When You Decide to Choose Joy

by | Oct 5, 2015 | Faith

We found my sister’s journals after her death, tucked in a bookshelf corner in the office she spent time dreaming in. Endlessly innovative, she spent hours haunting HomeGoods and perusing décor magazines, the journals yet another outlet for her creativity. When she...

Freedom from Expectations

by | Sep 22, 2015 | General

I met Nick when we were 16. We dated throughout high school and got married at 21. We were very much in love. Nick had a calling to join the Army and wanted to serve his country, so he joined the Army National Guard right after we got married and went to basic...

When You Feel Like You’re On Fire

by | Sep 17, 2015 | Faith

I heard the screaming first. Running from my daughters’ bedroom, where I was supervising my oldest while she chose books and Barbies for bedtime, I raced into the master bathroom. My 3-year-old was still in the shower where I’d left her with the water turned off. As...

Hope in a Coat

by | Aug 31, 2015 | Life Issues

I found it in my closet again the other day. Pausing, I pulled the coat from its place in the darkness, running a hand over it to look at it in the weak light of the spare closet. The dusty collar, the fabric-covered buttons, the slightly worn cuffs, an interior liner...

When You Wonder What Remains

by | Jul 30, 2015 | Life Issues

Last week was bittersweet. It was our tenth year – our final year – of the Hope Hike/Climb for Katrina, and as our week in Colorado progressed, I felt my emotions swinging on a pendulum. A year ago, we decided as a family that this would be it, our last hike....