“The way you treat them in the first two weeks will dictate your relationship.” The home stay coordinator was talking to us about setting up proper household expectations with exchange students. She continued, “If you serve them breakfast and do their laundry at the beginning, they will expect it for the duration.” “I took this […]
+ Parenting
Why I’m celebrating the college drop-off*
Well, we did it. We made it 18 years and dropped our first-born off at college. There are so many thoughts going through my head about this college drop-off that I realized it was time to write some down. I have three main points I’d like to make. *Note: this is about college drop-offs, not […]
Raising Teenagers
This week my oldest turns 16. After typing that sentence, I had to just stop and stare for a minute. Sixteen! Even though it’s so entirely expected, I have to say it: Where did the last ten years go? And lest you think all parents of older kids must sign some sort of ridiculous oath […]
Celebrating Moms with a FREE Devotional
FREE devotional for Mother’s Day weekend! This weekend only, in celebration of moms everywhere, I’m offering Adopted for Daily Life: A Devotional for Adopting Moms FREE for Kindle! And to give you a taste of the beautiful writing that is found inside the book, here’s a sample that comes from Laura’s week on Joy: Day […]
Growing up at summer camp
Portions of this post were originally posted in the spring of 2012, but I wanted to revive it since it’s that time of year again… time to think about summer camp! I enjoyed a very Peter Pan type of childhood… well, if Peter Pan lived in the concrete jungle. 🙂 All the neighborhood kids spent endless summer […]