Adoption Stories: Stepping over Fear
They walked into the restaurant alone, with no kids to corral or scrape off the floor. Jeff and Angie have agreed to meet me for lunch. I was expecting their youngest son to join us, as today was a…
Those Kids Who Aren’t Ours
The first time I looked at him, he was grayish and wasn't doing his one job very well. Our first baby needed extra oxygen and a short stay in the NICU before coming home to live with us, his under-pr…
God Believes Women: The Bible Story I Tell My Girls
It is the best of times to be female and it is a lousy time to be female. But mostly the best, with only a trace of lousy. As everyone attempts to define women, decide their rankings and judge t…
Raising Confident Kids
He turned his melty brown eyes to look at me as he confessed the saddest moment of his day. A kid in his class had done the unthinkable. They had called him a baby. I tried to pull off a …
Why I Didn’t Cry on the First Day of Preschool
I'm tempted to think it is because I am an unemotional, cold-hearted jerk. Maybe you are tempted to think it is because I never carried him in my belly and my attachment is not as strong.…
8 Tips for a (More) Organized School Morning
Whether our kids are in favor or not, most of us are waving goodby to a carefree summer. Schedule and routine are about to become the norm again. (This is me high-fiving you for surviving another summ…
Raising World Changers: Is This Really a Good Idea?
My kids struggle with changing their undies and their sheets, much less the globe. Two of them are currently grounded from the X-box, one of them is in the throes of The Terrible Fours, and the res…
Three Unconventional Ways My Dad Modeled God
Growing up, I watched him open Father's Day cards like a classic North American dad and I told him I loved him on a weekly/monthly basis. Probably. If you don't count a few of the teen years. I did…
Our Failed Adoption: Why Parents Should Never Compare
The van ride was warm and bumpy but at least we had no air conditioning whatsoever. The kids fiddled with our camera, taking videos of shanties and clothes drying on bushes until the tiny to…
What Every Kid Needs to Know about Their Identity
Nicknames are a sign of affection and most of mine have a few that have come and gone over the years. But one kid in particular has had many, many. And most of them at his own insistence. When h…