Top 10 School Supplies Every Middle Schooler Needs
She bounced into the living room and declared that she had found her "second school outfit." The white denim shorts had made the cut because big sister had worn them last year (works for me),…
Tag: Family
What My Daughter and I Saw in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
The green, three-wheeled taxis drove confidently into the sloping west side of the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh. My daughter, my team and I drove passed large food distribution centers and a few el…
Six Little Things Teens Need for Successful Relationships
I don't write very much about raising teenagers, even though by this fall I will have five of them under my jurisdiction. Yeah, I know. Five is a lot. The reason for this writing hole? My lack of p…
Parents Versus Google
I slipped into the quiet room filled with rocking chairs and slung my thirty gallon diaper bag off of my shoulder. The bag will shrink with each child until it resembles a lone diaper tossed under t…
Adoption Stories: Not My Child’s Savior
“You have the million-dollar family,” he drawled, “one girl, one boy.” His well-intentioned assessment of our family of four felt like a small stone in my shoe. Each step brought a blistering chafe th…
Adoption Stories: And Birth Mom Makes Eight
This guest blogger is my childhood best friend, Andrea Esh. Chill to the core and one of my favorite people in the world. Here is her adoption story. Birth mother. To some that word strikes fear…
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…
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.…