, husband, children. It doesn't come easily, and doesn't always stay, but it's a beautiful posture that I try to enter into.There were times I thought "I couldn't survive if ____ or ____ happened." I mostly thought … Continue reading open handed
I love sending and receiving Christmas cards. The photos, the paper, the fonts. Just love them. Christmas card photos have been a mixed bag the past few years. Lets start in winter 2009. First year as a married couple. We'd had beautiful wedding pics in the summer, so I'm not sure we were even considering … Continue reading The Incomplete Christmas Card
I participated in Carly Marie's Project Heal- Capture Your Grief - Oct. 2015 http://carlymarieprojectheal.com/capture-your-grief-2015 It was an intentional photo and writing project to address topics with grief. It was super helpful to me to have topics to share about and process about, and it was a very long and tiring month. Here's the compilation of … Continue reading 31 days of #captureyourgrief
It's my birthday today and I'm now 29. I kept thinking FINALLY I'll be closer to 30, which is when people start taking you seriously (maybe that's just in my head?). I've felt like I'm 30 for about 5 years. And this year aged me much more. This morning, my lovely birthday breakfast chat with … Continue reading Another Year (and we don’t know what’s ahead)
Sometimes I feel that people (especially Christians?) in our society have an expectation placed upon others to work through something and tie everything up neatly. To wait until the struggle is over to openly share. There's this enormous pressure to share the good things, put up a face, and keep private the mess. I get … Continue reading Grief and Faith
