Samantha – the little of our bigs (my guinea pig baby)
Poor Samantha. She was my parenting guinea pig. For thirteen years she was an only child. When I married Brian, she became the youngest of four. Then we adopted four little ones and now she’s smack in the middle of eight. Talk about an identity crisis. She likes to joke that she has issues from […]
Wilna – the big of our littles
She is brave, strong, fiercely passionate about almost everything. At 12 years old, she is part woman with grown up thoughts, ideas and feelings and part little girl who can get lost in dress up and loves a colorful band-aid on her boo-boos. I tell her often that God overdosed when he poured out her […]
I watched you today.
I watched you. Sometimes with my heart in my throat, sometimes with tears in my eyes. I wanted you to connect, to feel welcome, to make a friend. I wanted people to be nice to you and you to be nice to them. I watched. I watched you as you giggled nervously and then […]
Perfection is overrated!
If you ever feel like you mess up as a parent, take comfort from this. 🙂
COUSIN!!!
She called her “Cousin.” Not by her name, “Hannah,” but by her relationship. Like she calls us Mama and Papa and Oma, Hannah was Cousin. And she said it a lot. “Cousin!” “Cousinnnnn!” “COUSIN!” Savannah adored the time with Hannah, her 14 year-old cousin visiting from South Carolina. They swam, they jumped on the trampoline, they played chase around the kitchen. Savannah […]
And then things got crazy. Our wild adoption story.
I’ve been wanting to capture our whole adoption story in video. I’ve been working on it for weeks. I’ve cried every time I’ve edited, watched, uploaded. I love hearing other stories… and it was time to share ours. Click here to watch the journey.
Doesn’t get much better than this!
When she was just a child, my mom was imprisoned in Japanese concentration camps. She experienced such horror… And yet she stands today as an 80-year-old woman with joy, hope and peace. She is amazing – this is her story: Click Here.
Zebra rooms, crab walk dancing and popsicles
Week Two of the new YouTube channel – with a touch of song. 🙂
Man Overboard on Oasis of the Seas – we were there
It was right around 1 a.m. when I woke up to an announcement on the outside speakers. Muffled through our balcony door, all I could hear was “….. port side ….. port side.” I was curious, but half asleep. I almost ignored it, but since we were on the port side I decided to have […]
Love is a risk
I don’t want to love them too much. I don’t want to hold on too tight. I mean, it was amazing when I was in Haiti – when two little boys with big smiles fell into my lap, when one fell asleep on my shoulder and I didn’t dare move so I could enjoy the […]