The view out my current kitchen window is that of a beautifully lush garden… surrounded by a concrete wall with razor wire. I find myself vacillating between those two contrasts. Some days I marvel at the greenery growing there — and the exotic birds who come to visit — even though half the year there is no […]
Our Three Gift Christmas Tradition
Each year around this time, a friend or family member asks me to tell her again about our three-gifts-per-child tradition at Christmas. Usually it happens when someone’s kids are old enough to be infected by a nasty case of the gimmies (gimme, gimme, give me more!), which means it’s as good a time as any […]
The Hardest Peace
There has been a lot of discussion recently about death and suffering. I first became aware of the current trends in this topic when confronted with the headline “My Right to Death With Dignity at 29.” I should have realized what the article would do to me, but somehow I clicked through anyway. And that […]
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I am working on a devotional for adopting moms. My husband and I started a ministry to serve internationally adopting families. We left all our stuff behind to “follow God” to Nicaragua, all the while singing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…” That all sounds pretty “Christian,” right? And yet some […]