There are some dates that don’t just live on in a calendar, they live in your heart. Ten years ago, we said goodbye to my brother at just 55 years old. Even now, the number still feels too young. Too much life left to be lived. Too many phone calls that never got to happen. Too many laughs we thought we still had time for. What stands out most in my mind, isn’t just the day he passed away, it’s the eight long days before it. Eight days of sitting beside him, taking shifts with his wife, our siblings, and his family and friends. Eight days of watching someone you love slip away. Eight days of hoping, praying, remembering, and preparing your heart for something you know you can never truly prepare for. As stressful, heart breaking and exhausting as it is, there is something special about sitting with someone in their final days, it strips life down to what really matters. Not success, work schedules, or small disagre...

                                        Rediscovered Roots Sometimes God gives us unexpected gifts when we aren't even looking for them. Recently, I reconnected with my cousin Georgia, someone I hadn't seen in many years. Life, distance, and time have a way of quietly creating gaps between people, even family. But through emails, messages, and occasional visits, we've begun building something new, not just reconnecting, but truly getting to know each other as adults. One of the greatest blessings has been discovering that she and her husband, Gerry share the same faith that anchors my life. There is something deeply comforting about that kind of connection. Conversations just feel different when you know someone loves the Lord too. There is an understanding that goes deeper than small talk. As I've spent time with Georgia, I sometimes catch glimpses of her mother, my Aunt...

                Lately I’ve been watching the cultural landscape shift in ways that are hard to ignore. Things that once seemed rare or deeply personal are now talked about almost like trends. Identities are being adopted, redefined, and reshaped in ways that previous generations would have struggled to understand. People are identifying as things their biology does not reflect, boys are identifying as girls, girls as boys and some young people are even identifying as different species. These aren’t just things I’ve heard about, one day when Mike and I were driving home from dialysis, we saw a person who probably refers to themselves as a “furry”, walking across a snow covered lawn, on all fours, with a tail attached to it’s shorts. Online communities encourage adopting identities that, a few years ago, most people had never even heard of. The latest trend that appears to be growing alongside it: the rewriting of childhood.  More ...

                    There are days when being a Christian feels natural, and then there are days when it feels like work. Not because I don’t love God. Not because I don’t want to do the right thing. It’s because my human heart feels something completely different than what my faith calls me to show. Sometimes what I feel is anger. Not petty anger or selfish anger, but the kind that rises up when you see good, faithful, dependable people treated unfairly. When you watch people who show up, do the right thing and stay loyal get over looked, misunderstood, or disrespected.  There is something especially painful about watching truth get buried under assumptions. About seeing one opinion accepted as fact without anyone stopping to ask questions. Without anyone caring enough to really understand what actually happened. To be honest, sometimes I don’t struggle with loving strangers. I struggle with loving people I feel sh...

                   I asked for suggestions for topics to write about and a friend suggested writing about parenting your child when they become a parent. So here goes…. Parenting doesn’t stop when your children become parents themselves, it’s just a slow realization that your role is changing. You’re not the one tying shoes anymore or making the rules. You’re not even the one they call first for every little thing. To be honest, that shift can be bittersweet, because once upon a time, they needed you for everything. I remember when my kids were little and I felt like I had all the answers. Now I realize what they need most from me isn’t the answers, it’s reassurance that they don’t have to have all the answers either. Sometimes being a good parent to your adult children looks like biting your tongue when you want to correct something. Sometimes it looks like answering a frustrated text with “you’re doing better than you think...

                     Twenty-six letters later, I’ve found myself looking back as much as I’m looking forward. When I started this A-Z series, I thought of it as a simple exercise, one letter at a time. A way to reflect on life through small pieces of the alphabet. What I didn’t expect was how much it would feel like retracing the path behind me. That path has never been exactly straight. Z is for Zigzag Life rarely moves in neat, orderly lines the way the alphabet does. It bends, it doubles back. It pauses in places you never expected to stay so long. Some letters held joy. Some held lessons I learned the hard way. Some carried quiet moments I might have missed if I hadn’t stopped long enough to name them. Looking back I can see the story wasn’t built from the big milestones alone. It was shaped by resilience when things were uncertain, patience when plans unraveled, quiet when life felt loud, vulnerability when telling ...

