The Nicaraguan countryside was dark all around us, but the lights of the hostel courtyard shone brightly. The world was quiet except for our easy conversation and the occasional thump of a bug bumping into a light. Some of us sat in chairs, others swayed gently in hammocks. One of our youngest team members, an eight-year old girl, read out …
I was nineteen years old when he proposed and this week we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. We’ve been married long enough that if you were born around the time of our wedding, you’re now in college. In other words, we’ve been married a lifetime. And yet, it feels like we are still at the beginning.
The note taped on the back said, “Can I join your family, please?” It was a cute way of casting approval on our message. The note was from the calligrapher and the message on the front was our family motto in her artistic hand:
Lately I’ve been asking myself, “What is my life communicating?” After all, we are each writing our own life story day by day. Guess what? Storytelling can be hard. When I was in high school, our 10th-grade English teacher, Ms. Albritton, taught us about something called “The Tilley Plot Scheme.” This is the front of Professor Tilley’s book and it …
I love words. I love to read them, write them, hear them, speak them, and even spell them. I’ve focused a lot of effort lately on learning to use my words more effectively. In October I flew to Colorado to attend the SCORRE Conference. It was led by two master communicators — Ken Davis and Michael Hyatt. In November I …
I love to celebrate adoption. My husband and I have two amazing children, both born in Russia. They came home about 3 years apart and they aren’t biologically related or from the same region. We missed out on the early months of their lives, but we experienced the joy of bringing each of them home around their first birthday. When …
I used to think I had the power to make my life whatever I wanted it to be. I thought careful planning and intentional decision making would get me everything I wanted, everything I deserved. I refused to acknowledge my helplessness. Admitting I could not do it all would surely cause chaos and, possibly, planetary re-alignment. In short, I was …
One night a few years ago my husband and I were at a comedy club with friends. The comedian was going on and on about being in the delivery room when his children were born. He used his comedic intuition to find the ONE person in the audience who absolutely did NOT want to participate—my husband. He asked if we …
Apparently my children have the hardest life of any children in the state of Florida. If my children are to be believed, everyone else has fewer chores with far more privileges. My poor children, having been denied televisions in their rooms and access to rated R movies, really have it bad. They have to deal with limited screen time and …
5 Truths I Know About You (But You May Not Know About Yourself There are (at least) five truths I want my children, nieces, and nephews to know about themselves. As I pondered this list, I realized you might need to hear them, too. So I invite you to read this list and insert yourself as the recipient. To those …