Tonight I found some old home videos and I watched one titled Christmas 1988. My mom’s last Christmas with us. The video started with my grandma (my mom's mom) filming the scene around her home, in anticipation of all of the family coming over soon. She narrates her way around stacks of wrapped presents, food… Continue reading Christmas 1988.
I hated night time as a kid, and I don’t like it much now. There’s something about the dark that brings all of the scary things out.Sometimes I couldn’t put a name or face to my fear - it was just there, hanging over me in the dark. I had a hard time turning off… Continue reading Peace has a name.
Sometimes, I look at you and can’t make sense of how much time has already passed… even though nothing seemed to really change day by day. I see you now while I still see you then, and I’m starting to see who you are becoming. The bigger you get, the more you start to pull… Continue reading Dear son…
I keep hearing it - “I can’t wait for things to go back to normal.” “When things are normal again...” What “normal” is everyone is longing for? Seeing family and celebrating holidays together. Having birthday parties and baby showers and weddings. Worshipping in packed sanctuaries together. Having the freedom to take the kids to the… Continue reading When things go back to normal.
When we pray for peace, what does that mean? When we pray for protection, for healing, for God to bless us... what are we really praying for? When we say “Lord, thy will be done,” how often do we try to define what that should look like? I think sometimes “answered prayers” can be equated… Continue reading We are not immune.
It’s amazing how such a short phase of life can feel like your whole life. I’ve been alive for 34 years now. That sounds like a long time (to me). I’ve only been a mom for 4 of those years (a short time, relatively speaking). Yet those 4 years define who I am more than… Continue reading They won’t remember, but I will.
January & February: First trimester. Nausea all the time, sleeping all the time. Baby Bottle Campaign & Gala preparations keeping me super busy at work. My 33rd birthday and sharing the news about our addition to the family. We didn’t know the gender yet but I was praying about my pregnancy early on and felt… Continue reading 2019 in review.
Every night since we brought Shiloh home, she has slept on my chest. That's where she is right now, snoozing peacefully. I'm trying so hard to memorize everything about her and "enjoy every moment" because I know too well how "it goes so fast." I love her little sounds and her breathing and her tiny… Continue reading Wee hours.
Four weeks ago, we welcomed our daughter into the world via scheduled c-section. It was such a different experience from my first delivery (a failed induction and emergency c-section after 3 horrible unmedicated hours of pushing). We dropped our son off with his grandparents and left to check in at the hospital. I had been… Continue reading Birth Story: Welcome to the fam, Shiloh
Shiloh, I pray that you enjoy being part of our family as much as we will enjoy adding you to it. Spencer, I pray that you love every second of being a big brother and that you never forget that you were our first. You made us so happy that we decided to have another… Continue reading A prayer for my children.
Kristen Stewart, Writer 