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“Dear God, let us have a good time today. Bless this food to our bodies. Amen.”     Have you ever heard one of those around your dinner table?  I did, not too long ago.  It’s easy to fall into–no doubt about that.  Comfortable prayers that satisfy our sense of responsiblity.  Prayers that may be answered… but you really wouldn’t notice if they weren’t.  They don’t require much and they leave no room for disappointment.  You know, just in case God doesn’t answer my prayer like I...

Answers … that is what I feel like is so much on the heart of those that are parenting children who have endured early child trauma.  We hope we can find that answer that will help a child stop lying … or that answer that will fix a child from food hoarding … or I wish my child could overcome ________.  This road many times does not have “fix all” answers for those that are walking it.  It is another reason...

As a young girl, I had an ache in my heart for adoption. I didn’t really understand much about the concept, all I knew was that I believed that my heart had the capacity to love a child…any child. Fast forward several years into adulthood, that ache remained but it wasn’t so much at the surface any longer, it lie buried by the busyness of my own three biological children.   Ministry took me to Third World countries and orphanages where the...

I have been hit lately with just how messed up our world is. I have been reminded of the many major problems in our world: news at the gym while running, listening to a college-athlete’s life story, reading Bloodlines by John Piper, or walking down the streets of Chicago. The enormity of the problems we have just in the United States alone is overwhelming. I am not sure how people cope with it (besides just pretending it does not exist)...

Recently I met someone who knew someone who had a life sentence in prison.  This prisoner will never leave the prison she lives in.  She was incarcerated around age 18  and her crime was severe enough, that she was given a life sentence.  According to my new friend, this prisoner came to know Jesus in prison and has become a bright light and loving friend to many she encounters.  Over the holidays, I decided to share some of that light...

I’m doing this amazing study on J.I. Packer’s book Knowing God.I’m learning so much about myself, and some of it isn’t so good. → ...

My girls are sound asleep on Sanctity of Life Sunday. I had the awesome privilege of tucking them into their covers and praying with them tonight. We prayed for their first family in Ethiopia and talked about the day when the girls can be reunited with those who they love there, whether that be in this world or the next.   Kristen blogged here last week about folks who refuse to step in and help adoptive parents because, after all, “they chose...

It has been one of those weeks … where things haven’t played out the way I had hoped.  I have felt a little down and honestly have been sulking a little bit.  Why do I do that?  Why do I allow the devil to get me down and stay in that suffering?    When I have moments like this I often try to remember that my suffering is so small compared to so many that I know and love.  Two of my...

During our current adoption paperwork I am constantly reminded that our little girl doesn’t have a full name.  In all documents she is referred to as P*  Unknown, or P* child.  You see, like many, she was orphaned with no attached information, no clues to her history or beginnings.  The fact is she was nameless. The world may put names on children like this.  They might be dubbed as: Unwanted, Uncared For, Hopeless, Helpless, Street Rat, Trouble,  Fatherless, Orphan.  But then I read this:  

A well-meaning friend who really didn’t know better, talked about going to try to “adopt” a cat from the pet store.  The hiways still have signs that say, “adopt-a-highway”…and we sometimes say we are “adopting” a slogan or a philosophy.  We just are not.  We are not adopting any of these things.  If we want a cat, or a turtle, or a dog, we go to a location, pick out the one we want, fill out some paperwork and write...