Saturday evening the three of us took a little outing to the local pumpkin patch with Drake’s sister, Danielle, and her family.  The kids had an especially fun evening playing in the bounce houses, riding tractors, and feeding animals in the petting zoo.  Before heading home we took advantage of the opportunity for some festive

Much to my chagrin, Jessie is a shopper.  She loves to shop!  Since I tend to shop only out of absolute necessity, Jessie doesn’t get the chance to shop as much as she might desire. The other day, the zipper on my purse broke and the fabric tore, so shopping became inevitable to find a

Thanks to Drake’s parents, Thursdays are date night for the two of us. Since Jessie’s bedtime is 8 pm and we are usually out well past that time on Thursday evenings, her grandma and grandpa-papa put her down to sleep at their home.  She is usually in a deep slumber when, a couple hours later,

I think I must have been about seven or eight years old when I was a TV for Halloween.  It was in our garage, with newspapers strewn about to protect the floor, that I recall my parents helping me cut and paint a box to create an awesome, original television costume; it had an antennae,

An envelope came in the mail yesterday that I have been anticipating for many months.  But when I opened my mailbox and discovered that it was sitting there in our small metal container of correspondence, it was as though every surrounding noise from the nearby street and playground turned to silence…all I could hear was

Dear family and friends… As the season is changing—pumpkins displayed in every store, talk of costumes, and the smell of hot cider—the leaves on Judson’s tree are turning brown.  Watching his sycamore slowly lose its foliage seems to aptly reflect the cycle of dying that seems to occur in my heart with the onset of

There seem to be so many voices ringing in my head, screaming at me, trying to inform my understanding of grief—telling me how to do it, what it should look like, and when it should occur.  These are voices from books I have read, voices from friends, voices from other grieving parents, and voices from

Most of my life I have spent Sunday mornings at church.  Over the years I have experienced being deeply moved by musical worship, or found myself significantly affected by a message, or encountered God in a new and fresh way through my connections with the Church community.  However, though my experiences at church each week