River of Thoughts

Last night, our church’s adoption ministry launched a new support group for adoptive parents. We’ve been thinking about this and praying over it for quite a while, and we finally decided that we would just get a room at the church and start meeting and whoever showed up, great.  We were ready for 5 or 50. We got four. Including two leaders. But as we sat together and shared experiences and talked about challenges and things that were hard and things that were joyful, I realized that God brought the people into that room that needed to be in that […]

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We’ve been blessed. Through our two adoption journeys, we’ve been fortunate enough (or oblivious enough) to not have been subjected to many of the odd things that random strangers seem compelled to say. Is she yours? What happened to her real family? Ukraine?  Is that in Africa? Yes, people say things like that.  Many of our friends have heard far worse. People seem to want to focus on the differences.  People struggle with things they don’t understand. We claim to want unity and profess to accept everyone…but only if they are just like us. People think of family as the people that […]

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I broke up with Resistance. He’s trying hard to win me back.  Sympathy didn’t work, so now he’s tempting me with Piecaken. Pie + Cake = Piecaken Everyone in my house is trying to watch what they eat. I need to be writing. But I love to bake. I have several projects that are behind schedule.  Guest posts for people that are important to me about causes that are important to me.  Work to be done to put food on the table and gas in the car and college money in the bank. But all I can think about is […]

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Panic and pain engulf her.  She feels warm fluid stream down her thigh.  She doubles over in pain.  Yet the corners of her mouth rise into the biggest smile she’s ever felt. “Get the bag!  It’s time!” she screams to her husband. The adoption call is differently similar. It’s a turning point.  It’s the moment when all the paperwork and notaries and training classes and impatient uncertainty fade away into the reality of finally going to meet my child and bring her home. Waiting becomes action. Every country (including the US) is unique.  But there are also some commonalities that […]

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I have never filled out an NCAA bracket. (Of the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve ever typed, that feels the most like “True Confessions”) I haven’t watched college basketball since Larry Bird led Indiana State to a nearly undefeated season.  Until the championship.  He crushed my little nine-year-old heart. I might be the only Hoosier that doesn’t really care about basketball. So when March Madness comes around, I just watch people.  Amusedly.  Some people are truly mad for this season.  No work gets done.  People take days off.  Me?  I would not even know where to begin when trying […]

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