Truth, Love And Books

 I'll never forget when I got word of the Sandy Hook tragedy. At the time, I was a nanny and almost a year into struggling with fertility. Less than a week before, my husband and I had endured a chemical pregnancy. The pain of losing a child - even one you never held - is immeasurable.  But losing a child in such a violent manner as a school shooting? That made me question if I even wanted to keep trying to have and hold a baby of my own. Who wants to raise a baby in that kind of world? Parents should not bury their kids.  But parents do. This world is immensely broken. People are hurting deeply.  And the old adage surely rings true: hurt people hurt people. The evil and suffering of humanity is one of the biggest objections to the Bible and Historic Christianity. I believe, it is a completely fair question to ask...If God is good and all powerful, why doesn't he put an end to all this evil? Multitudes of books (by people way smarter than me) have been written on thi...

 The summer of 2016, the internet world went bananas over the true story of a boy making his way into a Gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo.  My own social media feed was rampant with comments along the lines of “ That parent is so stupid!”  I'll never forget how outraged I was over the lack of sympathy for this mom. I mean, good grief are we really all this insecure in our own parenting that we feel the need to put this woman down in a feeble attempt to elevate ourselves? Is that what makes us sure and confident? I would bet not. I also recall silently praying that my own kids’ inevitable, future shenanigans would never ever make their way to the internet world.So far so good. But check back soon, my boy is only 4.   From what I've seen, we all desperately want to do this parenting gig well. If we stop and think deeply we can recognize that to invest in what matters is to invest in people .  Especially little people. After all we can't take our Stan...

  Rainy Mondays. They tend to get me down. Today was no exception. When I feel the need to get out of the house and don't want to spend money or go far - we head to a little, suburban downtown with a beautiful bridge within walking distance from a library. Thankfully, my kids love to check out books and this way they could burn off some energy and not get muddy.  After placing our book loot in the car we headed out for our bridge walk. Straight away, we noticed that four men had set up a booth. Printed in large letters on their table cover read: "Was Jesus born on December 25th?"  Several pamphlets rested on the table. They were clearly Muslim apologists.  My husband gave me a look that said: " Don't do it, don't go there, please."  To be fair, I completely understood where he was coming from. Radical, hyper-fundamentalist Islam is quite scary. If I were to go there and simply ask the men even just one of the questions that were running through my mind,...

  I am no Swiftie, but my young daughters are. My daughters are not big NFL fans, but their parents are. This season's combination of TSwizzle and pro football was nothing but sheer entertainment for our family of six. Including the reactions of the social media world. Americans seem to either love and worship the duo or vehemently hate and demonize them. Well surprise, surprise: I hold a different perspective than most Americans.  My daughters aren't witnessing me hate Taylor but they have heard me repeatedly say I would never switch lives with her. While hating a person is always wrong, elevating these two celebs - or any created being - to be gods is also to err.   The above meme is inadvertently communicating that all the young girls of the world should strive to be Taylor Swift.  She's the standard. And parents who don't encourage their kids to reach earthly success well they gotta just do better.  I unreservedly disagree.  To unwittingly commun...

  At the beginning of 2023, I thought I had the year relatively mapped out. I planned on a simple, uneventful twelve months with plenty of reading. I was aiming to read 60 books last year. I would spend plenty time walking in the woods and blog and go out to dinner with my family and friends. Easy and predictable was the plan. But God led me in another direction and while my completed book list was minimal, the path to adventure and growth seems to be ever expanding. I am so grateful that my year did not go as planned. It was a year of pouring out into others. And I needed it. Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. I am more at peace and aware that God is good. Plus the point of reading isn't just to get through as many books as you can, it's the reveling and reflecting and enjoying the story and the perspectives themselves. While most of what I read was non-fiction, the books were thoroughly entertaining mainly because my reading evoked a reminder of the true story that I am l...

The day I found out I miscarried a second baby was the same day the Ohio State football team played and won the 2014 National Championship. I have cheered voraciously for the Buckeyes for as long as I can remember, but this time, all I recall is crying and napping throughout the game. I could not find it in me to care. Something seemingly so important suddenly became starkly insignificant. Significant was the utter guilt and sheer sadness. Each of my pregnancy losses resulted in guilt. But this time was harder, more intense. Mainly because I possibly could have done something. I could have fought more for our little one.  Our firstborn was nine months old when we found ourselves unintentionally pregnant again.  With our oldest, a fertility doctor had placed me on the hormone supplement progesterone which resulted in a healthy, beautiful, seven pound baby girl, Rylie Grace.  I fearfully asked my OBGYN doctor if for this pregnancy I would need to be on progesterone again an...