The doctor’s words were devastating. He kept a neutral expression as he explained to my husband, “Your mother has had a major bleed in her left frontal lobe.” My beloved mother-in-law was incapacitated, and we had to figure out the best way to help her. The doctor continued to explain her treatment options: she could […]

My son glared at the nurse with every ounce of emotion his young body could muster. He was furious. I couldn’t blame him—he wasn’t actually mad at her, but rather at his situation. And who could fault him? I would be grumpy too if I hadn’t been allowed to eat for several days. After nearly […]

  I looked at the dangling power line with a wary eye. My husband drove the lead car in our little evacuation caravan and cleared the obstacle without incident. Still, I sat with my foot on the brake, contemplating the risk of getting electrocuted if I came into contact with the downed wire.   My […]

  The Power of Prayer   “Please let Jampa get better so he can come home,” my daughter pleaded as we said our nightly prayers. It broke my heart to see the sadness on her precious face as she earnestly asked the Lord to heal her grandfather of Alzheimer’s disease. My father-in-law had recently been […]

The classroom was in absolute chaos. The rowdy group of 3-year-olds bounced around the room like pieces in a pinball game. I took a deep breath and announced, “Okay class, let’s return to our seats on the rug.” One of the eight children glanced my way, but the other seven didn’t even break stride. “Turn […]

My child stood in front of me, a miniature drone dangling from her scalp. Just a few minutes after our New Year’s Eve celebration, this is how we were starting the new year. I had barely crawled into bed when a timid knock on my door interrupted the silence. My son, the drone pilot, sheepishly […]

The Struggle of Feeling Alone and Overwhelmed I was as alone as I had ever felt. The IV machine beeped, and the hallway lights were dim. Nurses and patient techs moved quietly across the corridors with their rubber-soled shoes while I sat silently at my son’s bedside. I missed my husband, my kids, and my […]

  They sat in the swivel chairs and looked out at the view over the marsh. She was pensive and swirled her Chardonnay in the glass as she tried to soak in this moment. This regular mundane moment that she and her husband repeated so many times: sitting next to each other, she with her […]

I walked into my local Target on the final day of 2023 and couldn’t help but notice all the Valentine’s Day decorations that seemed to be a little ahead of their time. I just took my Christmas tree down for crying out loud! I sighed to myself and continued on my mission to grab the […]

The year was 2008, and my life was a full-blown imitation of a dumpster fire. The painful separation and divorce were only the beginning of the hard road I would be forced to walk. I crumbled under the weight of the rocks I could see, but I was blissfully unaware of the additional pain that […]