Happy Birthday National Parks!

Is there anything more fun than a birthday party? Possibly, but still, birthdays are fun and this summer the National Park Service turns 100 years old.  To celebrate this benchmark anniversary, the National Park Service is offering free entry into the parks for all...

Why Wouldn’t We Love Well?

“It’s just so amazing the way you can open yourselves up to their biological families.” This statement was said to me by a dear friend as we had dinner together one night and were discussing my adopted daughter’s birth family. How can you not? I think. I love these...

Is forty the new thirty?

It seems like everywhere we look, thirty is the magic number. Thirty days to a new you, Whole30, thirty easy make-ahead crockpot meals, thirty-minute meals, you get the idea. For the last year or so, forty has been a much more important number for me, though, and it...

Learning to Pray for My Enemies

Last Friday night I was putting the final touches on a talk I would be giving the next morning to a group of ladies in my community. We’d be talking all about kindness and gratitude and what it can look like to live those things with our families. I read through part...

Don’t You Dare

Sheryl Sandberg, widow of Facebook CEO Dave Sandberg, posted on Facebook after 30 days of mourning the loss of her husband, “A friend is filling in for Dave, attending activities with our children. He is Option B. But I want Option A. I will always mourn Option A.” At...

Bring in the New Year, Write

God can read. I know that might sound odd, but I distinctly remember a moment journaling early in my marriage when it occurred to me that God can read. I was feeling a certain way so strongly that I couldn’t talk about it out loud yet, so I went to “vent” to God...