I did not want to leave Kauai today. As much as it is not possible to escape my pain and grief over the loss of Jud, this trip offered the opportunity to retreat from my daily existence that screams of the tremendous gap left by my precious boy. My mind was enraptured with the beauty

Today is Good Friday; a day set aside to remind us of Jesus’ suffering and death.  Jesus was betrayed, mocked, scourged, humiliated, beaten, and heinously killed. This is the first Good Friday where I am now truly acquainted with suffering.  I watched my son suffer, and we, in turn, suffered.  I watched Jud die a

I’m sitting here on the incredible ocean shore of Kauai, waiting for the sun to arise.  I have no question it will; for I have learned to count on the morning…every day of my life, it has been faithful to appear.  The sun slowly obliterates the darkness and brings newness with each sunrise. Likewise, in

As we were driving into the Lawai Beach Resort complex today, here in Kauai, there was a firetruck responding to an emergency at the beach across the street.  We didn’t think much of it at the time and proceeded to our room. About an hour later we decided to go for a walk and soak

We arrived on the beautiful garden island of Kauai today, blessed by the tremendous generosity and extravagant love of others.  Desiring to soak in every ounce of beauty around us, our first decision, on a whim, was upgrading our rental car to a convertible (and we got an AMAZING deal!). Now, when we need the

I often hear people say that death is a natural part of life. Of course, this is true, in the sense that every one of us will die.  Outside of the return of Jesus, every person who is now walking the face of this earth, whether young or old, will, at some point, breathe their

There have been two occasions in the last couple days where I was asked the common conversational, “How are you?” and I actually responded “good.”  After this word escaped from my lips, it felt strange; my usual response when I am casually asked this question has become “okay” or “I’m hangin’ in the there.”  An

I lent our double stroller to my friend today. As I was loading it into my car, I grieved deeply over the fact that I no longer needed it. When I unfolded it to show my friend some of its features, I realized I had not cleaned it or removed Jud’s belongings since his death.