By Beth Demme #NationalAdoptionMonth My husband and I are parents by adoption. I have some great stories about our adoption journey, some of which would make you roll with laughter and others that would leave you weeping. Adoption brought a lot of changes to my life (hello, babies!). One of the unexpected changes adoption brought me was a new understanding …
Adoption Awareness Month 2015
November is #NationalAdoptionMonth. As an adoptive mom, this month is a time for me to celebrate everyone who made our family a reality. Of course, I’ll take any excuse to celebrate my children, their heritage, and the beautiful way God brought us together! Here are some pieces I’ve written about adoption, to get your adoption celebration started: How to Talk …
Why I Will Never Arrive
By Beth Demme I don’t know if you have experienced this, but one of the places I go regularly has a terrible parking lot. The asphalt is smooth, there aren’t any potholes, the lines are freshly striped, and the size of the parking spaces is adequate. Sounds nice enough, so what’s the problem? It’s the layout. The layout is all …
Back to the Future
By Beth Demme The day I have waited for since 1985 has finally arrived: October 21, 2015. Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) zoomed ahead to this day at the end of the first Back To The Future movie. Initially, Marty accidentally went to the past (1955), but at the close of the movie, Doc (Dr. Emmett Brown …
Rest Isn’t Earned, But It Is Created
By Beth Demme Did you know that the word “business” is actually derived from a word meaning “anxiety” and “busy-ness”? Google says so! I like to be busy. I might even have an unhealthy preoccupation with accomplishing enough tasks to feel like I am enough. If I can make a big enough impact, or live my life well enough, or …
The Hardest Lesson in Parenting is Perseverance
By Beth Demme Lean in close, I have a secret to tell you. I love football. It’s a secret because for twenty years I’ve made my husband think it was his idea to turn on the game. I’ve made it seem like I was doing him a favor by watching the game with him. For the first few years of …
How to Find True Joy
By Beth Demme What do you know about gold? My knowledge of gold is mainly this: it makes pretty jewelry, like the wedding ring I’ve worn for nearly twenty years. It turns out there’s a lot more to gold than its beauty. Gold starts as a rock in the ground. It gets mined —cut— out of the ground. Picture bulldozers …
Four Thoughts on Forty Years
By Beth Demme It’s my birthday! This blog post publishes on the day I turn … wait for it … FORTY years old. On the one hand, ugh. I’m 40. But at the same time, I find myself thinking: “I’m 40? Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun!” In celebration of my first forty years, I have some very random …
A Lesson In Humility
By Beth Demme “They are the problem. Not me,” I said, completely unaware of how sanctimonious and unfriendly I sounded. “They don’t seem to know how to express the love of God.” I went on, still unaware of the growing plank in my eye. “Some Christians are just closed-minded and they wrap that mess up in a cloak of false …
How to Write a Spiritual Autobiography
How to Write a Spiritual Autobiography By Beth Demme A Spiritual Autobiography is the story of your own life and how God has been present in it. It can include your journey in, and out of, organized religion and all things spiritual. Writing your Spiritual Autobiography is an opportunity to identify specific experiences of God and to reflect on how …