                   Y is for younger me, the version of myself that loved deeply, tried hard but still had so much to learn about patience, faith, grace, forgiveness, marriage and parenting . Had I known then what I know now, I would have parented a little differently. I would have led with more patience for my children and for the man I was building a life with. Back then life felt louder, busier and more urgent. There were schedules to keep, bills to pay and four kids growing up faster than I realized. I thought being a good parent meant staying on top of everything, correcting, guiding and making sure they turned out right. Truthfully, most of us parent the best way we know how with the tools we have at the time.  Years have a way of softening things. They teach that every messy moment doesn’t need fixing, that some lessons come with time, not lectures. That patience isn’t weakness, it’s love with room to breathe. The ...

                          X is for eXhale Some seasons of life feel like I am holding my breath. Waiting for test results, watching the clock in a hospital room. listening for the phone to ring. Bracing myself for the next thing I didn't plan for. When I’ve lived in that space long enough, I don't realize I’m doing it. My shoulders stay tense. My thoughts run ahead of me, and my heart forgets what it feels like to rest, but I just keep going. Lately, I've been learning the quiet discipline of exhaling. Not quitting, not giving up, just loosening my grip on the things I can't control. The truth is, I've spent a lot of years believing that if I just stayed strong enough or prayed hard enough, I could somehow hold everything together. Life has had a way of teaching me otherwise. Exhaling for me looks like I'm trusting that God is still at work even when nothing dramatic is happening. It's letting today be enough. ...

                         W is for wisdom I used to think wisdom came with age. Now I think it comes with attention. With paying attention to what breaks you, to what heals you. To what keeps showing up until you finally learn the lesson. Life has been a relentless teacher. Thirty-two years of marriage will do that, chronic illness will do that, raising kids will do that, working in a nursing field or special education will do that, and loving someone through diagnoses you never saw coming will definitely do that. I’m learning that wisdom isn’t knowing all the answers. It’s knowing which battles aren’t worth fighting. It’s recognizing when your tone matters more than your point. It’s understanding that being right and being loving are not always the same thing. Wisdom has softened me over the years. It’s taught me that people act out of pain more often than malice. That control is mostly an illusion. That tomorr...

                    Vulnerability isn’t natural for me, it feels exposed, unfiltered, a little too close to the bone. I’d rather be steady, and capable, the one who has it handled. This A-Z journey has asked something different of me. It’s asked me not just to write about my life, but to tell the truth about it, and the truth is rarely polished. It includes the almost separations, the resentment I had to repent of, the prayers that sounded more like frustration than faith. The nights I questioned my strength and the days I showed up anyway. Telling my story matters because someone else is living a version of it right now and may think they’re the only one. We scroll by highlight reels and assume everyone else’s marriage is easier, their faith is stronger, their family is simpler. But what if the most healing thing we can offer isn’t advice, but honesty. Vulnerability says me too, this is hard, but God is still here. I used to...

                          U is for Unseen Not every blessing arrives with a bow. Some slip in quietly while you’re putting away groceries, folding laundry, answering a text or watching the light change while you’re looking out the window. The unseen blessings of everyday life are easy to take for granted or to overlook because they don’t interrupt us, they support us. The face that my legs carry me from room to room without asking permission. The way my tea stays hot in my yeti cup for hours when I’m too busy to sit and drink it. The sound of the furnace kicking on when it’s just starting to feel chilly. No spot light, no applause, just provision. I try to notice the gifts that are built into the background of my life. A green light when I’m running late. A friendly cashier. A text from a friend who had no idea I needed encouragement at that moment, but the timing was perfect. The way the grandkids giggles lin...