I am not a good curator. When I think of curator, I think of a musty dusty museum and someone who likes to type little cards that go next to a fragment of bone: Fibia (fragment). Wooly Mammoth. 10,000 b.c. They don’t spend their time or energy finding out that the mammoth’s name was Joe, or that he had a mate and sired about 15 baby wooly mammoths, or that he broke his left ankle during a stampede and walked with a limp which is why the lion got him and ate him and he ended up in the museum. […]

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You know the drill.  No red pens…   The girl looked at Zach, her head just tipped to the left. “So, um, you’re from…where?” “Outside.” Her eyebrows furrowed as she thought about this. “Outside?” “Yeah.  Outside.” Then she spotted his hand as it slipped from behind his back. She shifted her weight to her back foot.  “Oh.  Um…” The rot was bad right now, and Zach swore under his breath as he slid his hand behind his back again.  “It’s not what you think.  Really.  Please.  I need your help.” “Look, I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.  How […]

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Seth Godin posted recently that experiments are only experiments if you’re intentional about learning something.  If you don’t approach it this way, it’s not an experiment.  It’s a failure. You can still learn from failure, sure.  But you’ll learn faster from an experiment.  So….. With this in mind, I just wrapped up a 4-week experiment where I edited and re-posted daily excerpts from when we were in Ukraine adopting Masha five years ago. I learned: Weekends suck for blog traffic. More frequent posts do not equal increased subscriptions. Very few readers left comments. People emailed me that they loved the adoption story posts […]

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Exactly five years ago, Masha left everything she knew to move halfway around the world with two strangers that smiled all the time (a sure sign of diminished intelligence…)  In honor of her anniversary, I have asked her to give us a little glimpse of what this was like for her… What was it like to leave Ukraine? It wasn’t that hard to leave i was actually very excited and yes i was kinda scared to leave my home and go to a different country but it was mostly a great experience. It was like half of me was happy […]

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Today is Father’s Day. The day to hang out at the lake, grill manly meat, and for the kids to mow the lawn while Dad rests in the hammock with the beverage of his choice. If you’re a father, congratulations! If you live with a father, cater to him. If you have a father, call him. If you’ve lost your father, remember him. Try to find a moment sometime during the day to say a prayer for the children who don’t have a father to grill for.  (Yes, that was a bit of a Jesus Juke.  Sorry about that.  Back […]

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