Category Archives: Uncategorized

I can’t stop thinking about the experience of pushing my daughter out of me. It may have been one of the most enjoyable moments of my life. I know that is not everyone’s experience. Birth stories can come with a lot of heartache and pain. I hold that tenderly with you. When I labored withContinue reading “Who’s Cheering You On?”

Parenting has us on a steep learning curve. When Mike and I came home from the hospital we didn’t know how to buckle the straps on the car seat, open the diaper pail, or where to set Julia down. Most of the time I have no clue what I am doing. But the one thingContinue reading “Mama’s Here: A poem for Julia”

We are just one week away from meeting our baby! With every month of pregnancy that has gone by, the anticipation has been building. I feel her kicking and hiccuping and somersaulting inside me. We have seen the ultrasounds progressing from just a small dot to a full head, heart, lungs, and toes. We haveContinue reading “When we meet face to face”

I remember being in high school, arms collapsed on top of my chemistry homework and in tears. I couldn’t do it. Then I felt my dad’s gentle touch on my back and heard him say, “you are capable, Kel.” I’ve been on a life long journey of trying to believe those words, and to learnContinue reading “To You Who Doubts Yourself”

“You’re pregnant!…Now don’t move for two weeks so you stay that way.” My doctor said this to me moments after transferring our embryo into my womb (Thank you, God, for science!). The next two weeks I had the very important job of doing nothing so that that embryo would have a chance to implant. BedrestContinue reading “The Farmer Doesn’t Know How: Seeds of Growth in the Waiting”

Body, I am not afraid of you. I love you. I said this to myself yesterday as my throat tightened with anxiety by the thought of sickness being around every corner these days. A wave of healing came over me. “God help me not get sick” has been a life-long tune in my head, beginningContinue reading “Rebuilding Trust with a Body that gets Sick”

I once took a peak into my dad’s prayer journal. He had written the question, “God, how do I help Kelly with her math homework today?” I chuckled to think that I was perhaps so bad at math that my dad had to go to God for help. But as I flipped through the pagesContinue reading “Can God help with math homework? Asking for wisdom in every-day life.”

I woke up the other day with two papers due, ten text messages that deserved thorough and urgent responses, three meetings to plan, and an achy neck that desperately needed physical therapy. I knew what I had to do. I walked to the park, put on some worship music, opened my Bible, and prayed. ItContinue reading “Too tired for daily devotions?”

Pain in itself not hard to bear, but hard to bear so long. Frederick William Faber, The Thought of God, 1814- 1863 There are times that I forget that I have a chronic pain disorder. I feel healthy, strong, and unstoppable. But then out of nowhere a flare of pain comes to remind me thatContinue reading “Will this be forever? Reflections on Covid, chronic pain and the eternal loyalty of God”

It is healthy to let our imaginations turn to eternity. Jon Ball, the regional coordinator for theological formation in InterVarsity, regularly asks us this question, “What are you looking forward to in the new creation?” This is not a question intended to make us ignore our present circumstances, but a question to help us stayContinue reading “What songs take you to heaven?”